IT Talent Recruitment Campaign: FAQ

FAQ’s IT talent recruitment campaign

1. Why is the Oslo Region Alliance taking on a role in talent acquisition? Isn’t that a role for the market?
2. Who can join?
3. What role is expected from the employers in the project?
4. What is the role of this project with the intermediaries and job agencies in the market?
5. Why / how did the project choose to attract (INSERT PROFILE) to the region?
6. Does the project provide for matching for an individual company?
7. What business model do you have in mind for the period following the pilot?
8. How many hires is the project going to deliver? 
9. What will happen with the qualified talent in the pool that are not immediately offered a job by one of the employers participating in the project?
10. Is this project also open for partners of international talent that are already employed in the region (dual career support)?
11. What do you mean with targeting a persona?
12. What social media channels will be used for the campaign?

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1. Why is the Oslo Region Alliance taking on a role in talent acquisition? Isn’t that a role for the market?

The economy of the greater Oslo region is constantly and increasingly under pressure due to globalization and digitization and the impact on competitiveness at the national and international level.

We are facing a labor market problem: a qualitative and quantitative shortage of labor with long-term unfilled vacancies in certain in demand skills positions.

If unaddressed, we risk both failure to utilize growth opportunities as well as the departure of companies and employment, which again would result in lack of willingness to invest and grow. Talent risk = economic risk.

Market failure: employers, service providers and intermediaries have been unable to solve this problem on their own. In recent years, The Oslo Region Alliance and partners have already initiated a number of successful interventions focused on attracting and retaining talent. Now is the time to further develop and scale up the approach to address this growth challenge.

2. Who can join?

We are inviting employers with vacancies in Software Engineers and DevOps Engineers to join the initiative on the simple condition that they are open to include pre-qualified international candidates from this new, collaborative channel in their recruitment process.

Participating in this initiative requires commitment in time only. No financial contributions are required in this joint campaign, but it might result in great candidates for some of your vacancies.

3. What is expected from the employers in the project?

The initial talks will most likely be between the Oslo Region Alliance project lead and a business manager and/or HR manager in the employer organization.
Upon the formal sign in to the project operational tasks will be required from a recruiter / hiring manager  within the employer organization and a fall back in case of his/her absence or holidays,

Should the participating organization be small it may well be the founder or a manager who is involved both in the contracting phase and execution phase.

The «recruiter» role includes the following activities:

• Timely and constructive feedback on candidates and collaboration
• Participate in online working sessions
• Aligning the collaborative talent attraction campaign project and individual recruitment process
• Handle incoming candidates from the campaign
• Ambassador activities for proposition – pay it forward

Participating in the process requires commitment in time for attending our info sessions, review potential candidates and campaign evaluation.

4. What is the role of intermediary/job agencies in the market in this pilot?
   

During the pilot project, a number of agencies are invited to participate to experiment with this new source of candidates for the region. In the follow up international campaigns, intermediaries – just like employers – are amongst the lead target group. Intermediaries decide – based on the profile in focus – whether they want to opt in.

5. Why / how did the project choose the profile Software Engineer and DevOps Engineer as the first one to attract to the region?

The choice for the profile of software engineer and DevOps Engineer is based on a labor market analysis, as well as input from various companies.

The criteria we used in the search/analysis:

• A most wanted profile for a large number of employers in the region
• Wanted today, and shown a growth in demand for some years now
• Cross-sectoral need (not just IT companies need to recruit these profiles)
• Including small, medium and large companies
• Including startups, scale ups and mature companies

Not every profile we chose will be equally interesting to ALL employers. That’s why we are working towards a business model that is based on a “pay per campaign” model.

For this pilot project, the Oslo Region Alliance will be covering the costs for implementation and the ads.

6. Does the project provide for matching for an individual company?
   

The project does campaign outreach and seeks to attract interested candidates into a talent pool. By screening the candidates on pre-agreed criteria, the project will seek to validate the relevance of the talents and offered to employers for their recruitment procedures but does not provide one-to-one matching with employers.

Participating companies will submit relevant job openings for the campaign, so we will be able to screen potential candidates for you.We will also invite participating companies to submit job openings post-campaign, which will be promoted towards relevant candidates in the Oslo Talent Pool.

7. What business model do you have in mind for the period following the pilot?

Nothing has been decided yet as regards the future business model and pricing of this recruitment method. The pilot project is used to arrive at data for establishing this. Data on total reach of the ads and number of qualified talent in the talent pool will help determine a reasonable price for both the initiating organization and the employers, ai. the customers.

The contribution compensates for receiving an x amount qualified candidates. Since the Oslo Region Alliance is not a recruitment agency, no fees per hire will apply. The pilot project is used to establish what would be a reasonable price per how many qualified applicants.

8. How many hires is the project going to deliver?

    

Goal of the project – of collaborative talent attraction in general – is to contribute to the total talent pool employers in the region can use to source their talent needs. The pool should be seen as an additional channel, adding to the pools created by the employers and intermediary agencies themselves using other channels such as job boards, career events and independent campaigns.

The actual hiring of candidates is the sole responsibility of the employers. Upon receiving candidates from the talent pool, it is to each company to accept (or reject) the candidate. Then, it is up to each company to continue the steps in the recruitment process: interview(s), assessment, and contract negotiations.

Candidates not accepted or not hired will be reported back to the Oslo Region Alliance and released back in the talent pool for further opportunities.

9. What will happen with the qualified talent in the pool that are not immediately offered a job by one of the employers participating in the project?

Talent that has been qualified for the talent pool – by automated pre-selection and curation by the talent liaison – but not (successfully) introduced to one of the participating employers in the project will be engaged with by the talent liaison. In a later phase, following this pilot project (automated) activities will be added such as regularly sending customized content regarding job opportunities or interesting events/support activities.

By doing so, we build a relationship with the people that have shown interest in working and living in the Oslo region some of which are actually still abroad at the moment of responding to the campaign. In many cases, it will take time – maybe over one year – for people to decide on actually accepting an offer and move – with possibly their family – to the new country or region in question.

Candidates not accepted/not hired by the employers to whom they were introduced, will be released back in the talent pool for further opportunities.
In general, warm handling of the talent that shows interest – in ANY phase upon registration is a pre-condition for converting interest in action. International talent – in particular those that qualify as ‘most wanted’ (such as Software Engineers and DevOps Engineers) have a lot of options. Those regions that display a genuine interest will do best, both in the short and longer term.

Attracting international talent is not a sprint, it is a marathon. It just starts with a campaign. Warm handling and engagement over a longer period of time is the critical success factor.

10. Is this project also open for partners of international talent that are already employed in the region (dual career support)?

Yes, but if and only if these partners qualify as software engineers and/or DevOps Engineers or any subsequent profile in any future campaign.

11. What do you mean with targeting a persona?

The campaign is micro-targeting people who match the “persona” defined for the profile in focus. Included in the persona are aspects relating to life and career: family composition, character traits, education, working experience, work permission in the country, and skills eg. programming languages, etc.

The persona is built on a typical description of the profiles (aggregate of roles subsiding in the category) and specific wishes of the employers participating regarding eg. level of experience (junior, medium, or senior), fit for a startup, or more corporate culture, language requirements, etc.

12. What social media channels will be used for the campaign?

Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will be used as the main channels for reaching out to the chosen profiles.
Other venues where Software Engineers and DevOps engineers also can be identified, will be explored.
Campaign marketing will be organized and set-up by Los&Co.

 

 

For questions about the campaign, contact: Mari Strømsvåg / 975 83 987