Alex Linley - CEO
We were busy throughout 2017 helping our clients hone their recruiting practices toward perfection. Here are four of the key themes that we picked up in doing so, as well as what this means for 2018.
1. Diversity Rules
Diversity continued to be top of the recruiting agenda throughout 2017. Our clients remain fiercely committed to increasing the participation of under-represented groups in their organisations, whether in relation to gender, ethnic background or social background.
Getting assessment right and managing the recruitment process in the right way are critical to achieving these goals. With our time-recorded assessments, Capp has clearly shown that you can assess for ability in a way that is truly fair, and also valid and predictive.
This is evidenced by Lloyds Banking Group winning the Best Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Award from the Institute for Student Employers.
2017 learning: Better assessment delivers fairer outcomes for all candidates, predicting performance and eliminating adverse impact.
2018 prediction: Having eliminated adverse impact, the focus will shift to ensuring gender parity in hiring, with real pressure to overcome traditional structural disadvantage and make the change.
2. Social Mobility Matters
The march of social mobility continues, and long may it do so. It’s clear that there is real commitment to opening up opportunity and the focus on social mobility is here to stay.
This means ensuring that recruitment processes don’t systematically exclude people who have what it takes to succeed, but haven’t so far had the opportunity to do so. Removing arbitrary screening criteria such as degree class or a specific number of UCAS points, and instead offering a range of assessment routes by which a candidate can demonstrate their capability and fit for the role, are the things that make a difference.
One of many companies we helped to do this in 2017 was Barclays, who were duly rewarded with the National Graduate Recruitment Award, for the Best Social Mobility Strategy.
2017 learning: Social mobility is here to stay. Talent is not found exclusively in the Russell Group universities. With the right lens looking in the right places, there are great people everywhere.
2018 prediction: Recruitment practices will become more intelligent, using a range of indicators combined in ‘balanced scorecards’ to identify and provide opportunities to the best people, whatever their background.
3. Innovation is King, VR is the Crown Prince
The new and shiny is always attractive, and innovation will always lead the way. At Capp, we’re careful to focus on innovation for a reason, rather than innovation for innovation’s sake. We’ve seen too many things that garner the headlines, but fail to deliver results. This is always a good sense check: is this PR-driven puffery, or something that delivers meaningful business results?
For us and our clients, 2017 was the year where VR went mainstream in assessment. As well as being featured in LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2018, with Lloyds Banking Group, and Wired magazine later this month, we also delivered the world’s first VR transformation and development programme for another financial services client, where over 200 people experienced our VR assessment to identify who was best suited for the future.
With VR, that future was created very vividly and in a very real – okay, virtually real – environment. There’s nothing quite so predictive as assessing somebody on the job…
2017 learning: The new and shiny will burst onto the scene like a firework, but fizzle out in the same way. Real innovation that delivers business results will be here to stay. Judge by business results, not PR puffery.
2018 prediction: VR will continue toward widespread adoption, especially as the technology and hardware get ever better. Candidates will expect a VR experience if you want to be taken seriously as a tech-savvy employer.
4. Authentic Assessment Delivers the Right Results
We hear a lot that millennials only engage with brands that are ‘authentic’, but the reality is that this is a universal human desire. We are hard-wired to detect honesty and integrity, even if we do sometimes deceive ourselves.
Our clients have differentiated themselves in the market by clearly showing candidates what it’s like to work for them, and weaving in assessments that are relevant and predictive, simulating the job and the culture in real time.
This authentic assessment combines beautifully realistic job previews with naturalistic assessment for better data insights and prediction. 2017 saw Barclays win the Excellence in Assessment Award from the Association of Business Psychologists, and Lloyds Banking Group recognised by The Recruiter for the Best Graduate Recruitment Strategy. In 2018, look out for GSK and HSBC, who we expect to be leading the way!
2017 learning: Showing people what the job involves and assessing them through this process delivers both a great candidate experience and a highly predictive assessment.
2018 prediction: Candidates increasingly look for the authenticity of their experience in recruitment, wanting to learn about the company and the role as they are assessed. If you want the real deal, keep it real.
As you can see, 2017 really moved the needle in recruiting, and 2018 promises to be just as exciting!
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