5 Insights from the 2018 McQuaig Global Talent Report

This year, 500 business and talent professionals were surveyed to collect their insights and data on a wide range of topics important to talent management. From sourcing, to hiring, to training, and beyond, we crunched the numbers to distill the most useful metrics and best practices. Companies were sorted into high performers, those who found it less difficult to fill a job than a year ago. Moderate performers, those who saw no change in ease of hiring between 2017 and 2018. And low performers, companies who had more difficulty filling a position now than a year ago. Using their responses, we’ve summarized 5 key insights found within the report. To see the full version of the report with all 16 topics explored please click here.

Hiring

When it comes to hiring the right person for the right job, we all know how hard it can be to find the perfect candidate. It’s not just about collecting a stack of resumes but also about identifying someone who best represents the traits and skills you’re looking for. Deciding on your final hiring pick is all about striking the right balance. You might ask questions like, what do you value more, extensive experience or a great personality? Is a salesperson who closes fast a better fit than one who builds long term relationships? There is an endless amount of information to process during any candidate search so when you boil it all down, what are the industry leaders looking for? It turns out 100% of high performers in the survey hire for cultural fit. 99% hire for attributes other than skill alone and 98% hire for long term potential. In comparison, only 76% of low performers take long term potential into account when making their offers.

Key insight:  When it comes to hiring, it’s not just about what’s on the resume. Industry leaders place a great deal of importance on a candidate’s soft skills and how they will fit into the existing company culture to ensure hiring success.

Training

We’ve all heard the common saying: people don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers. Whether or not you agree with the sentiment, no one can argue the importance of managers. But while someone might be an amazing day-to-day manager, there’s no guarantee they’re also be a great hiring manager. Does your organization train hiring managers to help make sure they’re choosing the right people through a fair and comprehensive interview process? 75% of high performer companies say they provide training on assessing and selecting talent for hiring managers and they are 1.5 times more likely to do so than low performers. Yet across the board, only a third of companies offer training in avoiding unconscious bias, a factor that can easily skew a search without the hiring manager even being aware it’s happening.

Key insight:  If you want managers to hire the best people, give them training before they start their search to help combat biases and ensure a fairer, more structured hiring strategy.

Don’t miss out: Get your free copy of the 2018 McQuaig Global Talent Report now.

Assessment

These days, few companies are hiring based on resumes alone. Tactics like structured interviews, behaviour based questioning, reference checks, and work based task assignments are becoming more common place but what about adding assessments into the hiring process? Sometimes even if someone is perfect on paper or in person, it can still be difficult to determine whether they can really do the job once they’re hired. That’s where assessments come in. They can help paint a clearer, more well-rounded picture of a candidate. In fact, it turns out 92% of high performing companies use psychometric assessments and are 1.5 times more likely than low performers to use cognitive assessments in the hiring process.

Key insight:  Use assessments to gain a more real-world view of a candidate’s temperament and abilities, plus use their results to help inform your interview questions.

Recruitment Marketing

There’s been a lot of talk about the right way to approach cultivating a strong employer brand. With today’s wired in workforce, candidates often have a sense of a company before they even step through the front door. But the question still remains, even if you have a great employer brand, is it even an effective way of attracting talent? Turns out, high performers are actually 1.4 times more likely than low performers to say that their organization is effective or very effective at recruitment marketing. 84% of high performers say that their organization’s employer brand is effective at attracting talent and is well communicated internally. 83% go on to add their brand is effectively expressed in all marketing content as well.

Key insight:  Sounds like candidates are listening to employer brands. Ensure yours is promoting the right message when you start a search or you may miss out on attracting excellent potential.

Read more: Check out these free tools to help build employer brand content

Budget

When it comes to budget, where does the money go? There are always choices to be made about when and where you should spend your budget but when it comes to hiring, what stage in the process deserves the best funding? Interestingly, high performers are more likely to spend their budget on new hire onboarding whereas moderate and low performers focus on training and development instead. The importance of a strong onboarding program for new employees can help set them up for success right from day one. When it comes to prioritizing, where is your budget going?

Key insight:  Invest in a comprehensive onboarding program to set your new hires up for success right from day one. 

While these 5 areas of talent management have offered a few insights above, the 2018 McQuaig Global Talent Report covers another 11 additional topics. If you’d like to see the results for all areas surveyed, please download your free copy of the report below. See what high, moderate, and low performing companies are doing within this report. Do you follow the strategies laid out by industry leaders? Or could some of your tactics use an update? Set yourself up for hiring success using key lessons drawn from the report and make sure when it comes to finding the right talent, you have all your bases covered. 

Want more? Check out the other blog posts in this series:

1. When it comes to talent management, what do high performing companies do well?

2. Surprise! Did you know about these 5 talent trends?

3. When it comes to hiring with assessments, are you ahead of the curve?