Insights

​Please click here to read Magda Stainton's MJ article on Care after Covid. Magda looks at what local authority adult social care needs to do to be sustainable in the ‘new normal’ life after COVID-19, and outlines how interim and permanent recruitment specialists can help them get there

​In Spring 2019, Veredus was retained by Active Learning Trust to conduct an executive search and selection campaign to recruit a new Chief Executive Officer. The Active Learning Trust is a multi-academy trust working with 21 schools across the East of England with a strong record of school improvement. The Trust is committed to excellence in education and the wellbeing of its pupils and to an uncompromising professionalism in everything they do. Since its inception in 2012 the Trust has grown steadily into one of the leading multi-academy trusts in the region.In advance of the retirement of Active Learning Trust’s interim CEO, the Trust were seeking an exceptional candidate to take forward and develop the organisation in its next stages of consolidation and development. Working closely with the Board of Trustees and in partnership and collaboration with a range of stakeholders, the CEO would lead the Trust schools on the next stage of their journey to an outstanding organisation. The Veredus team was tasked with finding an outstanding senior leader who could wholeheartedly embrace the vison and values of Active Learning Trust and empower others to do the same. They will be highly accomplished at developing professional networks and partnerships, understand that financial probity and strong governance are at the heart of a secure organisation, and have a track record of strong leadership in a large organisation and determination to make a positive difference. Active Learning Trust were willing to consider a range of relevant backgrounds, and we were tasked with finding strong candidates with an education background at Executive Head and CEO level, from a sector leadership role looking to take on a bigger challenge, or a quality assured service focused and multi-site environment with knowledge and ambition improve the life chances of young people. We ran a small online advertising campaign and conducted a vigorous and thorough executive search campaign, across the education sector in the UK. We built a long list of 20 candidates, seven of which were progressed to Veredus’ preliminary interview stage, with four candidates then shortlisted for final panel interview. As a result, two candidates were deemed above the line and appointable by the panel. Both candidates were invited to a second meeting with the panel, and an appointment decision was made, with Veredus successfully handling the offer negotiations and placing the preferred candidate in the role. ​

​For any business to grow and succeed in the long-term, it’s important to have a good talent acquisition strategy in place. It can offer you the best way to build a strong pipeline of talent, who believe in your business, both for today and for whatever tomorrow might bring. This is particularly true for talent at the top of the organisation. The risks get higher and the talent pools get smaller the further up the corporate ladder you go, so it’s vital to have a well-thought-through strategy in place ready for when senior, hard-to-replace employees leave. If you don’t, you could find yourself without crucial skills, experience and knowledge just when you need them most.Whether you’re considering your options for creating a strategy or looking for ways to improve an existing one, here are our top tips for future-proofing your talent acquisition.1. Recruit with the aim to retain and to build a pipeline of future talentEverything you do with talent acquisition should directly link to your long-term business goals. Think about how your future talent pipeline can help you achieve those goals. What kind of talent do you think you’ll need in the next few months and years? What types of people do you want to attract to your business to create the right culture and ethos? What senior roles do you need to have a succession plan in place for now, to ensure there’s no break in leadership? How can you speak to potential candidates in a way that makes them want to work for your company? If you can answer these questions, you’re in a good place to start building a strategy which can future-proof your business.2. Own your employer brandThat brings us nicely onto employer brand. Every business has an employer brand whether they’re in control of it or not. So it’s worth taking the time to decide what your story is. Everything you do and say will affect people’s perception of your company. Talent attraction is about convincing candidates they want to work for you even if you’re not hiring for a specific role. You need to be talking about the things that matter the most to candidates – your culture, your values and the benefits of working for you – like flexible working options. You should also highlight how candidates can grow with your organisation – show them what the future could look like.Talking to customers, clients and prospective employees can provide powerful insights into your brand and how it’s perceived in the market. Use those insights to become an employer of choice.3. Streamline your recruitment processYou want to make it as simple as possible to apply, so that you don’t lose anyone on the journey. That includes everything from optimising your career site for mobile to ensuring you have robust processes in place for following up on applications easily and responding in a timely way. In addition, if you can track your applications easily, it will be simpler to create a pipeline of future talent that you can call on when recruitment peaks unexpectedly or when a senior member of the team leaves.4. Focus on data to help you deliverThe strongest talent acquisition strategies are built around data and insight. Analysis of available data can help to identify areas for improvement, enabling you to focus your efforts on key priorities. Let data do the hard work for you, so that you can identify hard-to-fill roles and see if they line up with surplus candidates in the talent pipeline. It can also help you to establish better ways to target top talent: by analysing data around your ideal candidate audience and what they want to hear or respond well to, you can target them more effectively, choosing which messages to amplify for which audiences.5. Consider different sources and mediaWhen you’re looking at how to approach candidates, step away from the traditional recruitment channels and think bigger. You could use social media to talk to a more passive audience about your culture, values and employer brand. You could look at building or improving an employee referral scheme, which could use people who are already great advocates of your business to attract new candidates. There could be niche channels that you haven’t considered – like networking events, conferences or specific online websites that candidates might be interested in. This could be especially helpful if you’re looking for interim leaders with the skills and expertise you need to fill critical shortfalls, run specific projects or cover for senior leaders when they are away from the business – they are hard to fine and you’ll have to take a broad approach to recruiting them.6. Always be ready to adaptChange is constant. From shifting platforms and media, to shifting perceptions in different generations, nothing stays the same forever. It’s good to keep an open mind and be ready to change the way you approach candidates if new data comes to light.At Veredus, we provide a different approach to talent acquisition and retention, through the use of proven executive search and selection and interim management services.Find out more and let us help you with your recruitment needs today.

​Reflecting on our latest research, ‘the insight edge to talent acquisition’, the new world of work will require completely new types of metrics from those currently being tracked. Within talent acquisition, we may measure the strengths of candidates for permanent roles on their long-term track record, cultural fit and their skill sets, but evaluate contingent workers on a wholly different set of criteria, such as speed of response, level of compliance and daily rates. Data and insight on these metrics are increasingly accessible to HR and recruitment leaders, especially as much of this data is becoming more readily available online. On top of this external data, businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the range of data that is available to them internally. But are we using this data effectively? Our latest research from the Human to Hybrid series found that a third (31%) of organisations feel that their workforce and HR data is ‘fragmented’ and ‘disparate’, making it difficult to derive meaningful insight from the data they have at their disposal, with 83% of HR and recruitment leaders acknowledging that they need to improve their use within talent acquisition. It seems the analysis of the data is what HR and recruitment are finding to be the most difficult part of the process, perhaps where there is a lack of skills or just not enough time in the day for them to consider this. In some cases, there is too much data available, and the process of pulling this together and asking the important question “so what?” is the missing link. This is where support and expertise can be best placed. Organisations are certainly aware of the power of data, but this sometimes manifests itself negatively. There is an increasing risk around the use of data, particularly from a people perspective, and particularly with the introduction of GDPR. We are all much more aware of how we handle data in a compliant and secure way, but organisations are still unsure and unclear on how to do this and report that their concerns around data protection is the biggest barrier (41%) to making better use of their data. Therefore, using data related to people becomes an added risk if it is not done in the right way and handled correctly. Data in itself is only useful if someone can understand it and make sense of it. But even that is only the first step; the next step is deciding what to do as a result of this analysis that makes data truly powerful.  To look at the other side of the coin, the research found that nearly half (46%) of organisations rely on ‘instinct and gut feeling’ when it comes to assessing current skills and identifying skills requirements. So, although we have access to more data and seem to realise its value, something is still telling us to trust our instincts rather than the data available to us. Write Research are often engaged on projects where we are asked to gather and analyse data which proves or disproves a gut feeling, or to test out whose gut feeling was correct. For example, “our Chief Executive thinks that we should build our new software development team in San Francisco, but the CIO thinks it should be in Mumbai. We need some data to verify which would be the better option, and should we consider some other locations too?” Or “the Hiring Manager is telling us that we are not paying enough to attract the right calibre of talent, but we need some evidence to support this.” It is this process of gathering together and analysing the information and using it to answer questions within your business where data can have the most powerful impact.  Perhaps the real niche point is the ability to use data, but then to use a human element to overlay it and turn it into insights. This gives you the evidence, but also allows for some element of gut feeling, or perhaps common sense to be considered, before coming up with an overall recommendation and way forward. If you would like to understand more about the services we can offer around market, talent and competitor intelligence, analysis, mapping and benchmarking, get in touch with us today. 

​The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is at the heart of the criminal justice system, working with its partners to protect the public and create a safe society. The CPS’s role is to make sure that the right person is prosecuted for the right offence, and to bring offenders to justice wherever possible. The CPS sought to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This is a critical leadership role with executive responsibility for the operational and strategic management of the CPS, which has approximately 6,000 staff. Working in close partnership with the Director of Public Prosecutions, and with direct line management for the Executive Management Group, the CEO provides the strong and clear leadership and direction required to shape and develop CPS’ vision and strategic priorities, driving performance to deliver a first class and professional service. The CEO actively collaborates with the Attorney General, Attorney General’s Office and other government departments and agencies to lead and direct significant criminal justice system change and wider Civil Service reform priorities.Veredus was retained to find such an individual. The process was overseen by a Civil Service Commissioner and we were briefed by a senior panel that included the recently appointed Director of Public Prosecutions and senior stakeholders from HM Treasury and Attorney General’s Office. We were tasked with generating a strong and diverse field of candidates who would bring an outstanding track record of driving delivery, major change and performance improvement in a large, complex and high-profile organisation. They needed outstanding leadership skills, communication, influencing and relationship management skills, and the ability to engage constructively with a wide range of senior stakeholders and build strong networks across government. This was a very demanding assignment, and we conducted a vigorous and thorough national executive search campaign, contacting over 200 individuals. The search was broad and covered the criminal justice sector, relevant government departments and agencies, government regulators, ombudsman and complaint handling bodies, local government, leading criminal law private practice firms, and relevant areas of the private sector. We built a long list of 29 candidates, 8 of which were progressed to the Veredus preliminary interviews. Ultimately, 3 candidates were taken forward to the shortlist, one male and two female candidates. The candidates underwent psychometric assessments and we took telephone references and conducted additional due diligence. These final 3 candidates were then presented to the selection panel for final panel interviews, after which an appointable candidate (a chief executive of a high-profile public body) was identified and appointed to the post. The CPS was extremely pleased with the quality and diversity of the shortlist and with the successful candidate.

​A global logistics firm had been making some progress with gender diversity at senior levels; however, the turnover rate was high when compared with the male turnover rate, and gender diversity gains were being negated by attrition. The company appointed Write Research (now Veredus) to undertake a comprehensive research exercise to target senior women in blue chip organisations, to investigate their key career drivers.We were asked to target women at senior level (£70,000 - £120,000) in the UK and BRIC countries. Approach:We spoke to 50 women and specifically asked questions around the ability to work flexibly, the concept of a glass ceiling, and the flexibility to work around family commitmentsWhat we delivered: We provided a report that included approaches to diversity elsewhere, examples of fresh thinking and comparisons between the UK and growth marketsAny numbers of appointments made from this research in the future will incur no placement fees, saving the business significant recruitment costs

​As a result of recent and expected major new client wins, a household name in technology consulting anticipated an immediate to short term (0-6 months) requirement for cloud talent, at all levels from manager to director, across Western Europe and North America. Write Research (now Veredus) were engaged to build, develop and manage talent pipelines of the strongest cloud talent in the market. As a result, we went out and identified over 300 cloud talent professionals.What we achieved:We successfully filled eight vacancies immediatelyDelivered usable insight back to our client as to candidate perceptions of our client as both a brand and a potential employerWe are also now actively managing relationships for our client with over sixty of these individuals so that they are ready to move into the business as and when vacancies arise.

​As business leaders, we’re all aware that we are standing on the edge of a period of monumental change and recognise the need to re-imagine every part of our organisations, particularly how our operations are resourced and ‘work’ is carried out.Throughout 2019, Capita People Solutions have published a series of reports and strategic papers to help businesses and HR leaders to plan and manage the shift from a Human to a Hybrid workforce. Human to Hybrid is the transition to the future of work where we exist in a fully optimised digital environment. It is framed around the idea that there are key drivers that will improve employee experiences enabling HR to recruit, train and retain talent with enhanced outcomes across the employee lifecycle. Undertaking comprehensive, independent research amongst both business leaders and employees, comprising of Interviews with 500 business leaders and 2,031 employees within organisations in the UK, this paper aims to give unique insight into the realities, challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to a truly hybrid, tech-enabled state.Download the full report here.​

​Finding the right talent to future-proof your organisation is a major challenge for HR and recruitment leaders worldwide. In pursuit of this, it’s critical that businesses are able to measure, monitor and understand the role of different talent pools in creating an optimal workforce.Addressing leadership, skills and culture when recruiting is vital for any organisation that wants to thrive in today’s rapidly changing world, and attract and retain the right people who will be committed and engaged. As part of our Human to Hybrid initiative - exploring the shift from a human workforce to a hybrid workforce, where humans will work in a fully digitised and AI-optimised environment - we asked 350 senior recruitment professionals, 500 business leaders, and 2000 employees about the future of work. Here, we specifically focus on their responses around one of the strategic levers in the transition from the current state of play to a fully optimised, agile, and digitally enabled future – people. Download the full white paper here to uncover how recruitment needs to transform in order to achieve an optimal workforce

​Promoting and supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace is critical to bridging the talent gap, achieving high performance and maintaining a competitive edge.In fact, research by McKinsey & Co in 2017 revealed that, when it comes to outperforming the competition, businesses with a good balance of male and female employees are 15% more likely to and those with employees from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds are 35% more likely to.Companies are working to improve their diversity and inclusion practices and creating supportive work environments for all their employees. Our Human to Hybrid research into the future of work suggests that employers are pursuing initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion as a way to enhance people’s wellbeing. More than half (55%) of organisations are now educating leaders and hiring managers about inclusiveness, and a further third (36%) plan to do so in the next year.This work will become even more important in the future, when a rapidly changing working environment, a growing war for talent and increasing skills shortages will compel employers to cast their nets much wider to find the talent they’ll need to create an optimal workforce. Recognising diversity and inclusion champions We were pleased to be invited to participate in this year’s Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Awards, run by Civil Service World. Our Executive Director, James Greengrass, sat on the judging panel and presented the Social Mobility Award at a special ceremony held in October.The Social Mobility Award was awarded to the Department for Education’s Social Mobility Network, for a project that recognised that the department needed to understand its class and background make-up to be able to improve its social mobility performance.The Network gathered data to increase its knowledge and encouraged civil servants to have conversations about ‘privilege’. It received more than 3,500 responses to its staff survey, and the DfE will use them to measure its progress on social mobility.Veredus has been a leading supplier of executive search and assessment to the Civil Service for more than 22 years and has recruited more than 700 senior roles on its behalf. As a trusted partner we appreciate the journey the Civil Service has been on and how its needs and expectations around diversity, inclusion and belonging have changed.We believe that everyone has their own unique abilities and a desire to positively contribute. We’re committed to recognising, nurturing and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion - internally and externally. That’s why we’ve made sure our recruitment networks extend beyond the traditional parameters.

​One of the UK’s largest banking groups approached Write Research (now Veredus) as they were experiencing problems recruiting talented individuals to fulfil business critical roles within their Digital Architecture team, namely Cloud Architects, Head Of Infrastructure, Chief Digital Architect and Head Architect (Payments). To meet internal diversity and gender targets we were engaged to provide detail and data that would allow the client to work towards hitting internal targets. What we achieved:247 profiles identified 14 candidates interviewed9 offers accepted 62% of hires are female24 candidates pipelined for future vacanciesFuture cost saving of £216,000​

​Technology’s rapid advance into the workplace over the next five years has the potential to completely transform organisations and their workforces, the nature of work and how that work is done.In our Human to Hybrid research we found that, although recruitment teams want to use data and analytics more effectively, enabling them to make better decisions and offer candidates a quicker, more personalised experience, they’re struggling to achieve this. 45% of business leaders report that they’ve made the least progress in data and analytics, compared to just 27% who claim to have made the most progress in this area. In our white paper, The insight edge in talent acquisition: How data and insight can deliver the skills needed in a hybrid workforce, we examine the impact of data on talent acquisition and how this will evolve in the future, the barriers HR and recruitment leaders face to using data and insight more strategically, and what organisations should be doing to exploit the full power of their data.From instinct to insightThere’s no doubt that, as the workforce transforms, the skills people will need to thrive will change too. Organisations say they will be looking for specialist skills such as computer programming and data analytics, but softer skills such as agility, resilience, communication and creativity also play a crucial role. They’ll also need people who are curious about the world around them, passionate about learning and developing their career, and able to thrive in a constantly changing, uncertain environment.Our research reveals that organisations will need to use data more effectively if they’re to recruit the skills they’ll need for success – some of which don’t even exist yet. Now, almost half (46%) of organisations rely on ‘instinct and gut feel’ when it comes to assessing the both current skills and those they’ll need in the future. Recruitment and HR leaders are under no illusion about what is needed: 83% acknowledge that they must improve their use of data and insight within talent acquisition and 81% recognise they must achieve greater visibility of skills within the workforce.Focus on quality hiresNot everyone may use it, but HR and recruitment leaders are very clear on data’s potential value within talent acquisition – 83% say that it’s critical for their organisation to improve recruitment and talent acquisition. The biggest driver, against a backdrop of skills shortage and an intensifying war for talent, is to make better hiring decisions – 67% of HR and recruitment leaders say ‘quality of hire’ is becoming their key metric, and data is seen as the best means of driving improvements.76% of HR and recruitment leaders say data and employee insights are vital to building robust and extensive talent pools, while 44% say data-driven recruitment would give them better visibility of skills in the workplace and 41% think it would save them money.And the benefits of data and insight extend far beyond the recruitment process to employee engagement and retention, diversity and business agility. As high-quality talent and skills become a higher priority for organisations, the approach, structure and process of how they attract, recruit and retain talent will transform as they compete with one another to secure skilled, passionate people with the agility, mindset and ambition to learn and progress.If they use data and insight effectively, they’ll be able to bring the right people and skills into the workforce at the right time. At the same time, they’ll improve people’s engagement and performance, and drive better business outcomes.To find out more about how data and insight has the power to transform recruitment in a hybrid workforce, download The insight edge in talent acquisition: How data and insight can deliver the skills needed in a hybrid workforce.

​Over the next five years, technology will completely transform the workplace. Organisations, their people, the nature of work and how that work is done will all be affected quite profoundly.As we transition to a hybrid workforce, in which people work seamlessly with robots and algorithms in a digitally optimised environment, organisations will need access to people with the right skills, attitudes and mindsets for success.In fact, people’s skills, vision, rationality and creative thinking – combined with a passion for learning and an ability to cope with constant change and uncertainty – will make the difference between success and failure, and recruiters will play a crucial role in making sure that people with these vital capabilities are joining organisations at the right time and in the right roles.Recruiting in the future of workOur Human to Hybrid research examines the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation and how recruitment specialists will have to respond. We talked to 350 HR and recruitment professionals, 500 business leaders and 2,031 employees for our research and found that business leaders regard the shift to a hybrid workforce as the biggest strategic challenge facing them over the next five years and that the key to making the transition smoothly is to focus on three strategic levers: digital (technological capability), data (workforce insight) and people (having the right skills, culture and leadership for success).Organisations must put digital to work within their recruitment function to create the best candidate experience – seamless and personalised across the entire process – if they’re to have any chance of finding and attracting the high-quality talent they’ll need to succeed. This won’t be easy as competition for top talent intensifies – 67% of HR and recruitment professionals predict the shift to a hybrid workforce will make recruiting high-quality talent even more challenging – but the majority (70%) recognise they need to digitise recruitment to compete effectively.Focus on candidate experienceDigitisation offers a multitude of benefits to recruitment, such as speeding up the process, reaching more candidates and addressing skills shortages. But according to HR professionals, the biggest benefit is improving the candidate experience throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle – 65% expect candidate experience to become a key differentiator within business over the next five years, and 53% think digital will drive improved candidate experience.What does an improved candidate experience look like? According to our white paper The digital opportunity: Delivering better candidate experiences in the shift to a hybrid workforce, it will be fast, tailored to candidates’ individual needs and preferences, seamless and easy to use across different channels, proactive, interactive and engaging, putting candidates in control.Failing to offer such an experience could have significant consequences, and HR professionals are acutely aware that they can’t afford to fail in this. If they do, they risk losing great talent to the competition, not having the right skills in the organisation to transform it successfully, and impacting their function’s reputation within the business.36% of HR professionals believe that candidate experience will suffer if they lag behind in adopting digital platforms.Benefits of automationThere’s been a lot of talk about the role that automation is likely to play in recruitment over the coming years, as technology such as automation and AI become used more widely.Our Human to Hybrid research reveals that HR leaders think it will have the biggest, most positive role to play in engaging candidates even before positions become available, offering an easier and more scalable way to build up passive talent pools and create relationships with a broader range of potential employees.Automation represents an unmissable opportunity for HR professionals to finally achieve something they’ve talked about for many years – being able to plan for talent more effectively – but have been unable to achieve because they’ve lacked the resources and time.It’s also seen as the preferable option (over human-driven processes) for defining and specifying roles and profiles, proactively searching for candidates and shortlisting applications. It’s not the answer to all recruitment challenges, of course, and HR professionals need to balance automation with human and delivery and interaction very carefully – they can’t afford to over-digitise and end up alienating prospective recruits by using technology inappropriately or excessively.HR professionals predict that rapid digitisation of recruitment processes over the next five years will have a profound and positive effect on the way that people look for jobs and how organisations find and recruit talent. It will make it easier for them to move on from simply reacting to immediate business needs to proactively and strategically planning.The biggest impact, however, will be on their ability to offer a seamless, personalised candidate experience throughout the recruitment process that meets – and exceeds – the expectations of an increasingly demanding talent pool.To find out more about the role of digital in recruiting high-quality talent for the hybrid workforce, download The digital opportunity: Delivering better candidate experiences in the shift to a hybrid workforce.​

​A major engineering consultancy was considering how to improve the way they attracted candidates from a more diverse background. A small number of organisations in the sector seemed to be making gains in this space and our client was interested in their approach and to find out for example, whether there was a dedicated team focused on diversity and if so, how this worked.We put together a comprehensive talent insight report for our client which looked at what major competitors do to attract young people from diverse backgrounds into engineering. We also provided broader feedback on entry points to the business such as through work experience placements, apprenticeships and graduate programmes. What we achieved: We provided detailed insight into 17 companies, enabling our client to make informed decisions about wherher to create a diversity focused team within TAOur insight enabled them to consider team structures and also provided them with the details of diversity leaders in the sector​