6 Tips To Boost Your Early Stage Talent Hiring

6 Tips To Boost Your Early Stage Talent Hiring

The early careers hiring market is bouncing back. According to a recent Institute of Student Employers (ISE) report, there has been a clear uptick in the hiring of graduates, school and college leavers, interns and placement students — and we expect this trend to continue.

Talent shortages and the new world of work have prompted a rethink of candidate attraction, hiring strategies and the positives of an inclusive and diverse workforce. Now more than ever, current and future employees understand their value and are keen to join a firm that’s aligned with their goals, while also offering the support and rewards needed for career progression. This is especially true for those who are just beginning their career journeys. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and assessment advances allow recruiters and HR leaders to make fairer, quicker and more objective decisions, while also offering greater insight and feedback to the candidate. 

 To share some of my learnings and advice, below I outline six ways early careers talent acquisition teams can stay ahead of the curve and boost their hiring practices now.  

 1.     Attract wide and inclusively to identify the best fit candidate.

Use a tool that works like a career advisor — that is, one that takes the job seeker through a range of questions around preferences and motivations, skills and interests, and highlights the best-fit roles available. Aon’s Match Me tool can be shared across social media, sent to schools, colleges and universities, and embedded into company career sites.  

It’s also important to look beyond your traditional channels when developing your candidate attraction strategy so you reach as many people as possible. Ensure the application process is accessible to all. I recommend using device-independent assessments that support neurodiversity by enabling candidates to complete tests virtually and where they are most comfortable. 

And lastly, always design and develop realistic job previews to showcase roles that some may not have considered or know little about. Communication and visibility are key.

2.    Ditch the CV screens! Use automation to offer a fair, quick and effective process that also provides valuable feedback.

First and foremost, optimize the early stages of your hiring process and make sure it’s mobile-friendly. By doing so, you will open the door to a more seamless application transaction from start to finish, improving the overall candidate experience. As they learn more about the role, encourage the candidate to self-select out of the process if it’s not a good fit.

Some quick tips to consider that will help job seekers make the right decision include:

 ·       When using objective assessment measures, ensure that they are fit for the role and your organization, and do not create adverse impact.  

·       Allow the objective degree of fit to determine which candidates progress. 

·       Use assessments that are proven to identify future leaders, looking at specific behaviors such as agility, learnability and curiosity. 

 And remember, always pay attention to how you reject applicants; they may be customers or employees down the road. I like to even offer feedback on any assessment completed. It provides something in return for their investment in applying to your role.   

 3.    Interview without bias. Embrace AI or introduce personality-driven interview reports.

Put simply, resist the traditional interview. Introduce speech-based and AI-supported video interview questions. Then ask the candidate to video record responses to specific questions. This enables the objective analysis of their responses and removes any interviewer unconscious bias.

Furthermore, it delivers process efficiencies by screening out candidates that are poorly fit for the role.  

For in-person interviews, focus on personality and competency. Develop and use ‘match’ scores to highlight candidate strengths and present this in a comprehensive format. I also recommend providing business managers with standardized interview guides and questions built around your specific areas of focus. Doing so removes any bias that can creep in and allows for comparison across interviewers.  

4.    Select the ‘great’ from the ‘good’ using immersive and inclusive assessments.

Rethink your assessment center — whether in-person or virtual. Deploy an easy-to-use, flexible and branded system that can adapt to however you and your colleagues wish to run the day. Include more engaging and contemporary assessments, such as escape rooms, that measure more future-focused skills and abilities. 

Let your creativity lead the way for deciding what to include in your assessments and seize the opportunity to include elements that support your corporate brand or CSR strategies.  

5.    Measure data and prove that you are inclusive.

It’s important to always track your data and its significance by validating your selection tools against key business metrics, and then monitoring this over subsequent years. Some ways to do this include:

·       Use dashboards to analyse data with ease. 

·       Track talent pools and their applicants to check you are reaching a more diverse and previously untapped market.  

·       Monitor and evaluate hiring dropout rates and look for improvements. 

·       Analyse assessment data, investigating subgroup performance and later in-role job performance.  

·       Collect candidate feedback to improve the application and hiring process. 

6.    Monitor your hires — happiness leads to productivity.  

Focus on the wellbeing of your candidates, as well as your workforce. Employees who are engaged and feel valued translate to better business performance. There are resources that can help with this, such as Aon’s Human Sustainability Tool, which includes a self-assessment of wellbeing and provides automated and instant feedback at a high level.

 Additionally, always invest in future-focused development and provide a safe learning space for your people to acquire new skills to build resilience. Regular check-ins focused on wellbeing and career planning should be a core part of the ongoing conversation between line managers and teams.

 Aon offers ongoing development opportunities as pertinent career points. Our First Line Manager framework is embedded within an eight-week online program to ensure all new and essential skills are developed. This allows employees to take ownership of their progression and journey at the firm.

If you follow these hiring practices successfully, it’s a win-win for all parties involved. Your early careers hiring can be more inclusive, efficient and engaging, and at the same time, your early careers hires can be better engaged, understood and supported.

If you want to hear more on this, please do watch the recording of our recent 25 minute webinar. Where Maisie Beckenham, Occupational Psychologist and Global Lead of Primark, myself and Shazeaa Ingar, one of Aon's senior Organizational Psychologists provide more insight around this. WEBINAR RECORDING Elevate your Early Careers Assessment Experience for Generation Z (aon.com)

Let’s continue the conversation! Feel free to contact me at amber.harris@aon.com to learn more.