Talent Insider

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

[WEBINAR] Register Now - The Unexpected Workplace Advantages of Veterans

It is widely known that military veterans, of all ranks and skill sets, bring a vast array of specialized hard skills as well as sought-after soft skills to the workplace following their transition from active duty. What few people realize is that beyond the traditional abilities people associate with military service (leadership, grit, grace under pressure), veterans have a wide range of surprising and valuable skills that employers do not want to overlook. Join Orion Talent for a webinar offering an informative and surprising inside look at what veterans bring to the workplace in 2022.

Register for the Unexpected Workplace Advantages of Veterans Webinar

What: The Unexpected Workplace Advantages of Veterans
When: Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 2 p.m. ET
REGISTER TODAY!

Workplace Advantages of Veterans Speakers

This one-hour webinar will feature a panel of talent acqusition leaders and veterans that will provide an unfiltered look at the advantages, considerations, opportunities, challenges, and numerous benefits of hiring military. They include:

  • Christianna Casanave, Army Veteran and Director of National Accounts and Talent Programs, Orion Talent
  • Christy Harper, Director of Talent Acquisition, Lutron Electronics
  • Mike Wooster, Navy Veteran and Vice President Recruiting, East, Orion Talent

The webinar will be modered by David Coe, Senior VO of Talent Programs at Orion Talent.

Some of the questions we will answer in this webinar are:

- What expected and unexpected skills do veterans bring to the workplace?
- What are employers getting wrong as they work to engage, hire and retain military talent?
- What programs are currently available to connect employers with transitioning veterans?
- How can your company better attract and retain employees who are veterans?
- What can companies do to support veterans?

Sign up now

Don't miss The Unexpected Workplace Advantages of Veterans: How to Leverage Military Success for Workplace Victory. We look forward to sharing great insights on what valuable skills veterans have that you do not want to overlook. See you on January 20!

How CHROs are Handling Employee Retention & Workplace Agility

“Not recruiting is the best recruiting.” That memorable quote helped kick off the fall meeting of Orion Talent’s CHRO Roundtable—a group of senior HR leaders and friends of Orion who gather every few months to share HR, talent acquisition, and workforce management best practices. The statement was meant to emphasize the persistent and critical need to retain good talent in order to keep business moving forward.

While the theme for the discussion was agility and how HR can help promote agile mindsets and work, the HR leaders began by emphasizing their current commitment to retention. The high demand for talent and sharply limited supply of candidates has made recruitment extremely hard and turnover something to avoid at all costs. If a business can retain strong talent, momentum and agility can follow. If churn is high, however, agility is not even an option.

So how are HR leaders attacking the twin problem of talent retention and workforce agility? Here are the best practices CHROs say are working for them as they focus on boosting retention and fueling workplace agility.

Retention via Attention

HR leaders are paying more attention than ever to existing talent, watching and listening for signs of attrition. They are conducting stay interviews and employee surveys to gather real-time data on why employees are committed to the organization and where any turnover issues might arise. They are also training managers to proactively support retention efforts and outreach by connecting with their teams and watching for signs of dissatisfaction.

Another important strategy is to bring in leadership. HR experts are getting their senior business leaders involved in talent retention by asking CEOs and other executives to engage with the workforce to share gratitude for jobs well done, celebrate success, and give awards and rewards for loyalty and hard work. Making retention part of everyone’s job and a pillar of leadership engagement also promotes connection, which is something many people have missed since the pandemic began.

What’s Working to Retain Talent

Solid Compensation

Good pay is always a solid start in talent retention, especially today with wages rising across the board. Underpaying talent will drive up turnover.

Thoughtful Bonuses

One leader mentioned how a hero bonus of a few hundred dollars for team members who worked through COVID was especially moving to employees. Retention bonuses and strategic promotions are also powerful tools when employees are being wooed away by new job offers.

Food Fun

Several CHROs mentioned how small yet meaningful efforts deliver strong retention results. For example, they shared how bringing fun snacks and good food to cover meals from time-to-time can have a big morale boost.

Flexible & Remote Work

Several roundtable members discussed how flexible and remote work remained highly attractive to employees. Even allowing for greater schedule control or creative work patterns, such as a 4 day/10 hour work week, has been a big talent magnet. It’s hard to walk away from three-day weekends.

Tech Improvements

Improving technology to optimize remote work and employment life cycle administration also increases retention. The more accessible, connected, and transparent the business, the better-connected employees feel. Strong connection and engagement are important to talent retention.

The Power of Autonomy: An Agility & Retention Booster

Greater workplace autonomy was also offered up as both a way to foster workplace agility and promote retention. More autonomy means less red tape and hoops for employees to get through in their day-to-day work. This makes them faster and more agile on the job.

More autonomy also means they can make decisions and take ownership in making processes, products, and the overall business better. Giving employees more responsibility is an act of trust, and employees tend to pay back trust with loyalty and higher retention.

Creating an Agile Culture

Elevating agility to a company value is one way to help it become a common, companywide behavior. Promoting agility as a value can be done with the support of business leadership. For example, managers and executives can encourage and recognize agile work and mindsets across the organization. One CHRO shared how her leadership team made it a point to regularly recognize employees who had created new efficiencies for the business with announcements and awards. This positive and public feedback encouraged others to become more agile in their work.

Upskilling Is an Uphill Battle in 2021

While skill development and training remains a priority for every business, the CHRO panel agreed that it has never been harder to make time for upskilling employees. “Our teams are so busy and often understaffed. We can’t pull them off the job or we would lose ground,” was a common message explaining why it was extremely hard to take an employee off the job for training in the current marketplace.

To counterbalance the lack of time for upskilling employees, many HR leaders are leveraging learning apps and knowledge platforms that allow self-driven training and skill development. While the panel loves these tools, they also agreed online training is only one part of the solution for reskilling talent. As workplaces and the economy regain their pre-pandemic rhythms, HR leaders say that robust training and reskilling programs will be essential to maintaining business agility and retaining talent.

More to Come

Watch for more CHRO insights and advice in the months ahead. In the meantime, if you are interested in joining the CHRO roundtable to share ideas and network with peers, let us know. And, if you would like help addressing any of the themes to come out of this roundtable, you can contact us here.

Don’t forget to sign up for Orion Talent’s monthly newsletter, Talent Insider, here for more HR and talent acquisition resources.

What’s Changing in Talent Acquisition

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA), a professional association serving the global RPO community, recently introduced a new blog series dedicated to sharing insights from prominent RPO leaders about the evolving talent acquisition landscape. In their first post, RPOA features Talee Brock, Vice President of RPO and Talent Programs at Orion Talent.

Expert Insight

In the article, Talee provides excellent insight into:

  • The Impact of Covid on Employers - TA leaders are having to decide how to rebuild their workforce in a short amount of time.
  • The Role of RPO - RPO providers can provide companies with both a strategic short-term talent program while establishing a longer-term partnership, as well.
  • Changes in Talent Acquisition - TA leaders are considering if they “build” their team from the inside or “buy” using an outside provider.
  • Changes in Recruitment Marketing Strategy - Automation is finding its place in recruitment marketing strategy thanks to talent shortage.
  • The Role of Transferable Skills - The talent shortage is forcing companies to reconsider candidates without industry experience.
  • The Future of Talent Acquisition - The automation of technology will reduce time to an accepted offer.

Changing with the Times

You can read the RPOA post here to get more of Talee’s thoughts on recent shifts and trends in the TA world. For further insight, register to attend #RPOACON2021 on October 12 where David Coe, SVP, Talent Programs at Orion Talent, will be a panelist for a virtual discussion on Tips-and-Tricks to Tackle Recruitment Marketing Strategy in Today's Market. And visit us online to learn how Orion Talent’s Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions can help you with any hiring challenges you may be facing.

 

Learn More About RPO:

 

How to Recruit Top IT Talent & Tech Candidates

Recruiting top tech talent is tough. Candidates with the right skills get scooped up fast, and many never even go on the market. Having a partner who has established connections with this talent can help companies gain an important competitive advantage. Recruiters like those at Orion Talent know where to find this talent and understand exactly what specific IT skills to look for. Tech recruitment experts can also help companies create an attractive employment brand that attracts the right IT talent. Read on to see how to attract this talent, how a recruiting firm can help, and how an IT recruiting firm finds its IT candidates.

How important is finding the right tech talent?

How important is having a great chef at a restaurant, a great surgeon at a hospital, or a great mechanic at a body shop? Very! Without the properly trained talent, companies that rely on these professions would fail with potentially catastrophic outcomes. And the same is true of recruiting top tech talent. Companies need talented men and women trained on the latest technology to innovate new products, safeguard company and consumer data, and ensure on-demand availability of system resources. Failure at any of these levels can be disastrous.

Ways for a Business to Attract IT Talent

Below are six strategies to implement when developing an Employer Brand attractive to IT talent:

  • Meet the market rate for salary, but consider the complete compensation package, including generous PTO, flexible schedules, etc.
  • Offer attractive career paths with ample opportunity for professional development.
  • Innovate with the technology you leverage as a company. Don’t stagnate and make sure to stay competitive.
  • Highlight how your brand is working to improve your community or the environment through a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program or some other initiative.
  • Keep it fun. While not everyone can have a staff chef, Orion Talent Director of Technical Recruiting Antonio Gonzalez suggests companies looking to hire top IT talent should “advocate for a more casual, collaborative workplace with a strong sense of community...”
  • Get involved in the local tech scene by sponsoring or sending a recruiter to workshops, forums, social events, etc.

How can a Recruitment Agency come in to help?

According to Justin Larsen, Director of Technical Recruiting at Orion Talent, working with an IT recruiting firm can benefit a company in many ways. First, he points out that an agency’s efforts don’t compete with your internal initiatives, but instead can complement them. This is in part true because the type of candidates you can expect from a tech recruiter will be different than your internal recruiter has access to.

Top IT talent usually will not apply on a company website or online job posting. Justin explains that these candidates are currently working and passively looking -- often expecting a good recruiter to contact them. These candidates are usually superstars at their current company. These candidates are tried, proven, and talented individuals that hit the ground running.

IT recruiting firms usually fill positions in 14 days due to their extensive networks of passive candidates, which in turn saves Hiring Managers and HR time and money. Additionally, engagement with an IT recruiter saves current employees from burnout, because they spend less time covering the extra workload from open positions.

How does a Recruitment Agency find IT Talent?

So how do IT recruiters find this top talent? Through hard work and relationship-building. Like Justin, IT recruiters interview every day, all day, and year-round and have a large network of passively-looking candidates. They build relationships with talent and ask for referrals. They may know of talented individuals who were part of a reduction in force (RIF) who are looking for a new role. Additionally, their placed candidates refer the recruiter to their peers.

Get Started with Orion Talent

As you can see, recruiting the right IT talent doesn’t just happen. You need a well-thought-out strategy or an experienced partner by your side. Orion Talent can be just that. We can help you with recruiting top tech talent who possess unmatched training and expertise on the world's most advanced systems, as well as proven leadership skills. Get started today and sign up for IT Recruiting.

Learn more about IT Professional Search:

Proven Search Solutions for Game Development
Proven Search Solutions for Computer, Software, and High Tech Positions
Download: Case Study - International Identity Management Software Company
Tech & IT Recruitment Process Outsourcing - RPO

On-Demand Virtual Hiring Events Through Orion Talent

 
In addition to our scheduled industry- and region-specific virtual hiring events, we are excited to offer our clients the ability to customize an On-Demand Virtual Hiring Event. These events are catered to your scheduling, recruiting, and compliance needs, enabling you to overcome travel and social distancing restrictions, all while meeting your ongoing recruiting needs.
  
 
With an Orion Talent On-Demand Virtual Hiring Event you can recruit skilled specialists and professionals for a wide range of permanent and contingent roles. All we need to know to get started is:
 
- What positions would you like to fill?
- How many candidates would you like to hire?
- When would you like to virtually interview Orion's candidates?
 
We take it from there and set you up with military talent ready to start a new career with your company. Before you know it, you have recruited top leaders and technicians, without having to leave your office, just like the environmental engineering firm below.
 
 
Whether you are looking to ramp up hiring for project based needs, are seeking a company-wide coordinated Military Talent Strategy, or need to fill just a few positions, Orion virtual interviews make it faster and easier to interview the right Military Talent. Contact us today, and put the industry's most committed, outcome-driven recruitment force to work for you today!

Distinguished Military Candidate Hiring Conferences

Hire Top Military Officer Talent through these National Events

National Distinguished Candidate Conferences (DCCs) from Orion Talent are exclusive hiring events designed to maximize your chances of connecting with the right candidate. Our unique events present you with the top military candidates to help fill your hiring needs. We invite you to join the 120+ companies each year that hire JMOs from an Orion DCC. 

 Click here for more information.

Join our LinkedIn Group - Talent Insider with Orion Talent

Have you joined our LinkedIn group, Talent Insider with Orion Talent? Talent Insider with Orion Talent is a group for all hiring managers, employers, and talent acquisition professionals interested in learning more about how to hire top talent. We are proud to offer access to employer resources, including thought leadership, hiring event notifications, podcasts, blog posts, news, other insights and advice, and more!

We also encourage you to share your expert insight, as well! Whether it be through RPO, Search, Military, Attraction & Sourcing, or Total Talent Solutions, this group will help you achieve the talent outcomes your business needs.

Join Talent Insider with Orion Talent

According to our Clients

Refer a Military Job Seeker or Client Company to Orion

If you would like the chance to win a $50 gift card, enter into our monthly drawings for Client referrals and Job Seeker referrals. If your referral results in a hire, you will personally receive a $100 gift card as our way of saying thank you. As always, we will maintain your privacy and never share your information nor that of your referral. That's one entry for each referral that you submit - good luck and thank you for the referral!

Jazz Evangelista won the Job Seeker Referral monthly drawing
and is the winner of a $50 gift card.