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Unpopular Industry Recruitment - Challenges

Several industries that are considered to be "unpopular," and which struggle to attract top talent are insurance, the federal government, and pharmaceuticals.

INSURANCE

• According to the Hartford's 2015 Millennial Leadership Survey, in the US, just 4% of millennials are "interested" in an insurance industry career.
• One reason for the unpopularity of the insurance industry as an employer is how "work goals" are shifting, particularly for millennials, who want "personal fulfillment" and "purpose of work" over the "job for life" that the insurance industry has historically offered.
• Additionally, insurance has historically employed a largely "white, privilege and mostly male" workforce, and therefore is challenged in attracting and retaining a broader range of individuals as it "struggles to assimilate greater diversity."
• Moreover, according to researcher Questback, the insurance industry struggles to attract top talent because it "fails to promote itself" or "adequately" highlight the benefits of an insurance career.
• Finally, according to the talent agency Heidrick & Struggles, the insurance industry has been "extremely conservative and slow to innovate" historically, which has both impacted recruiting as well as the industry's future capacity to innovate.
• Ultimately, the insurance industry's struggle to attract top talent represents a growing threat to the health and survival of the industry overall, as 25% of the current industry workforce has reached retirement age, and hundreds of thousands of jobs are expected to remain unfilled if departures occur as anticipated.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

• According to Gallup's 2019 Business and Industry Sector Ratings, in the US, the federal government has one of the lowest sentiments overall, with 52% of Americans having a negative impression of the industry.
• One reason for the unpopularity of the federal government as an employer is that companies in the private sector are able to offer "substantially higher wages," particularly for IT jobs, where there is competition from Silicon Valley and the start-up industry.
• Similarly, the private sector employers can often offer "more flexible benefits packages," a factor considered extremely important to younger generations.
• Finally, the federal government is known for having less "flexible work schedules," which further limits those who are able and/or willing to work in the public sector.
• Similar to the insurance industry, the federal government's struggle to attract top talent represents a growing threat to the health and survival of the industry overall, because the average age of its employees is 47.5 years, while 45% of them are over the age of 50.

PHARMACEUTICALS

• According to Gallup's 2019 Business and Industry Sector Ratings, in the US, the pharmaceuticals industry has one of the lowest sentiments overall, with 58% of Americans having a negative impression of the industry.
• One reason for the unpopularity of the pharmaceutical industry as an employer is the industry's "bad name" from "regular controversies" including "high prices on prescription medicines."
• Additionally, the pharmaceutical industry struggles to attract top talent because, particularly in areas like machine learning, the industry is competing with more attractive employers in technology from Silicon Valley.
• Finally, public news of layoffs in the pharmaceutical industry have led to the impression that the "pharma sector must be down," both making the industry less attractive and potentially leading to the perception that it isn't hiring, which is not the case.
• This challenge with attracting and retaining employees represents a particular concern in the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to innovation, with George Yancopoulos, the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of American pharmaceutical company Regeneron, commenting that the "best and brightest minds" are needed in healthcare, or today's "toughest problems" will "wipe us out."
• Similarly, the healthcare company BioAgilitytix highlighted how "vital" it is for the healthcare industry to recruit the "right" and "top" talent, given how "complex" and "innovative" the industry work is by default.

Unpopular Industry Recruitment - Best Practices

• Two best practices used by unpopular industries like insurance, federal government organizations, and pharmaceuticals to attract top talent are the use of commercial job boards and employer brand through benefits. The case study by the US company Organizational Performance Consulting, is an example of how an insurance company used ATS technology, internships, standardization, and an employee referral program to attract more and better candidates.

1. ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE CONSULTING — CASE STUDY
DESCRIPTION
Organizational Performance Consulting (OPC), a US company located in Texas, presented a case study to improve talent acquisition in global insurance companies like TowersWatson and QBE Insurance.

COMPANY ISSUES

• As a global insurance company integrating recently acquired companies under the brand, they faced different issues in their recruiting process.
• Not all the executive teams had a mindset focused on attracting top talent, which affected the selection process and made it more difficult for new members to adapt to the company's standards.
• The model used to acquire talent lacked quality standards, efficiency, and optimization.
• The insurance firm was using different applicant tracking systems (ATS). Two of them were used by the legacy company, while four more were used by the newly acquired companies to select, identify, and onboard new employees.

SOLUTIONS

• OPC designed a plan that would guarantee the acquisition of top talent that aligns better with the company and makes the hiring process easier.
• The staffing process was mapped and standardized, from the sourcing to the onboarding stage, across all subsidiaries.
• They also redefined the responsibilities and roles the HR staff had in supporting talent acquisition and developed a detailed talent acquisition guide for the hiring managers and HR team.
• OPC designed reports and identified what would be considered a successful metric in terms of quality, quantity, and operation.
• They helped the insurance company to create forecasts of the company's staffing needs and processes that would help the HR team or hiring managers do it in the future.
• To guarantee they were hiring top talent, they created pre-employment assessments for the positions with a high number of applicants.
• The company also created an integrated branding strategy to show unity across all employees and launched a new employee referral program.
• To attract top talent from new workers in the market, they created an intern program to recruit from colleges, positioning the option to build an early career.
• OPC implemented a new ATS across the entire company and satisfaction surveys for the hiring manager, newly hired employees, and candidates.
• Finally, they renegotiated contracts for their recruiting partners, job boards, and new background checks.

SUCCESS METRICS/STATEMENTS

• After the first year with the new talent acquisition process, OPC and the insurance firm perceived an increase of 14% in employee referrals, which exceeded their expectations by 5%, reduced sourcing costs and more engagement from the new employees.
• Reduced the recruiting fees by $350,000 and saved $100,000 in recruiting costs thanks to the new contracts and processes to select the top talent.
• The new ATS was implemented without affecting the budget, reducing the cost of having many tools, and helping them get the best candidates, hiring experience, and access to hiring metrics.
• They are now able to make staffing decisions based on the information available in dashboards and metrics.
• Lastly, the standardized process was adopted in other areas of HR and IT across the organization.

2. USING COMMERCIAL JOB PLATFORMS — BEST PRACTICE
DESCRIPTION

• In the job market today, candidates search for job opportunities online like a shopping process.
•  Top talent candidates are often reviewing new job opportunities in job boards, social media, or career sites from employers.
• The study made by Market Connections and Monster, named Government Recruitment & Retention, demonstrated that most HR professionals that work for private companies use social media and digital platforms to recruit, while federal government HR professionals don't.
•  35% of federal government organizations are using commercial job boards and social media to recruit talent.
•  75% of federal agencies still use USAJOBS as the main platform to promote job opportunities, losing many potential skilled candidates.
•  80% of private sector companies post job opportunities on commercial job boards and 66% on social media, increasing the pool of high-skilled applicants.
• Federal government organizations can also make use of digital platforms to attract the right people to their vacancies and have a larger number of applicants to select the best candidate.

SUCCESS METRICS/STATEMENTS

• Federal organizations like the US Department of Defense, National Security Agency, US Department of Labor, Texas Department of Transportation, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, are already implementing this practice, promoting their job opportunities in boards like Indeed and garnering more than 4,884 reviews in their job vacancies.
• While the US Department of Defense is yet to provide the complete hiring metrics results for 2019, since implementing their new actions to make their recruitment process better, they have reduced the hiring time from 100 to 85 days, and expect an increase in the pool of candidates.
• The pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson, uses boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and direct job applications sites to attract candidates. Then, they use these applications to ensure they have the top talent by processing candidates who score above 90% in the required skills.

3. EMPLOYER BRANDING AND BENEFITS — BEST PRACTICE
DESCRIPTION

• One best practice to attract top talent in the pharmaceutical industry is offering benefits that compete in the job market and creating a brand of happy and healthy employees.
• Schedule flexibility, training, development, parental assistance, healthcare coverage, and on-site services/perks are some benefits that unpopular industries can use to attract talent.
• The benefits, perks, and support given to the employees are a great part of the culture and brand that the company presents to potential employees.
• Johnson & Johnson and Energy for Performance in Life offer healthcare and wellness programs to attract talent.
• Novartis and Horizon Pharma offer schedule flexibility through programs like "summer hours" that allows employees to leave earlier on Fridays.
• AbbVie offers tuition reimbursement of $7,000, Novartis has a program for educational assistance, and Teva has programs for career management and professional growth.
• Merck offers on-site healthcare professionals, GlaxoSmithKline has coffee stands, classes, gyms, and on-site perks, and Horizon Pharma has a massage therapist for its employees.

SUCCESS METRICS/STATEMENTS
Pharmaceutical companies, like Johnson and Johnson, attract around 1 million applicants every year and create over 25,000 job openings thanks to their talent acquisition process and the highlight given to the company's benefits compared with other companies.