Gartner Says Organizations Must Focus On Employment Branding, Job Offer Competitiveness and Candidate Experience to Attract Talent

“Talent is often the differentiator between the organizations that thrive and those that struggle,” said James Atkinson, vice president in the Gartner HR practice. “Our research shows that 29% of critical roles remain vacant after five months.”

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The inaugural Gartner Talent IQ Index 2019 ranks the talent attraction efforts of the 200 companies with the most US tech hires. Utilizing millions of data points across social media and career websites, and Gartner TalentNeuron analysis of job descriptions, these companies were measured across more than 500 talent attraction indicators against three critical components: employment branding, job offer competitiveness and candidate experience. From these calculations, four organizations were classified as Genius (Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, American Express and Stryker Corporation), 86 as Gifted, 58 as Average, 26 as Challenged and 19 as Feeble.*

“Many organizations are chasing the same critical talent,” said Alex Johnston, group vice president in the Gartner HR practice. “Gartner TalentNeuron data shows that 49% of all job postings by S&P 100 companies in 2018 were for just 39 roles. More than one-quarter of those critical roles are in technology functions, and the demand for them extends to virtually every industry.”

To more effectively attract tech talent, Gartner research identified best practices for organizations across the three facets that make up the Gartner Talent IQ score:

Employment Branding: Gartner research reveals that the quantity of career-focused social media posts and followers does not equate to higher engagement (likes, comments and shares). Rather, ensuring career-related social posts focus on the topics that matter to candidates is what drives engagement. To engage with candidates, organizations should craft social media content to include topics such as diversity, corporate culture and professional development.

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Job Offer Competitiveness: To appeal to candidates, the best job postings speak directly to what employees want by considering the five categories of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Rewards, Opportunity, Organization, People and Work. According to Gartner research, finding the right balance of the attributes that matter most — to your talent pool — across the five EVP categories can reduce time to fill by nine days.

Candidate Experience: Gartner analysis finds that tech candidates are focused on diversity and inclusion (D&I) when evaluating potential jobs and/or organizations. In fact, D&I recruiting initiatives alone account for one-quarter of the impact on creating an overall inclusive environment at an organization. Yet, only 38% of organizations have a D&I statement from a senior leader on their career website.

Additionally, candidates desire a modern work experience, which includes being able to search and apply for jobs while on the move. However, only 6% of the companies ranked in the Gartner Talent IQ Index 2019 have adopted mobile recruiting application technology.

“Organizations that aren’t able to attract the talent they need across functions and geographies will find it difficult to drive business outcomes and maintain competitive advantage,” added Mr. Atkinson. “The companies most successful at recruiting and hiring harness the ability to dig deep into the talent pool and reach candidates via employment branding, job offer competitiveness and candidate experience.”

Learn more about the talent attraction practices of the 200 top US technology hirers (by volume) by viewing the Gartner webinar “What Tech Talent Attraction Strategies CHROs Should Prioritize.”

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