PPS' Corporate Blog

October 9, 2012

Pussycat Dolls, the X Factor and Attracting Talent to Your Business

Filed under: Applicant tracking, Corporate Blog, Job applicants, Talent Pool — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 2:16 pm

Now I’m no X Factor fan but something did catch my eye this week.

It appears that for the first time in the show’s history, researchers have been actively scouting and encouraging bands and performers to audition for the show.  In fact it turns out that half of this year’s X Factor finalists have been actively approached to apply.

Now I can’t quite recall ever agreeing with the Pussycat Dolls (until now), but as former member Nicole Scherzinger

comments- “I think it’s great….it opens up the pool for wider talent”.

If her record career should ever dry up, Ms Scherzinger might just find she has a glittering career in HR/Resourcing

The Pussycat Dolls speak sense!

ahead.

The point is, she is absolutely right.  The producers clearly want to deliver quality for the ‘interview’ panel (and TV audience), so they proactively approached the market to see what it had to offer.

The same rings true of your recruitment attraction strategy.

On the surface there is little wrong with advertising vacancies online and waiting for applications to drop in.  But a resourcing attraction strategy whose success is heavily reliant on the right candidate applying to your advert, at exactly the right time is both flawed and high risk.

If your HR team lacks the time, technology or specialist skills and expertise required to entice high quality talent into your business, you will eventually get found out.  Vacancies will remain unfilled, gaps will be recruited to with expensive agency staff or worse still, below par applicants may end up being recruited.

At PPS we are the recruitment engine behind many recognised UK brands.

Our outsourced recruitment services have helped the likes of Halfords, Severn Trent, Turning Point, Oasis Dental, Hermes and Lloyds Pharmacy to find, attract and select high-quality applicants to their businesses.

If you would like to talk to any of our clients about our work and how we have helped them please get in touch on 07939 297 337.

Written by Lee Burman, Business Solutions Manager at PPS Works

Connect with Lee on LinkedIn

Twitter: @leeburman

September 7, 2012

What is a talent pool?

Filed under: Corporate Blog, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — ppsworks @ 12:22 pm

What is a talent pool?

PPS define and deliver talent to clients in the shape of staff who, as a minimum, add above average value to their company – through quality of work, and longevity of service. Talent exists at all levels within a company, from Industrial Placements to Executives.

Confusingly we also refer to the function of our Applicant Tracking System to be able to store pools of applicants as Talent Pool technology. Even though there is not always talent in the pool!

 So let us try to be clear!

Registering your interest to work for a company via their website will submit some of your basic details (sometimes only name and email address) to their recruitment database. This does not immediately qualify you as talent for that client. In fact for some of our clients, their pool of applicants who have registered an interest is so large, yet so unfocussed to their needs, that finding talent within it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

However, everyone in this pool has expressed an interest in working specifically for your

What is a talent pool?

What is a talent pool?

organisation. Whilst you may not be able to offer them a job, what you can do is treat them well. With good communication, timely updates and company information, you build on that interest. In time, they will become good customers, if not talent, and will be more prone to use your services or recommend true talent to you.

What about the biggest pool of them all – the job boards. It takes some time, but amongst the millions of Candidate details on the hundreds of job boards in the UK, there resides most certainly a good quantity of talent. You just need to know how to find it. An advance working of Boolean search helps here, and then to remember that they might not know who you are, so a practised ability to win them over will help. Many of our clients source a good deal of true talent via this method (with our help).

And the best talent pool of the lot? The individuals who have applied specifically to work for you, who you have screened for talent potential, and that are sitting in a pool that you are nurturing until the next suitable job role comes along. Particularly in the current times, good applicants often, though far from always, exceed the number of current vacancies. But for many clients, those vacancies will come along again before too long. So keep the good candidates, who have already cleared the first hurdle of wanting to work for you, and the harder second hurdle of being of the correct calibre to be real talent for you, interested, excited and ready to go as soon as the next vacancy arises.

Focussing on the bottom end of the list of ‘talent pools’ will save you time – a much better ratio of potential applicants to job offers, and money – less need to spend on advertising if you have a ready-made pool of applicants waiting to hear from you, when you recruit.

What does a talent pool mean to you? How much talent is in yours?

- Will Shepherd, Director of PPS

Connect with Will on LinkedIn

November 10, 2011

Talent Pools – What are they?

Filed under: Applicant tracking, Job applicants, Recruitment, Temporary recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 9:15 am

What are Talent Pools?

A talent pool is typically defined as a database consisting of profiles of candidates who are actively interested in your organisation. If companies have to fill a vacancy, they can draw on the talent pool and look for a means of profile-matching appropriate applicants and job opportunities.

 In the RPO world they are a great tool for helping clients to recruit more efficiently.

Talent pools are usually created when:

  • There is a surplus of candidates that meet the requirements of the role.
  • Candidates apply for a role where although they may not be suitable for that role, they would be an ideal candidate for another.
  • Candidates apply for a role where they are slightly out of the area or have a mismatched salary requirement.

The Benefits of Talent Pools

Click here to read about the benefits of talent pools

September 21, 2011

Poll: What makes an employee a “good employee”?

Filed under: Poll, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 4:23 pm

Ask any one of us what makes a bad employee, and I am sure we could all rattle off a good list – and provide some real-life examples too! In fact, the notoriety of having a bad employee in their midst has got companies so frustrated that, articles like this one have taken to developing ‘tried and tested’ methods of avoiding them.

But for all this commotion, we seem to have forgotten about the good employee. The type of individual we, here at PPS, are constantly searching for. So what makes a good employee good?  What separates them from the bad - is it their thirst to help their company move forward or is it the willingness to go beyond the confines of their job description?

If this piece of research is anything to go by, the ideal employee has 5 characteristics - dependability, honesty and integrity, a positive proactive attitude, a willingness to work and the ability to use spare time productively.

But every employer is different. A particular feature that might be ideal for one employer may be a match made in hell for another.

So with that said, we are posing to you this question: what top 3 features make up YOUR perfect employee? What 3 features are a deal-sealer? And how close have you come to finding someone who meets those requirements?

Vote in our poll now! We want to hear your thoughts on employees – the good and the bad!

 

April 11, 2011

Applicant Tracking Systems within PPS

Filed under: Applicant tracking — Tags: , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 4:04 pm

Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) in their recruitment process to reduce time and paper work, and provide a more efficient service to their applicants.

What is an ATS?

An ATS is a software package which allows electronic handling in a recruitment environment.

At PPS we use our own in-house system (MORS). The advantage of this is that it can be adapted and grown to the needs of the company and our customers. This allows our software to grow with us and not hold us back.

An ATS is designed to provide a central location and database to store applicant’s details and resumes. Data can be collected through our online application forms or entered straight into the system. There it can be analysed and moved into folders for further actions. There is no limit to the functionality of an ATS and at PPS ours is constantly growing to improve the service we offer and the service our customers receive. An ATS can be set to automate a recruitment process via a specific workflow, this makes it easier to track an applicant and run reports.

Reports

Throughout the process of an application, the candidate is moved through folders depending on their status. Every change / addition that is made on the ATS software is tracked and recorded. This means that reports can be pulled for the client to see how we are performing and their applicants are progressing. They can simply show how many new applicants there were in a month or be more thorough and show a person’s complete workflow up until the end of their journey, be it offer, interview or regret, and reason why.

Talent Pool

Agency Module - Job List

The ATS can also be used as a talent pool. Many candidates applying for a job might not have the specific criteria for the role, but they might still be very skilled and beneficial for another role. The candidate’s details can then be moved into a talent pool section on the ATS. If another role becomes available a candidate in the talent pool might be ideal for the job and all their details will already be stored. A member of the recruitment team can call this candidate and inform them of the new role. If they are interested their details can then be moved into the role without having to fill in the whole application form again.

Agency Module - New Candidate FormNew Features

As previously mentioned PPS is constantly growing its own ATS. Our latest feature is the creation of the Agency Module for our Temporary managed service offering. The agency module is designed to make life easier for the recruitment agencies and their consultants. Jobs are posted on the Agency Module and the agencies can upload candidates they have that are suitable for the role, allowing for better selection, management of contracts, and the resource pool. The dashboard built into this module allows PPS and the client to monitor and review supplier performance, and allows the supplier to see how they are placed against competitors.

Suggestions

We are always looking for new ways to improve our system. If you have any suggestions then please let us know. If you were using an ATS, what would be the main feature you required?

Written by Lauren Roby, in charge of ATS design at recruitment process outsourcing company PPS.

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