Elaine Atkinson , Head of Resourcing and Talent Acquisition , Deloitte UK
COVID-19 has amplified and accelerated a range of trends in talent acquisition for professional services firm Deloitte UK . Elaine Atkinson , Head of Resourcing and Talent Acquisition , explains how her function has responded and what ’ s on the agenda for 2021 .
1
Introducing new technology
Many of our processes – such as applications and candidate screening – were already online , and we had piloted the use of digital platforms to improve our assessment centres , building more agility into the function to meet the peaks and troughs in demand .
The COVID pandemic prompted us to accelerate our digital ambition . We had to shift all our interviews to virtual ones , and there was a reprioritisation of our hiring requirements , which we successfully managed by segmenting our candidates into different talent communities and keeping them warm until we needed them .
We are about to implement a new applicant-tracking system ( ATS ) that will help us to deliver a more consumer type experience for both candidates and hiring managers and enable more self-service . We ’ re also introducing a new platform for contingent hiring – our overall goal being to ensure the tools are integrated and user-friendly , so the experience feels seamless .
We ’ ve already seen great success from implementing a real-time feedback tool which asks candidates at five points in the process about their experience . If comments are positive , we know what we ’ re doing right ; if not , we can intervene at the point any issue arises and seek to resolve them .
When technology is being used smartly , it frees up your talent acquisition team to focus on business needs , build talent pools for future growth areas and improve the overall hiring experience , internally and externally . This is even more important now ; we should be investing just as much in helping our own people achieve their career goals as we do in getting great external people in .
2
Reimagining early careers provision
We were able to shift our internships and work-experience programmes from face-to-face to virtual offerings , and therefore expand our reach to a wider , more geographically diverse audience . We also redesigned the content , introducing sessions on wellbeing and meditation , interview skills and personal brand . More than 95 % of the 600 students who attended said they would recommend it to a friend .
We usually run 170-plus physical assessment centres for graduates in September ; these moved online in 2020 , but we still wanted to bring to life the experience of working at Deloitte by engaging as many as possible of our hiring leaders in these sessions . We have also started to provide students with access to Deloitte Learning content before they join , to support their personal and professional growth and ensure they are ‘ work ready ’ sooner .
Research showed that the way we configured some of our assessments was not as inclusive as it could be for neurodiverse candidates . We quickly took steps to amend them ; for example , removing the time component for online tests and ensuring individuals could complete the questions in any order . We continue to monitor our net promoter scores to ensure these changes are making a positive impact .
We should be investing just as much in internal hiring as we do in getting great external people in
3
Being more inclusive
We already had a strong focus on inclusion , but Black Lives Matter gave us added momentum to review our end-to-end early career recruitment processes and understand any potential bias , particularly in relation to black students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds .
We found that some students have more access to skills support , organisational insight and industry expertise , perhaps via family members or friends already working in a corporate environment . This means they often have more knowledge and an enhanced ability to deliver presentations on these topics – so we ’ re removing the task of giving a presentation from our final stage assessments to help level the playing field .
We ’ ve also launched an interactive candidate preparation guide to help give everyone equal access to tools , career guidance and support when preparing for our student recruitment process . This has already been downloaded by 5,000-plus students .
In the past , we ’ ve often looked at diversity according to one demographic , but that can be quite one-dimensional . Looking at people more holistically – through intersectionality – and trying to build inclusion strategies around the whole person and their individual experience is much more effective and a focus for us in the year ahead .
As well as reviewing how we profile career opportunities at the firm – for example , looking at the language we use to advertise them – we are analysing the perception of our brand in the market . For instance , a lot of people apply to Deloitte because they ’ ve heard of us . But what about the people who haven ’ t heard of us and don ’ t apply ? We are keen to understand how we can become more appealing to those people to further increase the diversity of our workforce .
While there will always be educational cycles , I think there will be more fluidity and agility around talent , which will create much more opportunity
4
Developing talent pools
The pandemic turned everything on its head as the option to work remotely became the norm in many areas . We anticipate that this trend will continue in the long term to a greater degree than before ; while the office will still exist , its purpose may change to become more of a place for collaboration and learning , among other things . Given that we now know that a lot of work can be effectively delivered remotely with an increased focus on outputs underpinned by trust , this creates a huge opportunity for talent acquisition teams to reach and hire from even more diverse talent pools across all regions and locations .
I ’ m challenging my own and my team ’ s thinking to look at talent in a more holistic and fluid way , rather than by specific hire or contract type . For example , there could be people later in their career with fantastic experience who might want to retrain . If you ’ re always focusing on talent from a certain demographic , you ’ re closing off groups of people who have the skills and the potential to do those roles , so it ’ s about approaching attraction and selection in a different way . This also applies to internal talent .
5
Being resilient
Change has become the new normal . There will always be things happening in the external market to which we need to respond , and the business needs to plan for , particularly in the age of digital disruption . We ’ ve seen an increased focus on employee wellbeing , building the resilience of our firm to deal better with uncertainty and ambiguity , and the speed and pace of change . This includes empowering our people to give themselves permission to put their personal needs first . Ultimately this will make us all better employees and leaders .
For talent acquisition , COVID-19 has felt like flying a plane , fixing it and redesigning the engine at the same time . We ’ re always striving to improve what we do , but the level and pace of change and transformation has accelerated . Working closely with the business is more important than ever to ensure we ’ re focusing and prioritising our efforts on those areas which will have the biggest impact , while retaining some level of control and certainty for our teams .
One of the benefits of recent times is feeling much more connected to my team and getting to know them on a deeper and more personal level .
Elaine Atkinson is Head of Resourcing and Talent Acquisition for Deloitte UK , leading a team which delivers 6,000-plus hires per annum . She is passionate about creating and delivering distinctive and agile hiring solutions which drive tangible business value .