Marlene de Koning (PwC): ‘Talent Intelligence is all about making evidence-based decisions’

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Within PwC, De Koning leads and expands the People Analytics & HR Employee Experience tech department. She will soon publish a book on the impact of technology on employee experience. Previously, she worked at both Microsoft and LinkedIn to bring digital transformation to the world of HR. De Koning is a keen follower of all developments happening within HR spheres, particularly the rise of Talent Intelligence. 

What is the difference between Talent Intelligence and People Analytics?

‘Talent Intelligence is all about combining internal and external recruitment, talent attraction and labour market data. What does your target group look like, is it a reflection of the general population? Maybe your audience is 20% male and 80% female in the labour market, how is that reflected in your organisation? Is this in line or do you want a more balanced workforce to reflect the market? These are the types of questions you can answer.’

‘Employees go through a cycle, from onboarding to offboarding and in each stage employees produce data points. With the analysis of this data, employers can continuously make data-driven decisions.’

‘People Analytics, on the other hand, refers to making decisions about people within your company based on the data and insights you have about them. Employees go through a cycle, from onboarding to offboarding and in each stage employees produce data points. With the analysis of this data, employers can continuously make data-driven decisions. This hard data enables organisations to gain insights in how to achieve a higher productivity and results in a better strategy and happier employees. Incidentally, these two concepts are sometimes interpreted differently or used interchangeably.’ 

You have been working on People Analytics for years. Why is it such an important topic for every company, large or small?

‘It is important to decide what you want to focus on as an organisation. The world of work is changing rapidly. The more insight you have on your workforce — for which data collection in my view is required — the better. This data allows organisations to implement policies strategically. It’s all about gaining strategic insights on your own organisation. That’s so important in making decisions.’

How can you make intelligent decisions within your organisation? 

‘Organisations need to identify what they are struggling with, is it a talent attraction or retention challenge. Do we have to attract different talent? What does the labour market look like? Is that reflected in our organisation? Sometimes oganisations run into demographic problems, or the departure of — too many — people from the company. Why do they leave, and what can be done to prevent it? Are you dealing with a lot of absenteeism? The more data organisations collect, the more interventions they can make.’

‘Organisations do realise that their employees are their human capital, but struggle to understand what they do and which actions allow employees to thrive. This is particularly true for knowledge workers. People Analytics can help unravel the mystery, no wonder People Analytics is one of the top trends we are seeing now and every study agrees in this being a top of mind for more and more companies. There is a prediction that says that by 2026, 30% of organisations will use forms of behavioural economics and AI/ML-driven (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) insights to nudge employees’ actions, leading to a 60% increase in desired outcomes.’

To what extent does AI affect your work, talent intelligence and people analytics?

‘The effect of AI is immediately seen in organisations for example on the skills of employees. When thinking about strategic workforce planning, you see that many companies plan for a short term. But with the arrival of AI, many jobs are changing and this effects your workforce. In 3 to 5 years, the world of work will look very different. Another example that effects our work is, Copilot, Microsoft’s new AI tool, that helps employees to be more productive in their daily work. This has a direct effect on talent and the organisation.’

How are you going to shape your workforce in 2 years with the use of technology?

‘At PwC’s Legal Business Solution, for example, we will be working with AI start-up called Harvey. It is a platform that is build on OpenAI and ChatGPT technology and uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to automate and analyse massive volumes of legal data. All outputs are inspected and reviewed by PwC professionals. AI does not replace lawyers and is not used to provide legal advice. Further within the HR department the way we’ve always worked will change too, which you can respond to with AI and People Analytics.’  

Alison Ettridge calls Talent Intelligence a ‘bridge between strategy and execution with data’. What do you think is new about that approach to HR?

‘Well for me, it’s all about the infamous ‘you have to measure something to really know for sure’ (in Dutch we say: meten is weten). It’s about making evidence-based decisions. Personnel is one of the biggest costs of your organisation, which alone is important for the rest of your business strategy. You can use that strategy on all kinds of components. Increasing wellbeing, as I write in my upcoming book, often results in extra vacation days at many companies across the world.’

‘Personnel is one of the biggest costs of your organisation, which alone is important for the rest of your business strategy.’

‘That may sound really nice to some, but does it really have the desired effect? That’s something you need to measure. If your employee is on the verge of burnout do they then feel completely recharged due to extra 5 days of vacation or a massage, then you have solved the problem. Otherwise analysis can help in understanding how to provide different solutions or even prevent the problem.’

Could you give any more examples of what it has resulted in?

‘For example when our clients conduct a quarterly survey to gather insights about the engagement of their employees, different questions related to engagement, wellbeing and other HR topics are asked. As an employee you score the organisation and share how involved and/or stressed you are. These data insights help organisations understand if employees are stressed and what differentiating factors between those stressed employees and other groups of employees are.’

‘Another example: when gathering insights around wellbeing, questions that can be answered are: is it important that employees have a large network, or is more regular contact with the direct manager a significant differentiator in creating more engagement or wellbeing. Once the right factor is determined, HR can take the appropriate actions and measure the effect of these interventions.’

PwC is renowned for testing new technologies. Could you tell us about the wearable devices pilot?

‘Measuring wellbeing is super complex: different factors contribute to wellbeing; financial, mental and physical factors all contribute to an employees’ wellbeing. So, in 2019, a pilot group of PwC employees in the UK volunteered to wear devices connected to their work calendars. This way, the firm could receive anonymised data that linked, for example, stress levels to meeting sprawl. The pilot also revealed a clear difference between actual stress, which was measured from the heart-rate-variability feature on the wearable device, and perceived stress, which was tracked through a daily survey that asked participants how stressed they felt.’

‘So, in 2019, a pilot group of PwC employees in the UK volunteered to wear devices connected to their work calendars. This way, the firm could receive anonymised data that linked, for example, stress levels to meeting sprawl.’

‘Maybe technology will help organisations to make everyone work more efficiently, and that allows the company to implement a 6-hour workday. Or the company decides that this efficiency contributes to have the employees produce even more, in these 8 hours. The latter can cost the organisation more than the return if many people get burned out. In my opinion we have to take care of our employees and if technologies allow for more productivity, perhaps a 5-hour working day in six days would be better, for example for those employees who are caregivers.’

Finally, can you speak about your session during the Talent Intelligence Conference and your new book?

‘Historically, HR lags in implementing technologies compared to elsewhere in the company. In my book I call for more collaboration between HR and IT. HR historically is a people profession and focused on the human side of things and not the technical or data side. For example, recruiters like to interview people, to interact, not necessarily to analyse data. But if, for example, you have to solve a staff shortage, an organisation can decide that everyone needs to work harder and work more hours or can ensure that departments work more productively and efficiently with the skills that are present. Data technology can play a crucial role there. I don’t think everyone is aware of that, of the power of technology and data. I believe that HR and IT have to work together, it’s a team effort.’ 

Don’t miss PwC at the Talent Intelligence Conference

Meet and listen to Marlene de Koning at the first-ever edition of the Global Talent Intelligence Conference. On September 27-28, Intelligence Group will organise the Talent Intelligence Conference in collaboration with ToTalent, Stratigens, Werf& and the Talent Intelligence Collective. Book your tickets here.

 

Toby Culshaw (Amazon): ‘Talent Intelligence is single fastest growing area of HR’

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“Talent Intelligence is the augmentation of internal and external people data with the application of technology, science, insights and intelligence relating to people, skills, jobs, functions, competitors, and geographies to drive business decisions”, says Toby Culshaw, the Head of Talent Intelligence at Amazon. “As a field, Talent Intelligence is still new, and largely ill-defined, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the associated increase in labour market volatility, Talent Intelligence is arguably the single fastest growing area of HR.” 

“Due to the impact of Covid-19 and the associated increase in labour market volatility, Talent Intelligence is arguably the single fastest growing area of HR.”

Book your tickets for the Global Talent Intelligence Conference

In September 2023, Toby Culshaw will headline the first-ever Global Talent Intelligence Conference. Book your tickets below to the inaugural event on September 27 and 28 in Amsterdam, Hoofddorp. 

‘Data is the key for any effective talent strategy’

Culshaw is the Head of Talent Intelligence at Worldwide Amazon Stores. Previously, he was Global Head of Talent Intelligence and Executive Recruitment Research at Netherlands-based technology group Philips. In 2017, Recruiter Magazine named Culshaw as one of the 11 Most Influential In-house Recruiters. In following years, he has consistently ranked every year from 2019 until 2022. He is also the founder of the Talent Intelligence Collective, a Talent Intelligence Mentor at Udder and a co-host of the Talent Intelligence Collective Podcast. Suffice to say: he knows what he’s talking about, but how has his role progressed?

“In the last decade we’ve seen an increasing maturity of the external labour market data vendors enabling a rapid expansion of internal talent intelligence capabilities with reduced barrier to entry.”

“Across the last two decades in sourcing, recruitment and executive search, I have always held data to be key for any effective talent strategy”, Culshaw says. “In the last decade we’ve seen an increasing maturity of the external labour market data vendors enabling a rapid expansion of internal talent intelligence capabilities with reduced barrier to entry.”

“This expansion has seen a rapid development of the internal customer groups seeing work move out beyond Talent Acquisition, into broader HR and the business. This has coincided with talent challenges becoming an increase business challenge, giving Talent Intelligence teams unmatched access to senior leaders throughout this time. I have been lucky to be able to help direct some of these teams and challenges through this time.”

The benefits of Talent Intelligence

At its core, talent intelligence is about using data and analytics to improve a number of different phases and elements of the talent acquisition process. “The world is facing an unparalleled skills and talent shortage; attracting, engaging and retaining talent has never been more vital”, Culshaw says. “Given this context having an integrated and strategic holistic Talent Intelligence strategy will be vital to give external labour market context for future sustainable growth for organisations.”

“Having an integrated and strategic holistic Talent Intelligence strategy will be vital to give external labour market context for future sustainable growth for organisations.”

While Culshaw can’t speak about specifics of Amazon or Philips user-cases, he sees five benefits standing out. “TA Applications: sourcing and intelligence, through name generation, talent mapping, pipelining and engagement. HR applications: in the form of workforce planning, cultural assessment, organisational design benchmarking, comp & bens benchmarking and cultural diversity. Then there’s Competitive Intelligence, for both talent and business. For the former, it’s about creating competitive hiring strategies and talent flows. For the latter: go-to-market and competitor strategy. Finally, for business applications, the benefits are location strategy, the go-to-market strategy, bid support and M&A intelligence.”

‘Start scrappy and messy’

For those seeking the benefits of Talent Intelligence, what advice would Culshaw have for organisations who still have to start from scratch? “Don’t be afraid of diving into things”, he says. “Start scrappy and messy, use the tools and resources available for you already both internally and externally. There are many support mechanisms available. Be it the Talent Intelligence Collective resources (podcasts, benchmarking surveys, articles, blogs, networking group or YouTube channel) or as a foundation it may be worth reading my book Talent Intelligence: Use Business and People Data to Drive Organisational Performance.”

Skills for Talent Intelligence leaders

So what are absolute musts for a Talent Intelligence leader in the 21st century in terms of their own skillset? “The most important skills for a Head of Talent Intelligence include advanced data analysis and interpretation, strategic thinking to align talent initiatives with business goals, and strong leadership abilities to manage teams effectively. Additionally, market intelligence, communication, and adaptability are essential to stay ahead in the ever-changing talent landscape.”

The impact of AI on Talent Intelligence 

While talent shortages persist, the most recent change has been led by Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tooling, which has disrupted many industries throughout the world. Is there a future wherein AI and TI live happily ever after? “I think the applications of AI in TI are numerous”, Culshaw says. “Much like how the evolution in the vendor landscape was a catalyst for change I see this also being a catalyst to turbocharge Talent Intelligence teams.”

“AI can be a catalyst to turbocharge Talent Intelligence teams.”

“It will significantly impact TI by revolutionising data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Its ability to process vast amounts of data and identify intricate patterns will lead to more accurate talent insights, enabling organisations to make data-driven decisions without the need to invest in as many individuals headcount wise. We will see the role of the data translator and business consultant really increasing in value to navigate the broader organisation and embed TI across companies.”

Alison Ettridge (Stratigens): ‘You can use Talent Intelligence to predict your competitor’s next move’

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Alison Ettridge is founder and CEO of Stratigens, a company based in Cardiff, known for its software application that provides strategic decision intelligence. Stratigens mission is ‘to help companies join the dots between the labour market and workplace so that they make decisions that are data-led, fast and cost effective’. Ettridge says that you can’t make good decisions without good data, and yet business leaders are forced to make decisions with little, or no, data at all.

Ettridge loves helping HR Directors take data and insight to the Board so they can make smarter decisions about where to grow, where to invest and the diversity of their business. She has spent twenty plus years in the world of people and talent – from her first job in executive recruitment, to sales at monster.com and then into the world of talent research and intelligence. Stratigens provides Talent Intelligence data and insights and she helps clients apply it. Together with Toby Culshaw (and others) she has a podcast: The Talent Intelligence Collective Podcast. During the Talent Intelligence Conference she will tell about her experiences in and views on Talent Intelligence.

 

 

Q: You describe your position at Stratigens as Chief Believer, and your CTO is called ‘head of making magic happen through tech’. Sounds like neohippies in tech. What do you mean by Chief Believer?

A: (Laughs) ‘I like that question! My job title is about getting people to believe in the art of the possible when it comes to all things talent and intelligence. That belief comes from me being an “evangelist”, an advocate on all of those things. So that makes me kind of chief believer. And the stuff we get done, is about “making magic happen”. The reason that kind of job descriptions spread through the business is because it highlights one of the big challenges in talent intelligence: data.’

‘Me being the Chief Believer started as a bit of a gimmick but in fact holds a message in how much we have to do to clean, categorise and make sense of the data before it is useful to our clients.’

‘Because the data we need is in thousands of places, it’s really messy, it’s really unstructured. And job titles provide a great example of how different people in different businesses call themselves different things. So how do you make sense of all those different job descriptions from a data perspective? Me being the Chief Believer started as a bit of a gimmick but in fact holds a message in how much we have to do to clean, categorise and make sense of the data before it is useful to our clients.’

Q: So how did you get involved with Talent Intelligence? 

A: ‘I’ve spent 26 years in the world of talent in some way, shape or form, always on the supplier side and always in businesses that were challenging thinking. I worked for monster.com when they were the first recruitment job site, for example. Nobody had ever put adverts online. 15 years ago, I  got into this consultancy world of talent intelligence and joined a business that was called Talent Intelligence. The team was made up of a guy whose background was talent and a guy whose background was military intelligence. And this combination of gathering and aggregating information from the external world and using it for either strategic or tactical purposes, is very interesting. Then I went on to be on the leadership team of three talent intelligence consultancies, doing qualitative research.’

‘I began to realise the absolute power of talent intelligence, but I was paying qualitative researchers to search online for data, right? And, and their power is qualitative research. So I just thought, well, there’s got to be a better way of getting the data. Another thing that really occurred to me was that all of the work that we were delivering to HR directors and Chief People Officers was always after a questionable decision had been made by their company. They were always getting a report in order to present to the board why they needed more money or how they were going to sort out  problems caused, in part, to the decision being made without insight into the labour market.’

‘At Stratigens we are passionate about preventing companies making business decisions without thinking about access to the skills they need to deliver on them.’

‘Then I said, I’m going to build a piece of software that can help organisations make faster, smarter, better workforce planning decisions. At Stratigens we are passionate about preventing companies making business decisions without thinking about access to the skills they need to deliver on them.’

‘Organisations are scared to refer to people as assets because people are individuals, but actually as a collective, they absolutely are an asset. Until companies start to treat their collective skills base as human capital, (whilst still treating individuals as individuals) then actually things won’t change. Companies do research on their clients, they do research on their markets, they do research on their competitors all the time, but don’t do research on the one thing that impacts most on their ability to deliver their business strategy. And that’s access to the skills that they need. We need to start thinking more commercially about all things people.’

Q: One of your hashtags on LinkedIn is “using labour markets and analytics to drive radically smarter workforce planning”. So what does that look like in real life? 

A: ‘It’s about using data to make smart decisions, typically about your workforce. Our clients use Stratigens in three, possibly four fundamental ways. First: making sure that they are optimising their location footprint. To make sure that they have access to the people that they need. And that might be physical, or it might be virtual: how do we optimise to make sure that we have access to the right people? And the only way you can do that is by understanding hotspots for talent. Supply is shrinking in Western Europe and the US generally and population demographics show this is not going to change so we must look for skills populations elsewhere. 

Second: what are the related skills to the roles a business needs and how can companies use that to inform their learning strategy. Which of the skills do we need to keep as an organisation, and which skills do we need to train as an organization? Then you get down to the individual and and their skills and decide how important is it that we train, develop, and retain them.

The third one – this one I’m really passionate about: our clients use our insight to benchmark the perceived diversity of the external labour market. But most organisations, if you ask them where their diversity targets have come from, it’s a finger in the air. You wouldn’t make any other business decision in that way. You’d use data to inform it. If you are hiring subsea engineers in the North Sea, there is no point in saying to a hiring manager, your team must be made up of 40% females, if the external labour market has only 10% of that labour market made up of females. These three cases are all fundamental to good workforce planning. 

‘You can use talent intelligence to look through the lens of your competitors to see what their next move is.’

The last use is the real power of talent intelligence. You can use talent intelligence to look through the lens of your competitors to see what their next move is. If your competitors suddenly start to hire a whole bunch of new skills, or they suddenly start to hire skills in a new location, then that is a leading indicator of what their next activity will be. For example: Apple hired a lot of individuals from Intel from their chip function six months before they terminated the contract with Intel, because they decided to build chips in-house. As you can see, data answers and informs so many different decisions.’

Q: In your keynote at the Talent Intelligence Conference you are going to combine what’s happening in the world right around us now, and look at how does that relate to TI. How do you combine TI with for example Brexit, or the war in Ukraine?

A: ‘Let’s first look at straight macro demographics and the impact these will have on the availability of skills. We don’t have enough people in the US and Western Europe to do the jobs that we need them to do. Even allowing for the fact that AI will take some of those jobs. Secondly, globalisation and digitalization mean  everybody is after the same skills. The third thing that will impact  is climate change. We are going to see movements of populations around the world as a result of climate change, and therefore understanding where those skills groups are, where those movements are going to be, is critical to an organisation.’

‘And then the fourth is the political challenge, whether that’s Brexit, which 100% impacted on people’s ability to hire and attract talent in the UK. Or whether it’s a change in government, like the possibility of a Sin Fein government in Ireland or a second Trump government in the US. Regardless of what your views are politically, you need to be able to plan  what that means for your business.’

‘Data Intelligence is at its most powerful when it looks at big movements, every 30, 60 or 90 days.’

‘Sometimes this can happen very fast. Like for instance the Ukraine War. Millions of refugees in Western Europe, including a lot of highly skilled people. Is Talent Intelligence able to react, almost live to that kind of very dramatic changes? Yes – qualitative and primary research can see this very quickly. Data Intelligence is at its most powerful when it looks at big movements, every 30, 60 or 90 days.’

Do you want to learn more about Talent Intelligence?

On September 27-28, Intelligence Group will organise the Talent Intelligence Conference in collaboration with ToTalent, Stratigens, Werf& and the Talent Intelligence Collective. The speakers of the event will include Toby Culshaw (founder of Talent Intelligence Collective and head of talent intelligence at Amazon), Alison Ettridge (CEO at Stratigens), and many others. The Talent Intelligence Conference spans two days and will be held at Headfirst Group in Hoofddorp, Amsterdam. Buy your ticket here.

Steven Ehrlich (Radancy): ‘Agencies that don’t digitise now are going to be in trouble’

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On the outside looking in, it could be quite the mismatch: the smooth-talking Steven Ehrlich of employer branding and recruitment technology expert Radancy and the world of agency recruitment. However, when you dig a little deeper, the New Yorker is perhaps the best match for agencies that are so keen to digitise, but in practice still run into ‘ a number of cultural problems’. 

Recruitment is recruitment

“It doesn’t really matter which way you look at it, corporate or agency: recruitment is recruitment”, Ehrlich says. “It’s about fundamentally using the right tech, data and analytics. Organisations that do that directly ensure that you’ll fill your funnel with the right people. That is just as relevant for agencies as it is for corporates. I really don’t see any difference in that.”

“Any recruiting organisation that does not digitise will be in trouble.”

Ehrlich sees a need for all companies to digitise — but agencies in particular should not be left behind. “If the discussions are always about scarcity and the lack of candidates, I think it’s time you look in the mirror. You need to understand that, from the career site all the way to the CRM, you need data and analytics as the foundation of your recruitment strategy. Any recruiting organisation that does not focus on digitalisation now will eventually run into trouble.”

Untapped potential

That focus may not be quite there, as recently illustrated by Bullhorn research. Bullhorn report shows. Just 14% of respondents of the Recruitment Trends, Insights and Data Industry Report 2023 state that no digital transformation strategy is currently implemented. 50% say they are at an early stage of adoption, while 36% state they are ‘advanced’. Room for improvement, argues Bullhorn.

Especially in automation lies a great potential that currently remains untapped at most recruitment agencies. Sourcing and reporting (both 34%) appear to be the processes most automated at agencies in the Benelux. Screening and validation (33%) scores marginally less, while communication with candidate after the assignment (20%) lags a little behind.

Don’t lean on a 20-year-old strategy 

With a vast number of available technological options, Ehrlich argues it’s a challenge for agencies to keep up with all the latest trends and tech. “If you’re an agency recruiter, and you’re just filling vacancies as quickly as possible, without always realising who you’re working it for, then you’re really up against it. Then don’t lean on the practices of 20 years ago. You now have AI-powered platforms that can identify the right talent faster than we could ever do ourselves. If speed is the desire, then digitise now.”

“You now have AI-powered platforms that can identify the right talent faster than we have ever been able to do ourselves.”

As a cloud-based software provider, Radancy delivers technology with one primary goal. “To improve the entire candidate journey, while allowing recruiters to work more efficiently. For us, it’s all about enabling candidates to have a much better experience at a lower cost, while allowing companies to hire the most qualified talent.”

Don’t mess around with employer branding 

With Radancy, Ehrlich advises hundreds of companies every year with pressing employer branding issues. So should agencies also be able to advise on any employer branding issues? I think that’s ultimately up to employers to get their employer branding right. Unless that is really where the expertise lies, agencies should not mess around with defining employer brands or recruitment campaigns. But I do think they can learn something from strategies we deploy. After all, it’s all about the right form of communication, for the right person at the right time.”

“Unless that is really where the expertise lies, agencies should not mess around with defining employer brands or recruitment campaigns.”

Evolve or die

As Ehrlich packs his bags for the next recruitment-related conference, the keynote expert has one last bit of advice for agency recruiters. “You see companies are using agencies less to recruit people. They see that with certain tech solutions, they are perfectly able and capable of managing the whole process themselves. I think that is why it is important for agencies to take time to reflect: who do you want to be in this digital world?”

“Our tech is now being used by companies that would otherwise go to agencies.”

“Ultimately, we help organisations entice candidates with a smart dose of storytelling, referral campaigns and data-driven information. Which ultimately fills a talent pool, even with passive talent. What tech and digitalisation makes possible now, wasn’t even an option 20 years ago. Perhaps somewhat wryly, but our tech is now being used by companies that would otherwise go to agencies. As Darwin once said: evolve or die.”

Hette Mollema (Workday): ‘Companies need to invest in a solid foundation first, not in point solutions’

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Throughout Hette Mollema’s eleven year stint with Workday, he’s seen his organisation grow rapidly. Mollema initially started his Workday career 11 years earlier, in 2011, as Workday’s first sales boots on the ground in Europe by heading up the Workday team for the Benelux. He then moved to the Alps, supporting the Swiss and Austrian team in their next wave of becoming mature Workday regions. Mollema spent six more months in Austria as the company’s managing director — before finally moving back to home soil as Vice President Benelux in February 2022.

“If you would have told me eleven years ago that we’d come to a point where we have 60 million employees within our solution, I don’t think I would have believed you”, Mollema says in an interview with ToTalent. “But I knew that our founding fathers had a real eye for cloud-based solutions — though they thought it would primarily be SME’s using the service. But as you saw the demand for cloud-based solutions grow rapidly, the 60 million suddenly became completely realistic.”

No use in crying over bad data

As European organisations became much more data-driven in recruitment, cloud-based solutions like Workday naturally became the go-to product. But according to Mollema, the reason for any success doesn’t just come down to the software. “We’ve always maintained a viewpoint that companies first need to invest in core data. In their foundation, and in data management. In less subtle terms: there’s absolutely no point in investing in machine learning or skills-clouds if your data is polluted.”

“We’ve always maintained that you need to invest in a solid foundation first — not in so-called point solutions.”

Mollema likens it to building a house. “You don’t start with a fancy kitchen and a dormer”, he said. “You need a solid foundation to build on, or nothing will work. And that’s where I believe we’ve generally been different in comparison to other companies in the HCM sphere. We’ve always maintained that you need to invest in a solid foundation first — not in so-called point solutions.”

Emphasis on skills 

With Workday’s skills cloud, the company has successfully built a skills ontology that aims to cleanse, understand and relate job skills data. Skills cloud is built into Workday’s HCM and aims to leverage machine learning to help companies get a better grasp on what skills they truly need. “I think the transition to a skills-driven approach is somewhat of a common trend among our users”, Mollema added. “Whether it’s JustEat or Robeco, we see many of our customers currently investing in that type of tooling. Now I’m no Nostradamus, but in the future, I can see skills-driven labour markets becoming the norm.”

And on retention

Retention’s been another keyword for Mollema and Workday in recent months and years. Whether through the Great Shuffle, Resignation or the Quiet Quitting trends — some organisations are finding it tough to get a grip on what their employees are truly feeling. “It’s all directly linked to employee empowerment”, Mollema said. “Feeling at home within an organisation or a culture isn’t just about whether your salary is right, or getting along with the boss — it’s about a sense of belonging.”

To ensure that sense of belonging is at least talked about, Workday acquired Peakon in 2021. It enables intelligent listening for companies of any scale, by using machine learning to collect and analyse anonymous feedback from employees in real time. The platform lets organisations continuously collect employee feedback and, more importantly, provides a way to turn that feedback into dialog and action.”

“If you don’t view your own people as your number one core value, you can’t pretend your clients are.”

“We have a pretty strong vision on how we manage our own employees”, Mollema continued. “We quite often hear companies make bold statements about how they view customers as their number one core value — but I think that can’t be right. Because if you don’t view your own people as your number one core value, you can’t pretend your clients are. Because your people are the ones dealing with them. Within Workday, we’re very aware of the fact that we’re a tech company, and not HR advisors. But we do know that employees are our number one core value.”

Redefining the business case

Workday works as a subscription model, with businesses constantly having to redefine their business strategy — and Workday constantly having to produce some type of a business case as to why they should be the chosen software provider for any given company. “And I think that’s what makes my job fun”, Mollema said. “Because for us — it’s so useful to go back to a customer after three years and look at what their expectations were at the start, and what the tool has ended up doing for them.”

“The fun is in finding out how the tool helped increase retention numbers or how it filled skills.”

“It makes our benchmark more accurate, while it helps us redefining our own business case. And that isn’t just limited to numbers wherein we show that a generic task that used to take 30 minutes, now only takes eight. The fun is in finding out how the tool helped increase retention numbers or how it filled skills. It’s an integral part of the branche and being able to help organisations make those things tangible, so they can operate and act swiftly upon it — there’s a lot of fulfillment in that.”  

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Stephen McGrath (Candidate.ID): ‘Recruiters need to become spearfishers, not netfishers’

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Candidate.ID is the world’s first marketing automation technology for talent acquisition. The company was founded in 2016 by Adam Gordon and Scot McRae and is based in Glasgow, Scotland. It automates repetitive candidate engagement tasks and allows talent professionals to personalise and manage multi-step candidate engagement workflows with customisable omni-channel campaigns where today’s candidates are living.

Building powerful talent pipelines

With Candidate.ID, recruiters can see in real-time which candidates are engaged, measure their intent, and focus on those who are the most engaged and the best fit for the role. “We’re enabling recruiters to build powerful talent pipelines”, says Stephen McGrath, Solutions Consultant at Candidate.ID. “All to build and nurture in-demand talent.”

You must identify where you’re getting them from, which assets and what content is required. Lastly, you need to make sure you nurture those pipelines.”

Where talent scarcity has become the bona fide number one subject, McGrath sees three things to focus on in creating a talent pool. “You have to identify your long-term company needs. Where are you going? Are you expanding? Are you re-locating? You must formulate a long-term plan. Then you must identify where you’re getting them from, which assets and what content is required. Lastly, you need to make sure you nurture those pipelines.”

From netfishing to spearfishing

 But let’s take a step back, as getting them into the process seems to be the hardest part of any recruiter’s job. According to McGrath, much of it comes down to a hire-ready mentality. “It takes continuous engagement, but that doesn’t happen nearly enough. Twenty-one years ago, we placed an advert, which the candidate saw. Then the recruiter pushed them through the process, and we defined that as hire-ready.”

“The problem I see is that we could be nurturing the rest, even if they’re not ready or right for a job at that exact moment in time.”

Where McGrath sees it going wrong in recruitment could be related back to fishing. “So often we’re netfishing, where we throw out a cast net, select some fish, and simply throw some back into the sea, allowing them to swim away”, he says. “But the problem I see is that we could be nurturing the rest, even if they’re not ready or right for a job at that exact moment in time. We could be sending them monthly newsletters, industry insights and spearfish them. Keep engaging them and pull the trigger when they’re ready.”

‘You cannot afford to lose any candidates’

In a nutshell, that’s what McGrath and Candidate.ID look to solve. “In this current climate, you cannot afford to lose any candidates. But so often we look at short-term needs rather than 6, 12 or 18 months down the line. If you’re hiring five or ten different people for the same role, you need to be doing something new. You need to filter candidates on engagement and really build a picture of who they are.”

“When someone’s engaged with the content you’re putting out across several contact methods, the higher they score, and the more hire-ready that candidate is.”

So, how? “Track it all”, McGrath says. “Say you send out newsletters, is that person opening them? Or are they leaving them unopened? Are they watching a video all the way ’til the end, or do they not even click it? Do they respond to an invitation for networking event, or do they ignore everything coming their way? That’s how you judge whether someone’s engaged. And when someone’s engaged with the content you’re putting out across several contact methods, the higher they score, and the more hire-ready that candidate is.”

The future of scoring models

But according to McGrath, it may still take a while before scoring models, as developed by Candidate.ID, become the norm. “We’re the only company that does it in recruitment. However, in sales, it’s done all the time. Albeit in a different way and it’s all presented differently. But the adverts that you’re seeing because you’ve spoken about something, clicked something, or scanned a QR code at a bus stop. It took people a little while to figure out that it’s not accidental.”

“Initially we all got a freaked out and said: ‘Oh no, we’re being stalked’. But those first-party cookies are available to everyone. What we do slightly differently is providing a scoring model where we turn things into trackable links. So, I can take any webpage, run it through our system, and track it. That technology is readily available for anyone.”

“I guess the other difficulty is getting buy-in from a traditional industry that says: ‘we’ve always done it this way, we’ll always do it this way’.”

“We’ve been around for five years, and nobody has done it yet”, he says. “I don’t know. I guess the other difficulty is getting buy-in from a traditional industry that says: ‘we’ve always done it this way, we’ll always do it this way’. It’s our job to ensure that people understand that the safety concerns aren’t actually a hindrance but could help you control it.”

‘I wish we didn’t call it tracking’

Tracking could be the democratic choice as the world’s least-favourite word. “It does sound scary, and I wish we could use something else”, McGrath says. “Cookies are called cookies because it’s a nice word. That’s the sort of scenario you’re up against, where you have to make sure you don’t scare off anyone.”

“If we’ve always been doing it that way, why are we having events talking about doing things differently? Something needs to improve.”

But it may be something the recruitment industry may simply have to get over. “It’s a question of going up against an industry that has an establishment, right? One that says: we’ve always done it a certain way, and we’ll continue to do things that way. For me, it’s quite simple. If we’ve always been doing it that way, why are we having events talking about doing things differently? Something needs to improve.”

Integrating and embedding

Earlier in 2022, the news broke that Candidate.ID was to be acquired by enterprise recruiting platform provider iCIMS. “It’s all still early days, but really exciting”, McGrath says. “We have plans to integrate the best in class with Candidate.ID and with iCIMS. As far as product innovation goes, we’re talking our marketing automation skills and tracking and sourcing methods through into robust CRM features. Then we’re looking at certain great standalone iCIMS features and embedding them into Candidate.ID. I’m really looking forward to it.”

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Michel Franken (Sterling): ‘I think we’re reaching a turning point in employee screening’

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Michel Franken’s first week at Sterling didn’t quite go according to plan. “I started on September 9th, 2019”, he told ToTalent in an interview. “The day before I was supposed to fly out to Sterling’s head-office in Swansea, I didn’t feel quite well. So I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a kidney pelvic inflammation. He told me flying wasn’t such a great idea — but I wasn’t going to miss the first day on the job.”

Then Franken, accompanied by a healthy dose of painkillers, flew out. “I somehow survived the first day”, he continued. “But the next day, the pain just kept getting worse as my skin-colour quickly transformed into yellow. I tried to keep up a good appearance, but as the clock struck 11AM, tears ensued. I then booked a last-minute flight to Eindhoven, where I somehow convinced border control that I was fit to fly. A few hours later, I was at the hospital. It appeared not to be a kidney pelvic inflammation but gallbladder stones that were causing the inconvenience. A month later I was operated. My colleagues still regularly call me a die-hard for coming over in the first place.”

First man on the ground

After that shaky start, Franken then got to work as the first man on the ground in the Netherlands for Sterling, a company that has built its foundation on 45+ years of experience in background checks for employment, employment screening and education verification. “With about 5000 employees in total, it is a big organisation to be a part of, but the levels of communication are outstanding.”

We want to build the foundation so that clients can get the very best out of their employees.”

“Sterling’s mission is very much no-nonsense in the fact that we simply want to put people first”, he continued. “That’s why we wake up every morning. We want to make sure that our clients’ people feel are safe. And when everyone feels safe, then great things can happen. We want to build the foundation so that clients can get the very best out of their employees.”

“For every country, we have a tailor-made fact sheet wherein we depict what can and cannot be screened.”

Sterling is, in every sense of the word, a worldwide organisation. Operating in nearly 200 countries, it has excelled at adapting to the ever-changing world of screening regulations. “We’re constantly monitoring what happens around the world”, Franken said. “For every country, we have a tailor-made fact sheet wherein we depict what can and cannot be screened. Every country has its own set of regulations, which can make it a real challenge.”

Not enough screening in Europe… yet

For Europe, employee screening still isn’t quite the norm. Sterling research among Dutch HR professionals illustrated that only 63% of candidates for full-time positions are screened, while the part-time percentage lies at a mere 37%. Franken: “Those percentages are gradually growing, but some are still slowly coming to terms with the notion that they can’t do it themselves. If you don’t have access to the right data, it could take you a long time to verify a candidates CV.”

As soon as applications start trickling in, Sterling’s work begins. “We really look at it as a partnership with a client. The first thing we do is reach some type of consensus over the way we’ll screen: which jobs require screenings, and to which degree? We then look at whether the screening is allowed — because you can’t screen everyone if you don’t have legitimate access to the right information.”

“I’d say about 75% of applicants would add in a little white lie to their CV.”

After receiving the candidate’s consent, the filtering starts. Whether they’re white lies such as a rounded-up number of years work experience or a degree that wasn’t quite attained, Sterling’s checks will filter out any inconsistencies. “I’d say about 75% of applicants would add in a little white lie to their CV. Particularly in modern-day hybrid or remote arrangements, you want to check that person’s integrity. That then frees up a bunch of time for your HR department.”

Screening 23,000 for the NHS

As the United Kingdom started its long-awaited vaccine roll-out, it came paired with another challenge: there wasn’t nearly enough staff to deliver jabs. “It is mandatory for someone to be screened when he or she delivers vaccines”, Franken said. “So, we were tasked with the incredible challenge of screening approximately 23,000 candidates in a matter of months, to ensure that the vaccine roll-out could move ahead as planned. That’s something we’re immensely proud of.”

‘We’re reaching a turning point’

Franken foresees screening steadily becoming an integral part of talent acquisition strategies. “I think we’re reaching a turning point”, he said. “Where organisations will see that they’re missing out on talent from their competitors who are screening. To get an inflow of quality candidates, you’ll need to screen — because having that as part of your job market communication will scare off candidates you don’t want in the first place.”

“Even if you’re struggling to fill enough jobs, you want to make sure that those who you do hire, end up being the right people for the job.”

“You’ll always get people who will pimp their CV’s and aim to take advantage of a tight labour market. But even if you’re struggling to fill enough jobs, you want to make sure that those who you do hire, end up being the right people for the job. We all know the cost of a bad hire, that’s something you want to avoid. Even if you just add a line in your job advertisement to say pre-employment screening is part of the hiring process — that will absolutely get you less, but much better applicants. It’ll work even better if you actually do screen.”

Patrick de Pauw (Social Seeder): ‘People underestimate the power of word-to-mouth’

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The year is 2012. It’s lunchtime at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. As an ensemble of guests including Barack Obama and Richard Branson take their first bites of their chicken sandwiches, an experienced Belgian travel marketeer doesn’t yet know what one afternoon in San Francisco’s very own tech hub will mean. His name is Patrick De Pauw. Who, at the time, had spent nearly 30 years in the travel marketing industry, forming relationships and connections. One of whom invited him to this select roundtable.

De Pauw promptly developed a concept around connections based on social media and ambassador goodwill. And in 2013, Social Seeder was born.

En route home, he reflected on the power of connections — something that struck a cord with his experience in the travel industry. He had seen that other people’s opinion was more influential than most marketing tools. As ads got more expensive and algorithms more unpredictable, he decided to focus on the one thing that consistently worked: word-of-mouth. After re-entering the other part of the Northern Hemisphere, De Pauw promptly developed a concept around connections based on social media and ambassador goodwill. And a year later, in 2013, Social Seeder was born.

The power of word-of-mouth

As years went by, the Belgian scale-up gradually grew from being a tool with basic social media sharing features to a platform with more features and options for third-party integrations. Social Seeder now serves 250+ customers worldwide, including Heineken, Dell and Unicef. “Word-of-mouth is a global phenomenon”, says De Pauw, founder of Social Seeder. “Our mission is to ensure employees are motivated to tell the story of a company or organisation.

“Our mission is to ensure employees are motivated to tell the story of a company or organisation.”

“We make it as simple as possible for organisations to ask something of their employees”, he continues. “We then create data along the way that will help sharpen any organisational story. All the while eyeing one primary goal: make sure [the story] has the desired impact on both your own employees and to those on the outside.”

From employee advocacy to employee engagement

Throughout much of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent necessity to work from home, some organisations — if not most — have found it difficult to keep its employees engaged. Social Seeder saw the demand for their services change — and evolved alongside them. “Every company wants to keep their workforce informed of what’s happening within an organisation and within the market. Social Seeder has able to facilitate just that.”

“Your employees are your greatest asset.”

With record-breaking investments in the field of HR technology, De Pauw sees organisations shifting their approach to HR. “As it evolves, HR increasingly takes up a more prominent, central role within an organisation. While in the past you could say it was solely a supporting role, it is now widely regarded as a vital part of an organisation. Because at the end of the day, your employees are your greatest asset.”

An interview with Recruiting Brainfood’s Hung Lee: UK trends, shortages and breakthroughs

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The UK labour market has had its fair share of challenges in the past few years. Dealing with the side-effects of both COVID-19 and Brexit, it has resulted in dramatic labour shortages across the board. 2021 saw the nation(s) break its long-standing record for unfilled vacancies — while the new immigration policies haven’t resulted in nearly enough workers.

The bottleneck of the UK labour market

“Cutting the UK economy off from 400 million people means that flow of immigrant labour from the EU has dramatically fallen”, Hung Lee tells ToTalent. “It turns out that these people have been our nurses, our vets, our baristas, our construction workers, our HGV drivers and so on. Many industry sectors have been highly dependent on this labour. Now, with a new untested, underresourced immigration system and general lack of confidence in relocating, it is not so easy to see where the shortfall is going to be made up.”

  “It is not so easy to see where the shortfall is going to be made up.”

While the UK has still seen a steady migrant flow with non-EU immigrants entering the country, Lee is worried about the sectors they’re coming into. “These new people are not directly replacing the EU labour sources in exactly the same professions. We are super dependent on Belgian vets it turns out. And there remains a shortfall that isn’t going to be replaced by Hong Kong accountants. The challenges to hire will inevitable require innovation and change; it will be easier to move the job to where people are if we cannot move the people to the job.”

‘The labour shortage is a paradox’

Lee expects the shortage to continue to be the main topic among organisations. “The labour shortage is a paradox”, he says. “There should be an excess of 144 million workers available globally, but it is also a real phenomenon. The fact of the matter is that we have been overly dependent on seasonal, student and immigrant labour to conduct many of the services society depended upon. The COVID period has effectively shut off these labour streams. Leaving economies realising that they had been underpaying for these services for a long time. And can now, no longer do so.”

Recruiters are scarce, too

Recruiting Brainfood’s Hung Lee

Recruiters, meanwhile, have also been scarce in the United Kingdom. Lee expects that problem to ensue throughout much of 2022. “It is quite an important issue to solve”, he says. “If we do not manage to make enough local recruiters in this time, inevitably employers will look to alternatives. Mainly remote recruiters delivering the services from elsewhere in the world. Innovative companies were already doing this of course: HQ in UK, delivery from Ukraine, South Africa, Philippines. But it will become a cascade if hiring local recruiters continues to be difficult.”

“It will become a cascade if hiring local recruiters continues to be difficult.”

‘I’m expecting a massive growth of the boutique RPO market’

In the field of talent acquisition and recruitment, Lee looks to the British boutique Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) market. “I’m expecting a massive growth of the boutique RPO market”, he says. “The shift to remote has already made the distinction between traditional agency supplier versus ‘embedded recruiter’ to be on mainly based on payment terms. I foresee agencies flooding into this market offering RPO terms, as alternative to traditional supply. This should be good news for customers who will receive increased choice and reduced costs as competition exerts deflationary pressure.”

“We have moved decisively away from using ‘AI, tell us who is the best candidate’ to ‘AI, tell us who is the best recruiter’. Brighthire, Metaview, Equitas are some of the players in this space.”

The UK has typically been a hotbed for new recruitment and HR breakthroughs. Who does Lee foresee as disruptors of the market in 2022? “I am most excited about the field of Interview Analytics or Interview Intelligence”, he says. “This is an emerging category where the focus of the technology is applied to the interviewer not the candidate. Via transcription of interview, speech analysis or ratio of time spent talking. We have moved decisively away from using ‘AI, tell us who is the best candidate’ to ‘AI, tell us who is the best recruiter’. Brighthire, Metaview, Equitas are some of the players in this space.”

Nicolas Goldstein (Talenteum): ‘African talent can play vital role in Europe’s shortage’

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The European labour market saw one of the most historic years in 2021. Across the board, the number of unfilled vacancies rose to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, the continent is gradually getting older. While much of Europe will indeed suffer from ageing in the forthcoming years, under business as usual the continent will have approximately 95 million fewer working-age people in Europe in 2050 than in 2015, according to a study by the Center for Global Development.

“Africa is the obvious partner [for Europe’s labour shortage].”

In their research, economists Charles Kenny and George Yang reach a simple conclusion: Europe will have to look outside, either by exporting jobs or encouraging immigration. “Africa is the obvious partner”, Kenny and Yang say. “But without a dramatic shift in European policies — perhaps even with a dramatic shift in policies — Africa will not be able to save its Northern neighbour from the demographic quicksands.”

Will remote, African workers be the solution?

The notion that Europe needs to look to Africa is pretty much a given at this point. While a wide-scale immigration brings upon its own set of problems, how about doubling down on another development the continent has recently seen: remote workforces? Enter Mauritius-based start-up Talenteum, which aims to be the first social bridging platform — helping companies from everywhere out of Africa, source and employ remote-working teams living mainly in Africa.

Enter Mauritius-based start-up Talenteum, which aims to be the first social bridging platform — helping companies from everywhere out of Africa.

“We source and hire talent everywhere in Africa”, Talenteum co-founder Nicolas Goldstein tells ToTalent in an exclusive interview. “We then handle local employment compliance, payroll, HR support and benefits for international teams. It enables clients to productively hire and manage full-time personnel in Africa.”

“As of today, we serve approximately 60 European organisations. About 90% of customers return every year.”

The pan-African platform was founded in 2017, and has since seen steady growth among both solo entrepreneurs as well as big enterprises. “As of today, we serve approximately 60 European organisations”, Goldstein says. “About 90% of customers return every year. We charge a fixed recurring fee to use our platform. For a few of them we provide sourcing to staffing — while others only use our EOR (Employee of Record) solution.”

Africa will nearly double its manpower size by 2035

“We are currently in a growing market”, Goldstein says. “It’s a market wherein people understand that remote work is here to stay. But at the same time international employers aren’t all too aware that Africa is a huge market. We are slowly becoming better at understanding where to find the best talent in Africa. We then try to match our excess of talent from the South with the shortages in the North.”

“It’s a talent pool with huge potential — adding in something like an upskilling bootcamp to train them for tomorrow’s jobs, will be a huge part of the solution”

Africa’s working age population is expected to grow by 450 million people, or close to 70%, by 2035, according to a Worldbank report. “We simply have a lot of unemployed qualified talents in Africa”, Goldstein says. “Roughly half of those graduated are unemployed. It’s a talent pool with huge potential — adding in something like an upskilling bootcamp to train them for tomorrow’s jobs, will be a huge part of the solution. It’s up to us to find opportunities for them and create a middle class in Africa. A remote job could bring wealth to the continent.”

‘Most likely start-up to succeed in 2022’

Goldstein’s own journey started as an outsourcing entrepreneur in 2004. “I used to work with India in the IT industry, right at the beginning of outsourcing”, he says. “Fifteen years later, I decided to settle on the island of Mauritius, and focus on African talent. Together with John Benatouil I founded Talenteum, in an attempt to disrupt the labour industry by allowing the possibility to source and employ remote-working teams, mainly in Francophone Africa.”

“We will do everything we can to make an impact in the recruitment of African talent. And subsequently the creation of jobs in Africa.”

Talenteum was named in the top 100 of African start-ups to invest in — while accumulating several other awards. They were a finalist of IOE and Seedstars’ migration challenge and received the award of ‘most likely start-up to succeed in 2022’ by Globalization Partners. “We will do everything we can to make an impact in the recruitment of African talent. And subsequently the creation of jobs in Africa”, Goldstein emphatically concludes.

Mathias Heese (softgarden): ‘Candidates choose their employers, rather than the other way around’

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Since 2014, Germany-based SaaS-based recruitment solutions provider softgarden has regularly conducted surveys on recruitment and employer branding. After applying through their Applicant Tracking System (ATS), applicants are immediately surveyed. “In this way, we have already surveyed over 40,000 candidates online”, CEO Mathias Heese says.

“Skilled employees have become a scarce resource and candidates are aware of their strong market position.”

“Our studies show that the topics of the job market, job search and job application have changed fundamentally”, he continues. “Candidates’ expectations have fundamentally changed. Skilled employees have become a scarce resource and candidates are aware of their strong market position. This means that in most job markets, candidates choose their employers, rather than the other way around.”

softgarden’s comprehensive TA suite

Founded in 2003, softgarden offers companies a range of solutions to optimise their recruitment for employers and industries of various sizes. With a presence in the DACH region as well as other European markets such as France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, softgarden offers its clients a comprehensive Talent Acquisition Suite that includes an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Employer Branding solutions.

“Our ATS is designed with the candidate experience and needs in mind, employers shorten their recruiting processes by more than half.”

“In recent years, we have adapted these solutions to the changing recruitment market”, Heese adds. “The best candidates do not stay long on the job market and are very impatient about how long the recruitment process takes. Our ATS is designed with the candidate experience and needs in mind, employers shorten their recruiting processes by more than half. Moreover, we allow for a solution with which employers can intuitively design a compelling career site, independent of external agencies, to generate applications and convert jobseekers into employees.”

‘Candidates pay attention to reviews’

According to Heese and softgarden, the rise (or norm) of online shopping behaviour is also translating onto the behaviour candidates show when applying for a job. “In other words, they pay attention to employer reviews and ratings and want the online application process to be easy”, Heese explains. “The same principles of e-commerce apply to digital recruitment today.”

“Our research tells us that candidates place particular value on this transparency, as well as on ratings by other candidates and employees.”

It led to softgarden’s decision to build their Employers Reviews Module on a foundation of transparency — allowing users to integrate KPI’s of the different stages into a career page. “Our research tells us that candidates place particular value on this transparency, as well as on ratings by other candidates and employees. These can also be integrated on the career page and in the job advertisements. In order to continuously generate verified reviews and strengthen their reputation as an employer.”

‘We are setting standards in the recruitment industry’

softgarden currently serves over 3,500 international customers, after acquiring internal HR process solutions provider absence.io in August 2021. “As an international provider of SaaS-based recruitment solutions, we help companies attract the best candidates to their workforce digitally”, Heese says. “In doing so, we focus on the needs of recruiters and candidates as well as current e-commerce standards — in terms of the speed of processes and the integration of assessments. With this approach, we are setting standards in the recruitment industry.”

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Exclusive jobs site launched for Returning Citizens: ‘Judgement stops where understanding starts’

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Growing up on the heels of the civil rights movement era, Khalil Osiris spent his childhood years in the midwestern region of the United States. He had a stable situation at home and attended a good school. As his close relatives became members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Osiris became inspired to join them. The more he learned about the plight of black and other oppressed people, the angrier he became.

Khalil Osiris, described as a good student and an outstanding athlete, was only 17 years old when he was sentenced to five to 25 years in prison.

And as Osiris’ thoughts turned to anger, the inspired teenager felt he wanted to do something about it. “In short, my anger turned into delinquency and I committed a robbery”, he tells ToTalent in an interview. Khalil Osiris, described as a good student and an outstanding athlete, was only 17 years old when he was sentenced to 5 to 25 years in prison.

‘Everyone is in a prison of some sort’

After serving the minimum of five years in prison where he experienced what he describes as ‘savagery’, Osiris was released at the age of 22 — only to be back behind bars a mere three years later. This time, the judge upped his sentence. Osiris was to serve a sentence for up to 75 years for another robbery.

“I resolved to turn my cell into a classroom and the prison into a university.”

“It was during my second imprisonment that I realised I had been incarcerated long before I was arrested”, Osiris says. “I realised that the source of my incarceration wasn’t prison, but my own limited thinking, choices and actions. My epiphany was that I could get out of prison before I was released. So I resolved to turn my cell into a classroom and the prison into a university.”

During the next 15 years he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University. He organised study groups to teach literacy and developed programs based on the principles of restorative justice. “I think most people are unaware of what they could become in their lives”, Osiris says.

“I have come to believe that everyone, regardless of their history or current situation, is in a prison of some sort.”

“For me, prison is a metaphor for self-imposed limitations and freedom is a choice. I have known people from the most privileged environments. And shared cell space with people who have only ever known hardship and adversity. I have come to believe that everyone, regardless of their history or current situation, is in a prison of some sort. A prison of their own making that limits them in some way, whether they are aware of it or not.”

The era of hidden workers

Although Osiris’ turnaround is groundbreaking by every stretch of the word, some people are stuck in a proverbial prison for the entirety of their lives. They never get a real chance to fulfil their potential. In short: despite the talent they can bring to organisations: they remain hidden.

2021 was supposed to be the year ‘hidden workers’ were given a shot in lieu of a worldwide talent crisis. But for the era of hidden workers to succeed, two main things are required: organisations that are willing to invest time and effort into hidden workers and a space that focuses on that very value they can bring and offer support to underserved job seekers.

A global movement of job creation

Although workplace inequality can’t be solved overnight, Jobs for Humanity was launched to bridge the gap for millions of people who face similar fates in a disproportionate lack of opportunity in the job market. Whether that be for the 285 million who are visually impaired, of whom 36% are unemployed. Or the 1 billion that are neurodivergent, of whom 85% are unemployed. Whether it be the single moms, black leaders or refugees — or, indeed, returning citizens like Khalil Osiris.

Jobs for Humanity co-founder Roy Baladi

“Our goal is to ensure companies hire qualified candidates who thrive in their organisation.”

“As an employer, Jobs for Humanity makes it easy for you to connect with qualified candidates from any of six under-represented communities”, says its co-founder, Roy Baladi. “We offer extensive coaching to interview, hire, and create an enjoyable workspace for them. Our goal is to ensure companies hire qualified candidates who thrive in their organisation.”

Jobs for Returning Citizens

So far, Jobs for Humanity has successfully launched various job sites specifically designed to serve its designated causes. Jobs for Refugees, Jobs for the Blind and Jobs for the Neurodivergent have launched. And in October 2021, the volunteer-led organisation launched its fourth exclusive job site: Jobs for Returning Citizens. “When you hire a returning citizen, you’re telling someone that they matter enough to be employed”, Baladi says. As of today, 1177 open jobs are listed across 35 industries.

“Knowing how to read a background check is a critical piece of social justice that’s not taught in recruiting school.”

“That’s a stark contrast from how they’ve been treated most of their lives, including before incarceration”, he says. “You then hire instant loyalty, hard work, deep empathy, team work, and gratitude. People go to prison for so many reasons. Knowing how to read a background check is a critical piece of social justice that’s not taught in recruiting school. You can lean on Jobs for Humanity for coaching on hiring returning citizens. And on our partner, Checkr, to learn the legality behind background checks. All so you’re supported through this rewarding journey.”

‘Judgement stops where understanding starts’

As for Osiris — he transformed his life while imprisoned. When he eventually was released from prison after 15 years, he says that he had to remain mindful of the choice he had to be free. Despite social barriers that were ‘too many to list’, Osiris focused the next phase of his work on teaching others about his own revelations.

He became the founder of Truth & Reconciliation Conversations (TRC), a global initiative focused on galvanising action to end racism and gender based violence and the Reflecting Freedom Network (RFN), a non-profit charity that provides access to web-based, accredited education for non-traditional learners including justice-involved youth and adults.

“My life’s work is about teaching people how to overcome self-imposed limitations and choose a freedom that comes from within.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Osiris also authored a course and program entitled Psychology of Incarceration, which is taught at universities and used in rehabilitation treatment centres throughout the US. “My life’s work is about teaching people how to overcome self-imposed limitations and choose a freedom that comes from within”, he says.

“Dostoevsky said it best: ‘Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him/her’.”

However, time and time again — the formerly incarcerated will be judged by both society and companies for their past acts. What would Osiris’ advice be to talent leaders and organisations? “I think Fyodor Dostoevsky said it best: ‘Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him/her’. Judgement stops where understanding starts.”