More than a third (37%) of talent acquisition and recruitment specialists consider their knowledge of their employer brand and employee value proposition (EVP) as “weak” or “getting by” – despite these being identified as areas of critical importance.
Members of The Forum for In-House Recruitment Managers (The FIRM) were asked to rate their own capabilities in several elements of their role.
Employer branding
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They were most confident about their understanding of hiring managers’ requirements, with 91% considering themselves as either strong or at an “expert level” in this area. This was followed by the their soft skills, with 84% stating they were either “strong” or “expert”; candidate engagement abilities (83%); and sourcing skills (81%).
However only 63% were confident in their understanding of their employer brand and EVP, which The FIRM’s Recruiter Capability Key Insights report says indicates the need for stronger links between recruitment teams and marketing departments.
Recruiters were also asked to rate the capabilities of their teams and 72% indicated that employer branding and EVP were a concern. A fifth (19%) said their teams were weak in both areas.
Another area of concern was employment law, with 54% of recruiters rating their own knowledge in this area as “weak” or “getting by”. Two-thirds (67%) considered their teams’ knowledge of employment law was no stronger than “getting by”, which suggested further training was necessary.
Like in many other roles, soft skills were becoming more important for recruiters: 41% ranked them as critically important, especially stakeholder management, confidence, resilience and relationships.
“The speed of change in technological advancements, the advent of AI and the political and
financial uncertainties being faced by us all, means that the focus on recruiting the very best
talent has never been stronger. And the skills we want that talent to have are changing,” said Rachel Dalboth, strategy and capability director at The FIRM.
“More ‘human’ skills grounded in cognitive ability are fast becoming the differentiating ones, as we move to a world where the need to work alongside automated digital solutions are greater than ever before.
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“Recruitment and talent acquisition folk are quickly having to adapt, in order to find slicker
quicker ways to get to the talent before their competitor does.”
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