Panel: Emma Mirrington (The Talent Labs, host), Sonia Morgan (Flogas Britain), Simon Arnold (Thinking Schools Academy Trust), Noel Thomas (CA3 & Eli Onboarding). No speaker labels, raw ASR has no diarization. Duration 00:53:27.
[00:00:01] We today are going to be exploring how you embed your EVP into every stage of the candidate experience. And we've got our lovely panel here today. So I'm actually just going to get you to come off mute and introduce yourselves. So we'll start with the order that we see in front of us. So Sonia, if you'd like to come off mute and just introduce yourself and then, and then pass to Simon, that'd be amazing. No, thank you so much for inviting me to the session today. My name's Sonia Morgan. I'm the people director at Flogas Britain.
[00:00:31] I've actually been with Flogas for just over, three years now. And over to Simon. Brilliant. Thanks Sonia. So I'm Simon. I'm recruitment manager for the Thinking Schools Academy Trust. I've been here probably just over six years now. I've been through quite a journey which I'm sure we'll get into later. And it's, again, it's nice to see some familiar names on the, on the call. So I'll pass over to Noel.
[00:01:02] Morning everyone. My name is Noel Thomas. I'm the co-founder and creative director of CA3. For those who've not heard of CA3, we're a award-winning employer brand agency with a tea and biscuit obsession. We've been helping clients like Flogas, Expedia Group, TrustFord, the Economist Group, and DNV connect with talent internally and externally for over 12 years now, which sounds like a very long time. But a big focus of our work is helping clients activate their EVP and employer brand across every touch point of their candidate and employee life cycle, which is why I'm very happy to be here today.
[00:01:35] Thanks. Brilliant. Thank you, Noel. And not only are you an award-winning organization, but you're a Talent Labs award-winning organization. I'm sure I saw you on the dance floor celebrating at our awards Hopefully there's no videos.
[00:01:51] Brilliant. So thank you. Everyone will be hearing from everyone very shortly. We're, we're just gonna flick onto the next slide, if that's okay, Vicki. And so one of the things I thought that would be really useful to share was around sort of some insights from not only our own survey from a talent labs perspective, but Eploy every year do this amazing candidate attraction report. So we'll make sure we pop a link in into the chat so you can download it. But it's really helpful in terms of sort of the insights and sort of the state
[00:02:24] Of the nation what's happening from a candidate attraction perspective. So you can see here some of sort of the key priorities for in-house recruitment teams, but 60% say candidate experience. And this absolutely reflects what we see from a talent lab's perspective because in our own annual survey, and again, we would love you to complete this year's, and Vicki, perhaps we could pop a link in the chat to get everybody to complete it afterwards. But again, we ask everybody what their top strategic priorities are for the year ahead. And in the last sort of, oh gosh, 15 years of the survey,
[00:02:57] I think our, the last nine years candidate experience has always been, if not in the top three, in number one, number one place. This year I think it's gonna be slightly pipped to pole position by AI and automation, perhaps unsurprisingly, but it's coming in a strong second. And it's always a key topic of conversation that we see in our discussion groups. And it's always something that people still can't seem to quite get right. It's something that we still seem to be battling with. So hence why it's really important that we explore this in more detail
[00:03:30] And why it's so popular and why this event obviously is very important today too. So we're gonna kick the event off with a poll. So if we could move to the next slide seamlessly. Amazing. Thank you. And so we have a poll. It should be popping up on your screens. In your experience, what are the moments that matter most for a candidate? What do you think? So I need you to choose your top three. It's multiple choice. So I'll just read them out for you. So is it around first impressions? So is it the job advert, the career site, the outreach,
[00:04:04] That candidates get? Is it around application experience? So ease, clarity, the usability of the ATS. Is it around communication, perhaps? So, you know, feedback, transparency during a process. Is it around your interview experience? So consistency, fairness, alignment with the EVP, is it around the offer stage? So it might be around the competitiveness of the offer responsiveness, clarity, or we could look at pre-boarding and onboarding. How important do you think that is for a candidate? So the welcome, the readiness, how soon do they sort of feel a sense of belonging? Or if you think it's none of those
[00:04:40] And you think it's something else then do choose other, and then just pop it in and pop any comments in the chat. So you should be able to see this in front of you. So in poll position, it looks with 73%. It looks like communication is key. Actually. That was sort of my, that was my sort of personal view as well. So communication, feedback, transparency during the process. Then it looks in second place, we've got the interview experience, so you know how that sort of feels for candidates. And then what have we got next?
[00:05:13] So it looks like 55% is first impressions, so job, ad, career site, outreach, et cetera. So, ah, interesting. Let me pass to Simon, perhaps, first of all, Simon, let's while Sonia looks at her sound Simon. So sort of how do these results resonate with you and your experience? Yeah, I think very much so, like you said, around communication coming up top, that's been a huge focus for us this year in terms of our EVP, our values, our visions, we've got 'em. I mean, we've even gotten written on the written on the walls
[00:05:49] But then we was using automated emails, automated templates, and it wasn't really getting across that message. So I think in terms of that's something we've really worked on this year in terms of ensuring that our brand, our visions, our values, and our EVP comes across within the, those communications and all those touch points. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it being automated, but if you can tell it looks automated and stuff like that especially in obviously kind of the world of AI that we live in, the amount of times we look at things
[00:06:18] And go, oh, AI's written that, or AI's produced, that's something, it's really important to have that authenticity. Brilliant. Thank you Sonia. Excellent. No, this is absolute music to my ears, actually. One of the I had three top ones, which was really feedback and follow up. We all know how frustrating it can be when candidates don't hear timely and constructive feedback from prospective employers. So it's one of the things that we really try and pride ourselves on to make sure and especially those candidates who might not have been selected and apart from anything else, it leaves a really lasting impression
[00:06:56] And reflects, really reflects our values. So that's absolutely critical. There is a ton of research out there around onboarding and pre-boarding, and we have done quite a bit of work around this and continue to do so. But we know that one of the peak moments that matter is day one. And just having that interaction with your manager and with your team and making sure that co candidates who then become colleagues, you know, feel valued to help settle nerves and they really know what they come in the company that they're coming to join.
[00:07:37] It also helps to build some excitement as well. So I am really keen on making sure that pre-boarding and onboarding day one is as slick as it possibly can be.
[00:07:49] Brilliant, thank you. And I think it's really interesting as well, when we look at these results so that there's no silver bullet, is there from a sort of you know EVP and candidate experience perspective, it looks like there's just multiple things that we, that we need to really be exploring. So I think sort of off the back of this, I'm interested in seeing Noel. So in your view, how do companies ensure alignment between their EVP and then this sort of the actual experience that candidates have during the hiring process? Hmm. Well, I think it's interesting, really interesting
[00:08:21] To see the poll results and actually quite fine to see actually. 'cause I think what often what we're we see is that whe when people are thinking about their EVP and certainly their employer brand, they're thinking about talent attraction. So they're thinking about that communication side. But really, and I think hopefully this is why, the reason why a lot of people on the call, you know, your EVP should be the driving force behind a better candidate and employee experience. So how can you start to align it? Well, we like to start projects like this by kind
[00:08:51] Of mapping out those different touch points along your candidate experience, both the big ones and like, you know, like Sonia mentioned, sort of pre-boarding onboarding, but also the really small ones as well. Because every touch points matter and having consistency is really important. And if you've got some data, I mean, we always love a bit of data in that you can throw into the mix, maybe help identify where you've got bigger pain points, that's gonna really help you focus on where your EVP can drive some real change. Once you've mapped it out try and look at each of those touch points, I guess
[00:09:22] Through the lens of your EVP. Now, you're not trying to shoehorn your whole EVP into every point of your experience. You know, it would just be too confusing. So think of the process a little bit like the film inception, if you like. You need to simplify the message you're trying to embed so that people can experience it. So certain pillars from your EVPI, I think most people's EVPs will have sort of different pillars, will naturally help you enhance the experience at a different touchpoint just because of what they focus on.
[00:10:01] So for instance, if one of your pillars is talking about amazing connections people can build within your organization that, you know, help them develop and grow your hiring process, and certainly your pre-boarding process should champion that. So when you review your process or part of it, you know, do it with the message, build connections at its heart, and you'll be surprised how easily ideas come to mind. Especially if you run something like a little team workshop or a brainstorming session, something like that. You'll, you'll find lots of people have ideas to help you embed that a VP
[00:10:35] And let it shine throughout, basically. Thank you. Noel love the idea of doing the team workshop as well, so we might come onto some questions around that later. So Sonia, I know that Flo Gas has been on a journey over the last two years to really sort of create your EVP and embed it across the entire employee life cycle. So can you tell us a little bit more about that journey? Yes, absolutely. So I'm the, I'm the lucky one to be telling our story, but first of all, I wanna say this has been a real team
[00:11:02] Effort across cross-functionally within Flogas, as well as our amazing partner. That is CA3. So Flogas, just a little bit about Flogas. So we are part of the DCC plc group, and we are the UK's second largest off-grid energy supplier to both commercial and domestic customers. We have around 300,000 customers across the UK and we really rely on the safe and reliable distribution of our gas product across the business. So you can imagine that, you know, that our colleagues are experts in what they do absolutely dedicated to making sure that this product is both picked up
[00:11:46] And delivered to our customers in a, in a incredibly safe way two years ago. We recognize that actually we have a really great culture. I, the way I described it to my colleagues is a little bit like working in a tardis. So it's incredibly interesting culture internally, but our externally, it just didn't reflect who we were. We were relatively unknown in the candidate market. And Glassdoor and Indeed certainly didn't represent the reality of working at Flogas. And I'm sure there's lots of people on this call who that might resonate with. And like other employees,
[00:12:33] Candidate attraction was really challenging for us. So we had quite a confusing EVP and I would even go as far in all transparency to say fairly non-existent. So after some conversations with our SLT we decided to partner with CA3. We were already working with them anyway because we were using their technology solution. And then we embarked on a program to really develop and define and differentiate our EVP in, certainly in the external market.
[00:13:10] What was really key to this though, was making sure that our colleagues were absolutely at the heart of it. We didn't do it in a darkroom. We interviewed numerous people, a across our business, so operations, engineering, our call centers, our head office staff, you name it. And that combined with exit interview data as well as our employee engagement survey, we had some really rich data in there as well to pull, to pull out, as well as looking at some competitor, analysis. And then working with Noel and the team, our EVP was really
[00:13:54] Was really developed. And I'm really proud to say it's very authentic to who we are as an organization. Our employer brand promise is powered by people. And it's underpinned by four pillars. So Noel has just sort of touched on this, and our pillars are together. We do more be empowered. You matter and shape a brighter future. And that really sort of talks to who we are as an organization right now, but where we are going in the future and how we help society to really support them and customers on their, on their path to net zero.
[00:14:38] The other thing we did as well was we brought this to life through photo shoots. That was a lot of fun. And I think Noel and the team really got to understand what it's like working in a, in a industry like ours and hazardous product and hard to work.
[00:14:55] Yes. Had to wear PPE to come on site to actually do the photo shoots. And you know what I look through the photos even now. We've got over 300 photos and our colleagues are just really, we really at the heart of everything. We've also reimagined some of our candidate touch points. So when we go out and do really fun and engaging candidate campaigns, we use this kind of concept around connect, consider, and convert. And that's really to bring, or if you like, to pique candidates interest in us, given
[00:15:37] That we were relatively unknown in the candidate market. We've also taken what we have created and made sure that flows through. So we completely rewrote our career website and all of our job descriptions, all of our automated emails. And I've mentioned the fun and engaging campaigns that we've done. And more importantly, we have put our colleagues front and center. So we use this concept around powered by people, but then when we go out and we, with the campaigns, we might say, powered by Emma or Powered by Noel, and it talks about little stories,
[00:16:13] Real life stories from our, from our colleagues about what it, what it feels to work here. And I think that's a really important part is our colleagues' voices at the heart of this. There have been some challenges. I won't I definitely won't skirt over those, you know, and budget, I would say, as well as demonstrating a return on investment. Were probably the key ones. And we made sure when we set about this project with Noel and the team that we identified, what are some of our, areas or key measures of success would be.
[00:16:51] And I'm really pleased to say just 12 months in we've seen some real improvements in increasing applications, cost per higher coming down and actually candidates, prospective candidates exploring our careers website and spending more time just to find out and know more about us. So it's been, it's been a, it's been a great journey.
[00:17:15] Oh, it sounds, it sounds fascinating. Thank you, Sonia. So Simon, how would you say your journey's differed in comparison? So we've asked in terms of a huge thing was moving to an ATS system, to be honest. We did have one, but it was, it was an HR system. It wasn't an ATS system. And so that was the most important thing for us. So we could address, we had a number of issues, being honest with you. We had application fatigue I think we call it in terms of where we're in a school.
[00:17:45] It's a war and peace application form. It's very long. It's very can the candidate drop off is huge. So making that application process as easy as possible. So for example, people uploading their cv, pre-populates parts of the application was a huge one. Because we saw, I think it was even in the Eploy Candidate Attraction report that a larger number of candidates were abandoning their applications. And so actually it's getting feedback from them as well in terms of why didn't they complete their applications. I think one of the things that we try to do every six months or so is almost audit ourselves
[00:18:21] As in get someone internally to apply for a job. Not one they're gonna get or something like that, but to, so they can see the process through the candidate size. 'cause while whilst we can do it and we can say, right, we're gonna apply and see what is that candidate journey, I think we can kind of have that unconscious bias that and so I think it is good getting outside opinion I mean, going on something slightly, but I've seen some chats going on about questionnaires that's been a huge one for us in terms
[00:18:49] Of getting feedback on successful and unsuccessful candidates. But also kind of bringing it back to the EVP as in actually once candidates have been in post for, say, three, six months, whatever actually asking them how they found the process, whether it's, whether it aligns with our visions and values that they've experienced in post. So yeah, there's been a number of things like that.
[00:19:12] Brilliant. Thank you. Yes, I can see sort of in the chat. And by the way, everyone do pop questions and comments in the chat. We have got a number of questions that we're going through for the, through the panel first of all, but we will come back and we'll chat through anything in the chat, that hasn't been answered. So we are now gonna go into our next poll. So as if by magic, this should be appearing on your screens in front of you, but are you confident that your employee value proposition is embedded at key
[00:19:41] Stages of the employee lifecycle? Also, you've got, first of all, attraction and pre-hire, then we've got recruitment and selection then we have onboarding, then we have engagement and retention. And finally around reward and re recognition. So this is really around your confidence levels. So how confident are you that your EVP is embedded at each of these stages to one? Let's end the poll and let's share it on the screen in front of you. So you should be able to see this. So let's see. So you, the most confident is really sort of around attraction and pre-hire.
[00:20:20] So this is where you've obviously been focusing your energies, 61% of you and potentially at least confident with 32% saying this is around, oh, no, actually yes, 32%, 29%, sorry, engagement and retention.
[00:20:36] Also not so confident with reward and recognition. So attraction, recruitment, selection, onboarding, sort of somewhere in the middle. So yes. Interesting. So moving on. And Simon, question for you. So what do you feel are the most common breakdowns in candidate experience when you're moving from say, EVP employee branding through to recruitment tech, and how best do you think these can be addressed?
[00:21:07] Yeah, I think we've touched upon a few. Like I say, in terms of the app, the application kind of fatigue and the drop offs communication is still a huge one. In terms of getting that tone of voice right. Candidates kind of expect to see those visions and values in the text. We've actually reworked a number of our emails in terms of when we went live, it was very much out the box templates. We've actually reworked a lot of them to include like I say, our tone of voice. We worked with our marketing team, for example,
[00:21:37] To ensure we are getting the intended brand image out there. Again, feed feedback is a huge one. From getting that from the candidates, I think is the strongest thing in terms of does the technology work? We've, we've launched this software, have we seen an increase in applications? Have we, have we seen an increase in not just hires, but effective hires? Are we using the right shortlisting tools? Stuff like that. Because again, a strong ATS will have those built in. Are we, are we utilizing all the technology that's in there?
[00:22:11] But the, a huge one for us was actually, is it mobile friendly? Our old site was not mobile friendly. We know I wouldn't like to put a percentage on it, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere that most people visit your site first on a mobile, and if it's hard to navigate someone, they're probably not gonna visit your site again. So I think that was a huge one for us, making sure both our site and the ATS, which is embedded within our site is actually mobile friendly. And again, when you, when you are auditing that journey
[00:22:41] Of your candidates trying to mirror how they're applying, they're trying to apply it on a mobile, trying to apply the mobile, are they trying to use their CV to party application? Try and do that? Is it, is it working? Because I think something that we've been quite guilty of in the past is kind of assuming what candidates are doing and actually not tracking that and having that data to look at that. So again, in terms of actually having that ATS in place and having that data to look at how, why, and when people are applying can kind of change that,
[00:23:11] That candidate journey to be more effective. Yeah, I think the advice about walking in your candidate shoes is so important. These, 'cause it is quite surprising when people talk about how important candidate experience is, but still, large numbers of people don't regularly actually sort of walk through the whole candidate experience process, recruitment process themselves. Brilliant. Thank you. So Sonia, as we know, employee engagement and advocacy is a really hot topic at the moment. So how can your EVP and employer brand support this?
[00:23:44] I think it's absolutely critical. They go, they go in hand in hand. And what we find is what colleagues say about working here at Flogas carries far more weight than what our leaders might say. And that's just the reality, right? Is and that's what candidates wanna hear about. They wanna hear from colleagues who actually work here and the experience that they have. So as part of our launch, when we launched our EVP last year, we invited colleagues to become ambassadors and we had colleagues who were very active on social media,
[00:24:22] And we had colleagues who actually wanted to get much more involved. But pride matters. We have people with deep sense of pride of working here and wanna talk about the organization. And it just helps colleagues feel connected as well. And they can share their own personal stories externally as it brings a much more authentic and human feel. And it, you know, it's really what candidates, trust more than anything. We've also, internally, we've also made sure that we, our brand language, the tone of voice is inextricably linked with our customer promise. And we make sure that language is used
[00:25:02] Through all of our communications internally, in our office, on-site and at depot. You'll, you'll see this type of branding, whether it's in our internal communication channels, our plasma screens, our we use, we still use a magazine because we have a very significant what we call an offline population working at our depots. So again it's all woven through there. Our reward and recognition hub we've created you know, recognition cards around our EVP pillars as well as our colleague networks. You know, if we think about being empowered, we really mean it.
[00:25:45] These are organically grown ERG groups within our organization. And we want people to feel empowered to actually create safe spaces for colleagues to come together and have great conversations. And policies. Policies. We have completely and utterly changed the tone of our policy as well as really making sure that we are living up to our EVP promise. So constantly testing ourselves, looking externally, benchmarking, you know, what are our benefits and how are they, how are they comparing to market? So even though the policy is kind of the static document, we are very much looking
[00:26:26] Through our employee life cycle to make sure that you know, that we are, we are very much carrying the thread through all of our policies. Family friendly is a really great example of that.
[00:26:40] Brilliant. Thank you. Right one of the things, that is really hot of or hot topic at the moment is, and we all hearing this, is that TA teams everywhere are being asked to do more with less. And that team sizes are shrinking, budgets are shrinking. So one of the questions that I'd like to ask you now is really a Noel I'll come to you first, is, how can EVP become a reality if people have a limited budget? So, some tips and advice, some quick wins, please. What can you do if you've got shoestring budget? Well, I think, you know,
[00:27:15] We all like going on fantastic video shoots around the world and flying to like, interesting places, you know, 'cause it's exciting and it's fun. But actually when you think about your EVP, and I think a lot of the talk we've had earlier in this session is it's all about making sure that there's this consistency. And so whenever we're starting an EVP project and certainly the activation stage of it, we talk about just getting the basics right and that really can be just looking at where people are connecting with your brand already, and then making sure that your EVP is,
[00:27:53] Is shining through on it. So we're talking about simple things like your company LinkedIn profile, indeed banners, things like Glassdoor. Sonia mentioned JDs. That's a wonderful area to start embedding, you know, the concepts for your VP in there as well. And then Simon certainly mentioned it as well, sort of, you know, if you've got an A TS and it's sending out automated emails and stuff, again, areas which aren't gonna cost money to do just a little bit of time, but making sure that your EVP, you know, the pillars are shining through.
[00:28:25] But as I said at the start, don't feel you're trying to shoehorn everything into each stage. Choose the pillar or the message, which really resonates at each one and let that come through you know, in what you are doing. And I think that's certainly where I'd start. And then, and I'll obviously let the others comment, but I think, I think the advocacy thing for me is a no brainer, a no brainer. This is a way for you to grow your hr or if you're lucky enough to have employer brand team,
[00:28:56] You know, it's a way for you to grow them exponentially by, you know engaging with a workforce or people who are already proud and want to, you know, talk about how much they love working for you. So by giving them some support, some training, maybe even some time and resource to talk about what's fantastic about working there, you'll, you'll see your brand grow exponentially, you know, across LinkedIn or other social channels that you might be using to connect with those people. So those are the two big areas I'd say for me, which don't require too much money,
[00:29:31] Just a bit of time and a bit of effort. And also probably, you know, for advocacy, a bit of sign off from above if you need it, but can really help.
[00:29:41] Brilliant. Thank you Noel. And Simon, let's come to you next. Any sort of tips and hints? Yeah, I think, I think they'll touched upon kind of, what I was gonna say there. Obviously we are public sector budgets getting tighter and tighter, but it is using the tools that you've got to something we did on our social medias and our website is ensuring we've got that human voice, that real story of our staff. So we've launched pages on there of
[00:30:07] Staff journeys in terms of where they started with the trust, how they've developed little interviews, if you like, articles about their journey, those being shared on LinkedIn. It's about getting that bigger brand image out there so that when people come to your site and looking to work for you they know they've got an idea of what your vision is and what it's like to work at your company. I mean, a huge thing that we that we've seen is successful. And again, it's very low cost is getting videos of your staff. It doesn't need to be like, no said these big
[00:30:39] Productions or whatever. Just putting a lapel mic on some of our head teachers, some of our staff in the schools actually videos of them working talking to camera, why they love working with the, in our case, the students, what it means to them to work at, to work here at TSAT has actually been quite powerful as opposed to I've seen kind of other people in the sector kind of falling in the traps of I'll just do a sponsored ad on Facebook or Indeed and use a generic picture of a teacher or a student. And I just feel like that doesn't help with your,
[00:31:14] Your brand image, which ultimately is what it's gonna come down to when people are deciding to apply for you or to apply for a competitor like Sonia said earlier.
[00:31:25] Brilliant. Thank you, Simon. Useful insights. And Sonia, any nuggets from you? Yeah, just a couple maybe a couple of builds as well. I think it's really important to focus on what colleagues want, you know, what do they feel, what do they notice, most of all. And any small gesture can go a really long way. So even around the You Matter pillar can really mean much more than, you know, than a, than a big campaign. So to Noel's point, really hone in on those sort of those key pillars, I think that can then can make the biggest
[00:31:59] Difference for us as well. When we were setting about this work, we didn't have a huge budget and we, it was all about choosing the right partner for us. And thankfully because we'd worked with CA3, they knew us, they knew our business. And what was really great about that example is that, we talked about budget, we talked about where we could scale up, where we could scale down, where we could work on things internally, leverage our marketing, our branding team as well as our HR team, and then really leverage the CA3 team for the expertise that
[00:32:36] That they brought. And I would say we even parked a couple of things, right? No, because we said, you know, that doesn't fit in the budget right now, but we might come to that at a, at a later point in time. So don't be afraid to have those conversations if indeed you do decide to work with an external partner.
[00:32:55] Brilliant. Thank you Sonia. So beyond quick wins the next thing I want to cover off is how you can keep an EVP alive and effective longer term. So Simon, let's come to you first.
[00:33:07] Yeah, I think it is a case of just reviewing it and getting that staff voice again, I, and I've said it a few times, but I think that is really important in terms of keeping that alive and not just, I think we were very guilty of in the past is, right. We've got an advert, we've got some comms going out on social media, just copy and paste our benefits list. And that isn't your EVP in terms of actually it's reviewing it. I think Sonia and I said it earlier in terms of, well, let's not look at just what our competitors are doing.
[00:33:37] Let's look at why we're different and really hone in on that and make us stand out. And I think that is important to keep reviewing that in terms of, if something that's your USP suddenly doesn't either align with the market or everyone's doing it, actually you need to stand out, you need to review it and have your own kind of USP as it were.
[00:33:58] Brilliant. Thank you. Noel, any ads from you? Yeah, I think for me that there's, there's two things which are really key. I think the first is if you've, you've just built an EVP and potentially even done your employer brand as well. You need to get some tracking in place, you need to have measurement, you need to understand and be able to demonstrate the benefits of doing this, because there is often a budget that is required at the start. So by being able to track the results, how has this benefit the benefited the organization?
[00:34:29] And you know, then you can start understanding, well actually we've in invested this much, but either there's been a cost avoidance of this much, or it's helped with retention or it's helped with application to higher ratios, whatever it is. Ultimately, if you've got that in place and you can start to demonstrate why you've done it and what it, how it's helped the business, and then for me, then it's gonna help you then when you're going back to the person with the person and say, well actually now we do want to
[00:34:58] Run an advocacy program, create an advocacy problem, or we do want to overhaul and enhance our onboarding or pre-boarding or our recognition or whatever it is, you're gonna have a much stronger voice 'cause you've proved the impact that it can have on your organization.
[00:35:15] Brilliant. Thank you Noel. And measurement and tracking is something that is notoriously challenging in sort of the TA while I was having lots of conversations with people about this the other day. So, and I've had a question come through directly that I will cover off in a moment with you now. But Sonia, any other perspectives from you? Yes, thank you. I was, I was also gonna touch on the measuring and success measures absolutely critical for us in order to firstly get built buy-in from the business and particularly the senior stakeholders and track our EVP.
[00:35:51] So we have just looked at our annual EVP measures, and I'm really pleased to say that just, you know, in 12 months time application to higher ratio is improved by 22%. Cost per hire has come down by £295, and time spent on our site has increased by 33%. We've also seen an increase in female applications, which is a real challenge in an industry that we work in. So, I think that's so important to make sure that a, you decide what they are when you, when you embark on this work,
[00:36:26] And b, you keep track of them and those absolutely right, because what I'm doing is now going back to those stakeholders and having conversations about where we can further invest. I'm also we, myself and my team in conjunction with our CX team internally, we are really now honing on the, in the employee lifecycle and really looking at some of the key everyday moments that matter and where can we absolutely improve. One of the things we've just done now is because we improved our family friendly policy we've actually introduced gifting right under our You Matter pillar.
[00:37:09] And just that small sort of that small gesture just goes a really long way. And colleagues will, you know, pick up on that and they post on that and it's just so personal to them and really representative of the organization that we live in. And the other thing that we are really honing in on and colleagues are just doing this now organically is sharing stories. So spotlights on colleagues some of their lived experiences and giving them full permission to post this on social media.
[00:37:45] Yes, we work within guardrails, yes, you know, we have guidelines around that, but for the most part we are seeing a real surge in advocacy and colleagues using their own personal stories, in the external. And that makes me feel really happy because at last, now the outside world gets to really see and hear and feel what it, what it, what it feels like to work in Flogas. Brilliant. Thank you Sonia. So we've got 15 minutes left. I'm gonna open this up for more general questions now.
[00:38:21] So I've seen that we've had some come through in the chat and I've also had a couple come through directly as well. So thank you for those. Actually I've had so I'll start off with the, one of the direct questions. Noel, I think I'll come to you for this one. So somebody has just asked I'm keen to run an EVP workshop with my business. What are the sorts of things I should cover off? In this, I'm gonna jump in very quickly 'cause I did run a Mars and it was really simple actually, 'cause we just asked with our employee population,
[00:38:48] We just asked two questions. So first of all, the sort of the why did you join why did you join us? And then the other question was around why do you stay? And it was just really powerful with those two really simple questions and getting the sort of the key insights and themes that came through from that. But no, I'm gonna pass that now to you.
[00:39:06] I think that's a really good way. Yeah, we also like to keep those workshops really simple. Often we start with questions like that and we of it sounds a bit old tech in a way, but we also like a
[00:39:19] Thingy word thing. What's it called? You know, when you a cloud, that's the one Yeah, we're like a word cloud because, you know, when you've got people entering, you know, if you've got a reasonable size room, you start to see words which are coming out, which are resonating with the business. What we often do as well is when we run a workshop is we'll, we'll get people to break out into teams run sort of mini question sessions within each and them to come back with maybe the three pillars that they think their EVP should be based on.
[00:39:48] So we're almost doing a, an EVP research session in that session. So it works I think very well with certainly SLT as well. 'cause they start to understand the process we're about to go through across the whole business. And at the end of it we put the pillars on the wall and we get people to stand against the one which they like the most. You know, so I keep it interactive, but just like you said, Emma, keep it nice and simple and fun ultimately. 'cause we want people to fun all the way through. Definitely. Mm-hmm.
[00:40:20] Brilliant. Thank you. And then your mentioning of the SLT is a gives me a nice segue to the next question, which is, how does EVP cascade from SLT the board to the recruitment process? Do the panel find they have the autonomy to embed this? So Simon, Sonia, I'll come to you for this one. Sonia, you're smiling. So let me ask you,
[00:40:43] Well it's an interesting one because this topic came up in my interview when I joined. So it was fairly I was pushing against an open door, if I'm completely honest, when I joined Flogas because we did talk about it. But what's really important is the SLT need to be part of the journey. And they were the first stakeholder group that actually we brought into one of these discovery sessions that Noel and the team facilitated. I was in there as well and they were asked the same questions because yes, they are leaders, but they're also colleagues as well.
[00:41:18] They're also employees. And really understanding what maybe some of the challenges are in the, as it, as it relates to attracting great candidates how challenging the market might be. So having that kind of holistic context setting with the, with the senior leaders really helps them feel engaged. And then I was very keen to make sure that throughout, so as concepts were developed or as that was a key milestone for us actually. 'cause we had two concepts that were presented to us and bringing the SLT back in to actually talk through those concepts, what resonates, what doesn't,
[00:41:59] Resonates and gather in their feedback. And I think, you know, working with your, with your partner or your project team to determine those key milestones to keep them engaged, to keep to keep gathering feedback and look at them as a stakeholder group in the whole project.
[00:42:17] Brilliant, thank you. And Simon, any additions from your perspective? Yeah, again very similar to Sonia. It's a journey, a real journey that we've been on Ian probably even in the last couple years. I mean, working in a trust or a school, there's a lot of stakeholders at senior level stuff at senior level. So stuff has to be signed off by the exec team, but also if there's any money involved, it has to be signed off by governors. And what we found quite fruitful is regular reporting in terms of actually we suggested to you to this,
[00:42:50] We've trialed it at one location, it's worked really well. And then asking kind of to try or for the more money to try the more advanced stuff, it's just proving to them that actually it's almost like building their trust, especially when you, when you're new in post, but especially when you're launching something new in terms of, right, we've tried this at two schools it's worked really well, so we think we should launch this project across the other, say 24 schools depending on what sector you work in. And I think it is just a case of getting their buy-in.
[00:43:20] The easiest way to do that is showing results. And that's quite easy for us to do. 'cause thankfully we not always thankfully, but we have to have regular committees, boards and stuff like that. So actually if you can put that information, that data, those metrics like Noel spoke about in front of them then you're gonna get them on board pretty quickly.
[00:43:40] Yeah, brilliant. Couldn't agree more. So moving on Chloe's asked a question around how we get feedback from candidates on their experience through the hiring process, even if they're not ultimately successful. And yes, a few people have said, I've come across this, so sending out the candidate survey, but those who aren't successful don't always complete it, whereas those that are obviously super engaged. So I can see Nikki's put a response in the chat, but Sonia, is there anything that you do,
[00:44:09] That because we had to build new technology as part of this whole EVP process, it's something that we've just implemented again? So we do send out candidates feedback forms. It's, it's very short and brief and just to the point that you've made Emma for the most part it's successful candidates that complete that. And less so those candidates that are unsuccessful. But we review all of them and we look for trends and insights, you know, with a view to improving our candidate experience. That's something that we've just implemented quite recently.
[00:44:49] Simon, do you do this at all? Yep. Very similar. We do still have that problem in terms it tends to be successful candidates. And again, if they're joining the company, they're, they're gonna be very complimentary. However, by tweaking some of the comms, again that goes out in those emails, we did see an up showing the take up of people that perhaps hadn't been successful in terms of just making clear this is only reported to hr, this won't be shared with the service, the manager of the schools. And actually it was quite interesting, we also survey,
[00:45:22] Survey our hiring managers from time to time in terms of actually did the candidates match what we would've expect from the advert our EVP, et cetera. And actually, if not, are we getting the tone of voice right for the candidates? And actually if the candidates had a bad journey, is that 'cause we put the wrong person in front of the manager? So we can be a little survey heavy because there's lots of gain from kind of just informal conversations whether you're on site on the daily interviews or anything like that. But yeah, the hardest thing is getting the completion rate,
[00:45:55] But when you get them, it's, it's making sure, like, so you said, doing the analysis, we always get really bad feedback from this particular role or this particular survey service actually, what could they learn from a service that's doing really well.
[00:46:09] Brilliant, thank you. And Noel, I saw you popped an insight in the chat, but perhaps if you would mind coming off mute and just sort of elaborating a little bit more. Yeah. I think especially for I was about to say reject something that sounds awful, doesn't it? I don't mean that, but rejections, that's a little bit nicer, isn't it? I think you've gotta think that they're probably the pride's a little bit hurt, they're a little bit upset. The quicker and easier it is to get feedback the better. So I know a lot of organizations who just use an NPS
[00:46:41] And it's one click on the email and that's it, you know, it will open up your web browser, but we've already got the information and that's it. If then there's further questions after that and they answer them, brilliant, but actually, if we just capture that initial response, then you can start to build a picture and I think, you know, it's almost more important to understand and get feedback from the people that you've had to let down because ultimately you still want to hope that they've had a good experience up to that point. So anything you do to make it easier
[00:47:13] The better as far as I'm concerned. Brilliant, thank you. So I touched on metrics earlier on in the conversation. So just in terms of how people are tracking their EVP including metrics around candidate experience, et cetera. And we talked about sort of rep measuring reputation. So Noel I'll come to you first this time, but what are you seeing from your clients in terms of sort of how they're measuring their EVP?
[00:47:41] So do you know what different clients to want to measure different things? And I think that's absolutely fair, but it's almost the first thing we do when we start an EVP project is say, what do we want to measure? How are we tracking success so we can really understand that? Because actually you might then focus on, certainly, again, going back to activation, you might focus on certain different touch points based on what you are trying to achieve. So where are you gonna embed your EVP to try and drive those results? But the big ones for me are less around, oh,
[00:48:17] We got more visitors on our website and stuff like that, which is great. You know, it shows you growing brand awareness, but for me, I think the big ones are around, certainly around application to higher ratios. I think that's a really good indicator that you are connecting with the type of person that's going to do well in your organization. So that's a really big one for me. I think also cost per higher, if you are, you are tracking something like that and you're showing that's coming down, it's shown a much bigger and,
[00:48:51] And far greater impact a across that whole hiring process, I think which was a really positive one. And then I know a lot of people don't like them, but things like your Glassdoor score you know, it is one of the great ways to sort of see really how people are feeling about your organization. So if you are seeing positive impact on those kind of things, you know, it's really great. And then beyond that stuff that most people probably already track, so engagement scores when you're doing employee surveys, those kind of things are always really good to do.
[00:49:27] And finally, we always like to look at voluntary attrition as well certainly, you know, within sort of first year, but overall as well, I think it's a good indicator if you've started to connect and engage with your workforce in a more positive way.
[00:49:43] Brilliant. Thank you. Sonia, are you measuring anything? Else in addition, would you say from a reputation EVP point of view? I would say all of the things that Noel's just mentioned were, I were important to us and the application to higher ratio for sure, because we were, we were finding it incredibly challenging in the candidate market because of kind of the unknown brand I talked about at the earlier on. And also attrition. So when colleagues actually join us, are we living up to our promise? You know, are we living up have we set expectations realistically and fairly
[00:50:23] And for our, for our colleagues and what actions speak louder than words. So when they actually join our organization, are they, are they actually experiencing what we say where about and our attrition has come down which is, which is really pleasing.
[00:50:39] Great. And Simon, is there anything else in addition that you would add? Yeah, I think all the kind of quality data is really useful, but one slight tweak we've probably made only in the last couple of months, which has had a real positive impact is so our application form obviously asked for a supporting statement, which is, which is great. But actually we've just asked an additional question at the end, which is, ‘why do you want to work specifically at the Victory Academy?’ or at New Horizons Academy or in facilities. And actually what that does is
[00:51:10] it helps hiring managers see if someone's done their research, and actually gets it. Are we getting our brand image out there? Are people just applying for our job? Which is sometimes fine. Are people just applying for our jobs 'cause they want, they want to leave their job or they want a job, or actually, do they wanna work for us and is our brand getting out there in the right way? So most it's only a short text box, it's a couple of sentences. And it, like I say, it's, it's not it's not numbered data,
[00:51:36] But it can be quite useful to look at when we're having those struggles recruiting and again, kind of that going back to that constantly re revisiting whether we're getting the right branding out there.
[00:51:49] Brilliant. Thank you. And so I'm just conscious of time. So we've literally got two minutes to go. Nikki, I know you've got a question on a guidance on EVP pillars. I think we'll have to leave that today. However, what I will say is we've got an amazing EVP insight report in the resource library where we actually talk about pillars. So we'll make sure Vicky, if you are listening to try to signpost Nikki to the, to that doc document 'cause it'd be super helpful for you and I'm sure perhaps Noel could follow up afterwards and give you some advice.
[00:52:17] But that is all we've got time for. I can't believe how quickly that's gone. The hour has literally flown past, we could probably have booked in two hours. So thank you so much to my wonderful panel. So Simon, Noel and Sonia really lovely, fantastic insights. Thank you so much for being so honest and authentic and sharing your experiences. Super helpful. You can see all the lovely applauses here, so well done. And everybody else thank you for joining us today. I hope you found it useful. Do let us know your feedback. You can see here you've got two QR codes
[00:52:53] So you can get your hands on a copy of the candidate attraction report from Eploy and also please do take part in our annual survey this year. It's slightly different with a survey 'cause you get an immediate bit of bench benchmarking, insight, which somebody messaged me the other day going, oh my God, this is utterly amazing, Emma. So it gives you some top tips straight away in terms of some of the sort of key development areas for your talent strategy. So please do take part, it does take around sort of 10 minutes or so but it's well worth it in terms
[00:53:20] Of the results that you get from it. So thank you so much for your time today, everyone really enjoyed it and enjoy the rest of your day.
