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TMP launches new blog

Read our new blog 'Talking TMP'. There are lots of expert people at TMP, so to make sure all the great things they have to talk about find a voice we have created a new blog site. Click here to see the latest blogs.

University student fees set to rise - What can employers do to help?

The headlines around the higher student fees and the beginning of a new era in University places are bombarding us from every channel. This autumn will be the last intake when students can enjoy the lower fee levels before they increase by up to 300% the following year.

Many questions exist for UK employers as to whether there will be any real impact on their ability to hire the quality and quantity of entry level talent when this rolls through the systems in 3/4 years time. Will the fees deter highly capable young people from entering higher education, will there be a need to attract school leaver talent into organisations at 18 and help educate them further, will there be totally different types of Apprenticeship schemes in service related sectors rather than merely in the technical sectors or will companies lock students in by “sponsoring” them in some shape or form through their education, such as KPMG and Ernst & Young.

Over just the last few weeks new government reforms have thrown in a curve ball with the news that Universities that take on board more students will be allowed to charge lower fees and that those students with AAB grades at A level will become a gold dust commodity, highly sought after by all institutions. Among the first to offer a deal to entice high-fliers is the University of Kent, which will give £2,000 scholarships to any recruit for 2012 who gains three As in their A-levels, regardless of family income. The vice-chancellor of Exeter University and head of Universities UK, predicts that application numbers are likely to be down by at least 10% in 2012 because of student fears of debt and a fall in the number of school-leavers. This could put more pressure on universities to cut fees.

After many years where the Graduate/Campus recruitment programmes of many organisations has changed very little there is a need for HR functions to examine how this will impact on their businesses. This entry level talent is often seen as the potential management of the future and in some firms is a key profitable revenue stream with a relatively high fee/revenue return whilst these hires go through further training and education. Some organisations such as McDonalds, Network Rail and Tui have all cited higher levels of employee engagement as a direct result of their school leaver programmes with all of the business cost benefits associated with lower attrition rates and increases in productivity. The impact of the changes to tuition fees, the response of Universities to their selection and entry requirements could significantly influence the hiring success for some firms if they do not review the impact now and plan ahead, with a rolling annual hiring cycle the new scenario is not that far away.

An example of this is the upcoming event in November 2011 where PwC will be hosting a strategic discussion forum in conjunction with HTI (Head Teachers to Industry) and TMP Worldwide to explore careers choices for school leavers and employers’ routes to market. If you are interested in attending please contact Jayne Cullen – jayne.cullen@tmpw.co.uk

Young people today face an increasingly complex series of transitions, not just in relation to education but also when it comes to lifestyle and, crucially, work choices. Without the appropriate skills, young people risk not achieving those all-important aims and ambitions as they progress.

What can employers do to support students to make the right choices – whether taking graduate routes or non-graduate routes? How can employers work in partnership with education leaders to guide students faced with a plethora of options? How do we together ensure a win/win/win result?

TMP Worldwide are supporting this discussion by conducting a quantitative piece of research to ‘ground’ our dialogue and are looking to support this research with some focus group activity with Years 11, 12 and 13 students. The groups will look to explore some key themes including;

- Their views on the different entry routes to employment

- How they access IACG?

- Their key influencers at different stages of their education career and at crucial decision points.

- The perceived skills and experience required for different entry points and industry sectors

The persistent and continuing War for Talent

It was 1998 when the McKinsey article first appeared, and with our recent recession still a harsh reminder of tough economic times. There is no doubt that for most organisations finding the right talent is not only critical to success but an enormous challenge.

Recent research by PwC states that “Most CEO’s put Strategies for Managing Talent at the top of the priority list” and not only that but in this summer's CIPD research 75% of organisations reported difficulties in hiring the right people into their organisation.

The McKinsey report stated that “Superior talent will be tomorrow’s prime source of competitive advantage” and very few would disagree, from the founder of McDonald’s who said “You're only as good as the people you hire” to the founders of Google who are still actively involved in screening the talent their organisation hires, as they know that this will drive their growth, revenues and valuation.

Key areas for focus can be summed up in the following points:

1. Talent Management is a corporate priority
2. You need a strong EVP (Employer Value Proposition)
3. Companies do focus on attraction, retention and development – but not enough
4. Talent cares about culture and values
5. Feedback and coaching are critical
6. Retention is not fully understood

Bersin & Associates, a US business recently reviewed the progress US companies have made in dealing with the Talent War and the results were startling for the wrong reasons

• 15% = no talent strategy
• 40% declared they were novices
• 40% were at intermediate stage
• Only 5% had a clear strategy

One final point to note is that the mobility of labour is at a current low point, in the main, good people are not moving jobs, staff turnover is down for the third year running. This raises some interesting questions and challenges around the priority of talent acquisition, engagement with passive talent and the focus on building the employer brand.

Which of the Bersin categories do you fit in?

Good people are hard to find

Just like the recruiting professionals at the organisations we work with, we find that today’s highly sought after job seekers are very discerning and know what they want from an employer. In the last few weeks, TMP has welcomed a number of new managers from various backgrounds.

The management we are hiring is adding to our capability and breadth of market understanding, after a few weeks with us I asked three senior managers what their first reflections were of the company they had joined:

“Having crossed over to a supplier from an senior resourcing role in a large corporate I am most impressed with the range and levels of expertise in the business. I wish I had understood the breadth of capabilities when I was a client but I probably was a bit blinkered about the value TMP could offer thinking it was all about attraction”
Tamsin Terry-Lush, General Manager, South West and Midlands

“I am shocked at just how much alignment there is across consumer marketing and recruitment marketing. In the consumer world I talked about brand and product activation and now at TMP I am personally involved in bringing new knowledge and my expertise to Employer brands and candidate activation, this is so exciting”
Frank Durrell, Head of Digital

“I left TMP 4 years ago and have been running an agency in Australia, the organisation and it’s capability are in a totally different place. I left a recruitment advertising business with some response management capability and have come back to a resourcing business with a fantastic project RPO offer with more focus on the Employer Brand journey and attraction than placing adverts”
Adam Shay, General Manager, London

As we invest in the business we are bringing in the skills, knowledge and experience that will help shape TMP to align its business to the rapidly changing resourcing world. Our challenges lie in the right engagement with passive and active jobseekers to bring our client’s brands to life and ease them through those early stages of brand engagement to deliver applications at the right time.

TMP is evolving and changing weekly, we are already engaged in the shaping of resourcing strategies rather than just planning media. This brings much greater value to our customers who now benefit from the great people we are hiring.

Head of Digital joins TMP

This month our new Head of Digital arrives, he comes from a consumer digital agency. His experience from working with brands that actively use online channels to reach consumers will shape TMP’s insight into new candidate engagement initiatives. As the media consumption in the UK and Ireland becomes increasingly web dominated, we will work with our clients to shift recruiting behaviours. Recruiters need to engage with people in the places they spend time, in a manner which is appropriate for them and deliver the right messages at the right time. In this way, we will convert the right talent from being passive observers to engaged job seekers. The more time employers spend on making their brands visible and understood, less time and money will be required for attraction. The net result will be focusing effort on innovative initiatives with better ROI. This will be new for many: the infamous quote from Donald Rumsfeld comes to mind.

TMP welcomes Tribal Resourcing

Today is the first full day of the expanded TMP business as the deal between Tribal Group and TMP Worldwide concluded yesterday. The two teams combined place us in an enviable position in both the public and commercial sectors. The combined business won more RAD awards this year than any other agency and with our total blend of people, customers and products we are well positioned for the changes that our industry is facing in 2011 and beyond.

TMP is investing in its future, the Tribal Resourcing deal is just one example. Already this year, we have added new management in our Digital function and London, Bristol and Midlands operations, plus increased our marketing expenditure. Whilst the fall out from the recession is still in the headlines, the need for employers to build brand awareness for future recruitment and compete in the war for talent is of ever increasing importance.

Indirect recruitment ( appointments through agencies) may have the short term benefit of filling vacancies but it does nothing for longer term audience engagement and brand building. More and more conversations with prospective customers and existing clients are about direct sourcing and brand-led recruitment due to the longer term ROI gained, as well as the hiring of engaged new recruits.

March is upon us already, and employees who have sat still through the recession are on the move. A lot of companies are not on the hiring radar at this crucial time, but some are clearly starting to get their message out there and engage.

Britain’s Got Talent! Will you find and hire it?

The auditions for Britain's Got Talent 2011 have begun. This time without Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell but there is still Amanda Holden. The Hoff will soon be in the panel when he has finished his panto stint; meanwhile Louis Walsh is standing in alongside new panellist, Michael McIntyre the comedian.

Whether you love or hate the show or its recent predecessors; The Apprentice, X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing there is always a debate as to who really should have won the show. The public vote has its pros and cons but in the end it normally delivers an acceptable result. It’s interesting to consider Lord Sugar’s hires, they all performed in the show well enough to beat off the opposition to win the role, but were their expectations of the role met when they started their job. Were they truly engaged at work? Most of his winners don’t stick around that long.

Hiring great talent is still a challenge for many companies. The War for Talent is ongoing and yet so many organisations invest only at the time of need. Why does a resourcing budget stick so closely to vacancies when the management of the external employer brand is an ongoing, 365 day a year process?

Resourcing is a long term investment, whether that is in the development of the best selection processes or engaging with the target audiences well before a vacancy arises. However, the activity around the hiring process is all too often short term quick fixes to address immediate needs. The result can be the hiring of marginally engaged employees rather than passionate and committed stars. It can lead to higher attrition rates as people don’t really fit in or the role does not match their aspirations and skills or, the right people may never even apply as they do not aspire to work for that organisation. Is the short term thinking really more beneficial than a long term strategy which will attract more engaged better quality people to an organisation?

Lord Sugar, Simon Cowell or the great British public are not to blame if you hire the wrong talent! So is 2011 the right time to start longer term engagement and process improvements to deliver improved hiring outcomes?

New Year Resourcing Resolutions

It has been a brutal recession and one that has probably changed the recruitment communications market permanently. 2011 is around the corner and organisations of all shapes and sizes, public sector and commercial are entering into a new era of hiring. Top quality talent at all levels from call centre and retail staff to specialists and senior management are more selective than ever in their career and job decisions.

The recession has highlighted that there are winners and losers, companies and bodies with a great vision and culture and others who have lost their way or cannot find their niche in this every changing economy in which we all operate. So moving employer has become a more thoughtful and reflective process, reward is always important but the Employer Brand of an organisation is more central to that process than ever before.

The direct sourcing model is growing in favour in attraction and sourcing as this allows potential hires to engage directly with the brand, culture and values of their potential new employer and make more intelligent and emotional decisions about where they really want to work.

The Employer Brand experience touches every stage of a potential new employee's experience, most importantly even before they are thinking of moving job they are gaining insights and perceptions of organisations and whether they want to work for them. If you are not actively managing the Employer Brand all the time then it is being managed for you by the information that pours onto the internet every minute from news headlines, twitter feeds, you tube videos etc as well as corporate information which still shapes opinion but was never meant to be read by an applicant.

Every year in or out of recession is one which is full of hiring challenges, 2011 will be no different but how organisations respond in this changing digital world needs to be different. For some recruiters if the resourcing model doesn't change they may start to find that the best people are moving elsewhere.

Food for thought as you make your New Year's resolutions ...