Employer Engagement Survey 2015

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER Employer Engagement Survey 2015 March 2015

2 Executive Summary In February 2015 Active interviewed 67 professionals working in the Further Education sector to find out what they considered to be best practices in employer engagement. We were looking at current challenges they face, marketing tactics they use and which marketing tactics they would like to use more. Further Education institutions today have a difficult task to serve their local community as well as to be viable business ventures. Our respondents were a healthy mix of marketing, business development and employer engagement professionals. The main challenge in employer engagement seemed to be the constant changes in government funding strategies (45%) as well as budget constraints on marketing (42%). The survey reveals that 70% of providers rely on long-term relationships as a source of market information and a means to drive more employer engagement. Working in this way, the providers may be missing out on accessing new markets and serving the community. Only 40% work with Local Enterprise Partnerships, even less use labour market information provided by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) and only 25% work in partnership with their local councils. As many providers rely on long term relationships with the employers they are limiting themselves to contacts they already have. Less than 20% use their alumni relationships and we believe that better co-operation with LEPs and local councils would help bridge the gap. In 2015, the Further Education providers we interviewed plan to focus on increasing the number of apprenticeships and the number of employers they work with and 40% are planning to develop new courses based on local demand. These results are aligned with the Skills funding statement recently published. Job fairs are used by 75% of providers as their main marketing platform. Digital marketing has clearly taken off within the sector, as the next three activities are online based: 75% use social media, 69% campaigns and 59% online advertising. Over half the respondents felt they would like to invest more in social media marketing. What is employer engagement in a nutshell according to our respondents? A combination of delivering quality courses and listening to what the employer wants while building long lasting relationships. We have collected several quotes to illustrate the different the approaches taken. As employer engagement is about customer relationship management, we also asked about the current systems in place. We believe that investment in technology leads to improvement in overall performance and can bring a quick ROI. Connect Employer Engagement, a cloud based customer relationship management system developed directly for Further Education, includes features such as social media listening, local vacancy searches, a direct link to the National Apprenticeship Services and opportunities mapping. Labour/Insight from Burning Glass then provides insights into real time local labour market information to help education providers stay on top of the economic trends in their region. Active Informatics Ltd 2

3 Contents 1 About Our Respondents Employer Engagement in Top Challenges Market Information Sources Employer Engagement Strategy Focus for Marketing Activities What is Employer Engagement in a Nutshell Closing Thoughts Employer Engagement Management Understanding Local Labour Market Information About Active Informatics Ltd Active Informatics Ltd 3

4 1 About Our Respondents We interviewed 67 professionals working in the Further Education sector; with 97% of respondents based in England. Most of our respondents are focusing on Business Development (30%) or Employer Engagement (27%). The rest (24%) works in various positions ranging from Careers, Curriculum, Funding to Planning and Partnerships (Figure 1). Figure 1 Main focus of respondents daily job 82% of respondents interviewed have a specialist business development team but where there is not such a specialist team, business development is often associated with the employer engagement team, apprenticeships team or curriculum development team. The business development team can support multiple sectors across the college. Some local authorities choose to provide business development and marketing to support several training providers and drive employer engagement more efficiently. In some cases business development has moved into the marketing department. Employer engagement activities can be also part of the headteacher s role. On average the size of a dedicated business development team is eight people, but this number varies greatly and can even be a team of one. Active Informatics Ltd 4

5 As customer relationship management is key to employer engagement success, we also asked what CRM systems the institutions have in place. Employer engagement teams in Further Education do not seem to have a uniform attitude to the use of technology, with 18% still using Excel for customer relationship management or in-house built systems (Figure 2). Figure 2 CRM systems used by respondents We also asked what would make their CRM system better. The answers differ dependent on what system is currently in use: I would like to have one. Better reporting. Social media connectivity. Better financial recording. More training and better skills of CRM admin. Better functionality and templates. Automatically updating employer data. Making sure the whole team updates it. Generally speaking the newer the system the happier the users, although extra training may be required. The answers also prove that customer relationship management is not just about technology, it s a state of mind. Active Informatics Ltd 5

6 2 Employer Engagement in Top Challenges The main challenge in Further Education are for 45% of respondents the constant changes in government funding strategies, followed by 42% who feel budget constraints on their own marketing team is a problem (Figure 3). Only 15% think that they do not have enough market research information. This is interesting as one respondent pointed out he feels there is a lack of "local" market research. In his opinion the research that exists is either too anecdotal or too general (North West / UK). It suggests that a more granular view of the data is needed. Other challenges were changing college policies, poor administration skills of the business development team and a lack of awareness among employers. The latter is a big challenge for Further Education providers with a strong focus on Apprenticeships and Higher Level Apprenticeships in particular. Figure 3 Top challenges in Employer Engagement 2.2 Market Information Sources As there are plenty of potential sources of market information, we were interested in knowing which are the preferred ones (Figure 4). The majority (70%) of Further Education providers rely on employer visits and long term relationships with the employers. Only 40% rely on official government statistic sources such as UKCES, ONS and NOMIS. The reason may be that the data is not granular enough to use on a local level. Only 42% rely on information from Local Enterprise Partnerships and Active Informatics Ltd 6

7 even less, 25%, on councils. This is quite worrying as it shows a lack of communication between councils and Further Education providers which is necessary to help local economy growth. Employer visits are efficient sources of market information only if the provider has a big pool of employer contacts. Further Education providers do not use their alumni relationships and do not rely on current labour market information, such as job boards. Targeting actively recruiting employers should be part of the employer engagement strategy, whether the source of data comes from the local council, Local Enterprise Partnership or tools such as Labour/Insight from Burning Glass. Currently providers may miss out on emerging trends in their region. Not benefiting from alumni relationships is also a mistake, as alumni are often great advocates for their colleges. Figure 4 Market information sources ranked by popularity 2.3 Employer Engagement Strategy Focus for 2015 The survey highlights the great push on Further Education to promote apprenticeships with 68% stating it as their focus area in 2015 (Figure 5). 65% of respondents also plan to increase the number of employers they work with. It seems that Higher Level Apprenticeships are not as popular as we think with only 42% of Further Education providers we interviewed focusing on them in This may be linked to a comment from a provider within the financial sector relating to low awareness among employers. The same applies to developing new courses based on local demand where only 42% respondents are planning to do this. Only 25% focus on increasing the number of adult learners. Overall, these numbers reflect the current government funding strategy. Active Informatics Ltd 7

8 Under Other we had responses such as driving an international growth and also driving more traineeships. Traineeships as a concept seem to be too new for the Further Education providers to comment on. Figure 5 Employer engagement focus in Marketing Activities Professionals in Further Education use a mix of methods to drive employer engagement. The majority, 75%, use job fairs (Figure 6). Digital marketing has clearly taken off within the sector, as the next three activities are online based: 75% use social media, 69% campaigns and 59% online advertisement. Only 37% use telemarketing and surprisingly only 35% advertise in local print media. Other less common methods respondents listed were school assemblies, alumni visits or networking groups. The combination of face to face and digital marketing seems to be working the best for most providers. Active Informatics Ltd 8

9 Figure 6 Current mix of marketing activities We also asked which activity the respondents would like to invest in more. Over half of the respondents, 55%, would like to invest more in social media. Social media is relatively cheap but time consuming. On the other hand it is a good way to recruit new learners and generally raise awareness. A similar number of respondents (52%) would like to invest more in job fairs and other face to face activities. One respondent complained about the cost of advertising in specialist trade magazines and newspapers, which prevents him from using that channel. Figure 7 What marketing activities would people like to invest in more Active Informatics Ltd 9

10 3 What is Employer Engagement in a Nutshell At the end of our survey we asked the respondents an open question What would you consider to be a good employer engagement strategy. The answers show the different ways employer engagement is perceived by Further Education providers. In a nutshell, how would you describe best practice in employer engagement? What are the key elements? Listening to the need, and identifying the essential requirements and the optional elements, then meeting that need. Anonymous We have a strong local employer engagement process in place - advisory groups enable employers to have a say in the development of programmes and apprenticeships. Justin O Connor, Harlow College Building up lasting, trusting relationships. Anonymous Providing appropriate information, advice and guidance, tailored to their business, excellent relationship management, linking to their CSR needs. Anonymous Face to face, relevant to local area especially rural areas, work collaboratively. Helena Baxter, HP Consultancy & Training Active Informatics Ltd 10

11 Simply getting out and about at various events and organisations making contact with as many employers as possible in order to broadcast and promote courses and the services of the College. Tony Moss, Bournemouth and Poole College Respond to enquiries quickly. Under promise and over deliver. Anonymous Local, ongoing, relevant, useful to student, delivering real opportunities. Anonymous Delivering quality courses and listening to what the employer wants. Tony Jordan, Leicester College Employer engagement is a two way street. According to one respondent, Perceptions among employers need to change, particularly in areas such as Customer Service, Business Administration apprenticeships and Communication, about the benefits of hiring apprentices. This needs to be communicated more effectively to business owners particularly in light of the fact that feedback from the Federation of Small Businesses indicated that most feel young people seem to lack being work ready. Another respondent stressed that communication with tutors and lecturers is important to make them aware of the relevance to student 'Progression'. Some providers also commented on the problems finding quality learners who dedicate their time to the program and finish it before they get replaced by an employer. Active Informatics Ltd 11

12 4 Closing Thoughts It is obvious that while in theory everyone more or less agrees with what a good employer engagement strategy is, the way it is carried out varies. The overall trend is to rely on employer relationships developed over the years. Education providers are not really used to working with local businesses and local councils. Less than 20% are using their alumni relationships to grow the number of employers they work with, yet most Further Education providers want to focus on increasing the number of employers they work with as well as increasing the overall number of apprenticeships. We would like to help bridge the gap between the intent and the reality. 4.1 Employer Engagement Management Key to good employer engagement practice is a good customer relationship management strategy. We have developed Connect Employer Engagement in co-operation with Further Education institutions, so it already includes an holistic view of the employer including the records of previous interactions such as employee training, apprentice placements and course interest. Connect is based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM but with added features to fit Further Education needs. It includes, among other features, an interface with the National Apprenticeship Service to allow uploading apprenticeships directly from CRM, social media listening tools and local vacancy searches to generate more leads. We have also included an ability to incorporate website enquiries so that any website enquiry can automatically become a lead. The waiting lists for courses function enables learners to be enlisted into the course of their choice automatically once a space is available. 4.2 Understanding Local Labour Market Information Understanding local labour market trends is central to setting up the correct strategy to identify growth industries in the area. Labour/Insight from Burning Glass brings not only real-time LMI analytics on a local level, with the ability to analyse LMI trends down to a town level, but it can also search for the skills required by employers for certain occupations and job titles. This way you can easily identify regional skills gaps and align courses to make sure the learners get the training in the areas sought after by the employers and also actively recruit employers in your area to establish new connections. Active Informatics Ltd 12

13 4.3 About Active Informatics Ltd Active Informatics brings data to life. Our innovative applications support careers advice, student services and employer engagement teams, both in secondary schools and further education providers to gain access to real-time labour market information and government data. Active Informatics Ltd Network House Basing View Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 4HG Telephone: Active Informatics Ltd 13