A recent survey of 1,000 business leaders and hiring managers, commissioned by Reed Talent Solutions, revealed that almost half of businesses with over 1,000 employees are finding it hard to recruit professionals in the current climate.
50% of those surveyed said finding the ‘right’ people was their biggest challenge when looking to attract new talent to their organisation. And over a third of those involved in talent attraction believe their employee value proposition is not clear.
Over the last two years, Covid-19 has shaped and accelerated the emerging trends we are now seeing in businesses globally. The pandemic, combined with Brexit, has made recruitment an even bigger challenge for UK organisations as they battle for the best professionals in shrinking talent pools.
We were recently joined by panellists Salma Khan, Senior Manager, Global Company
Mobilities Team, PwC, Jackie Handy, Inclusive Leadership Consultant, Martin Mason, Founder and CEO, Unleashed, and Annie Parry, Continuous Improvement & Project Lead (RPO), Reed Talent Solutions, to discuss ideas and best practice advice around how businesses can refocus their talent acquisition strategies to attract and retain the best professionals for their needs.
Our industry experts explored the importance of a strong employee value proposition including diversity, equity and inclusion and candidate experience, hiring the right talent, technology, training, upskilling and securing early talent. Live attendees then had a chance to put their questions and thoughts to the panel in an interactive Q&A session towards the end of the event.
More about the speakers:
Jackie Handy, Inclusive Leadership Consultant
Specialising in diversity, equity & inclusion, and its alignment with inclusive leadership, Jackie Handy has seen both sides of the coin. She knows first-hand how exclusion feels and now her mission is to ensure everyone feels safe, valued and understood at work.
Jackie engages and encourages leaders and team managers to think and act differently and become more consciously inclusive. She is also a TEDx and event speaker, consultant, trainer, creator of the BRAVEwork inclusive leadership programme, and author of ‘The little book of Belonging’.
Martin Mason, Founder and CEO, Unleashed
Martin Mason is the CEO of Unleashed and CEO and Co-Founder of The Arena Network. Martin partners with organisations and charities across the globe to support them in removing systemic barriers to improve performance and inclusion for marginalised communities.
Prior to founding Unleashed, Martin worked as a senior leader in retailers such as The Body Shop, Ferguson PLC, and Halfords, where he designed and delivered strategies and systemic changes to talent management, inclusion, learning and development and performance, delivering increased revenues and improving inclusion for colleagues and customers across the globe.
Annie Parry, Continuous Improvement & Project Lead (RPO), Reed Talent Solutions
Annie has worked in the recruitment sector for over 22 years, championing continuous improvement for the last five. Annie’s knowledge lies in transforming commercial operations by understanding what drives people, working closely with them to deliver bottom up and top-down cultural change.
Since September 2020 Annie has worked in her role as CI and Project Lead for Reed Talent Solutions in the RPO team. She works closely with the delivery team to explore how Reed Talent Solutions' selection and candidate engagement processes can be adapted to meet and increasingly challenging market.
Salma Khan, Director, Global Mobility Tax, Vialto Partners
Salma was part of PwC’s people and organisation practice, which brings together a combination of 10,000 people with industry, business, talent, strategy, HR, analytics and technology expertise in one team across 138 countries. She specialises in global mobility services, helping companies and individuals manage their cross border and remote/hybrid worker populations, set up flexible working policies and help build frameworks to support their global talent.
She has had the opportunity to experience different cultures, having lived in three very different countries prior to coming to the UK, and was part of PwC's Emerging Leaders and Allyship programmes, making her a diverse, open-minded individual and a true advocate of inclusivity.
If you're looking for more information on how to build an effective and efficient talent acquisition strategy, download our eBook here.
