Connectr for Talent Acquisition – helping you win the war for talent

Simon Reichwald, Chief Progression Officer, Connectr
SimonChief Progression Officer, Connectr

Uploaded

12th May 2023

Read time

5 minutes

Diverse team work in open plan office and look at screens collaboratively.

It’s not unreasonable to say that the labour market isn’t a pretty place right now – at least not if you’re an employer. Despite economic dark clouds, unemployment remains low at just 3.8% unemployment. Salaries continue to grow at eye-watering rates. And talent? It needs to be diverse, quickly add value, progress, and crucially – stay.

It’s no mean feat.

The battle for talent gets dirty

With a host of unfilled high-volume roles, typically in business services or back office, huge numbers of firms are fighting to fill these roles with the same high-quality individuals. With entry requirements mandating specific experience levels and qualifications, the market is creating an unsustainable situation.

And that’s because there are only so many of these people available.

This very specific talent pool is rapidly shrinking and becoming increasingly stagnant. Organisations start poaching from their competition. Salaries grow as the need to fill roles becomes more urgent. Costs skyrocket, diversity plummets and candidates become ever more fickle – trained to keep an eye on what a competing firm might be able to offer.

Stop the battle, win the war

Connectr for Talent Acquisition is a proven inclusive, candidate-friendly approach to recruitment. More than simply filling vacant positions, it delivers diverse hires who stay in role and go onto achieve great things.

How does Connectr for Talent Acquisition work?

  1. Re-evaluating how roles are shared

Too many roles are positioned in the same old way – without the detail candidates want and with undue focus on experience. We have found that changing the focus to one of ‘positive honesty’ about roles inspires and attracts a broader range of candidates. Candidates have become numb to the spiel of ‘inspiration, passion and purpose’. They want to know the truth. Instead of focusing only on tasks and responsibilities, this method highlights the impact they could have and the skills and qualities they could develop. It broadens the appeal of your roles, so you can attract a broad spread of candidates more easily.

  1. Broadening the talent pool

Fishing in the same pond inevitably results in the same supper. The Connectr for Talent Acquisition doesn’t just share your roles with different talent pools. It goes a step further by proactively targeting and selling your roles to this talent, and using language that appeals to these groups – whether they are career returners, graduates or part of a minority ethnic group. This approach broadens your talent pool, proactively attracting new and diverse candidates.

  1. Focus on transferrable skills

Experience shouldn’t be the defining factor in recruitment. Our approach takes the time to explore and identify where candidates have transferable skills that are relevant to your roles giving you a broader choice of candidates.

  1. Bespoke screening and selection tools

Why use the same screening tools for different roles? Connectr for Talent Acquisition adapts the screening and selection process to draw out the important information about your candidates’ behaviour and capabilities. We use questions that enable candidates to showcase their skills and unique experiences – whether from a previous role or another form of life experience. Not only does this identify information that truly makes a difference, but it results in a more efficient recruitment process using only the best tools for the task.

  1. In-process candidate support

The recruitment process can be daunting and result in you losing quality potential candidates simply because they don’t know how to navigate things. Connectr for Talent Acquisition sets your candidates up for success, supporting an equitable approach, essential if diversity is important in your hiring strategy. We support and mentor your candidates throughout – from providing hints and tips on how to approach certain elements of your process, to mentoring at the point of need to support interview preparation. Your candidates will feel supported and valued, giving them confidence in themselves, and able to evidence the claim so many firms make that they invest in their people.

  1. Diverse, quality shortlists

Each element of Connectr for Talent Acquisition works together to ensure a diverse and quality shortlist. We will also take positive action to ensure your shortlists are ethnically, gender and socio-economically representative.

  1. Gold standard candidate communication

We know that lack of feedback is a major pain point for jobseekers. Without feedback, how can they improve? What does it tell them about you as an employer? Connectr for Talent Acquisition looks after this for you, supporting your employer brand. We provide a range of feedback options depending how far a candidate has progressed. These go from templated responses at the initial stages through to personalised phone calls and emails with detailed information about why they weren’t successful. This communication flow helps you engage with your candidates and supports your employer brand in the immediate and longer term.

  1. Preboarding as standard

Leaving onboarding until the days before a candidate starts can leave you open to reneges and early quitting. Instead, implementing a formal preboarding process that’s tailored to your firm and each role helps new employees feel a sense of belonging and connection, long before they start. Sharing fundamentals such as dress code, pay day, and how hybrid working works gives new starters one less thing to worry about, and demonstrates your investment in them. Connectr for Talent Acquisition tells new starters that they’ve made the right choice, meaning they arrive in their new role feeling excited and connected with your organisation.

The results speak for themselves

With a guaranteed diverse shortlist, we have an offer rate of between 3:1 and 2:1 at the final stage, saving our clients time and effort.

Beyond that, 90% of candidates recruited using Connectr for Talent Acquisition are still with their employer after two years, creating a welcome reduction in employee churn and a marked increase in employee diversity.

Are you ready to embrace a future that doesn’t fight for candidates? Or will you use the same providers, same channels and see the same candidates – with the same old results.

Talk to us today to pilot Connectr for Talent Acquisition.


Simon Reichwald, Chief Progression Officer, Connectr
SimonChief Progression Officer, Connectr