Q&A with Craig Morgans of IWG plc

In the run-up to the Christmas period, we are publishing the full transcripts from our interviews with finalists from the In-house Recruitment Manager (Individual) category at the In-house Recruitment Awards 2020.

Today, we profile Craig Morgans, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at IWG plc (nominated for his work as Director of Talent Acquisition, Emerging Talent & Employee Experience at the AA).

Q1: 2020 has been an interesting year, tell us about your talent acquisition challenges and how you have been resolving these?

It certainly has been an interesting and challenging year. I moved both role and industry in early 2020, so only really got through my induction period before the first lockdown. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot to do, but not having to recruit c4,500 hires alongside has allowed us time to focus on some real key deliverables.  

A lot of the challenges have related to the core foundations on how we support our Global Field Operations team, ensuring that we attract, assess and hire the best talent. So we’ve taken the opportunity to review and evaluate a number of key processes across our talent lifecycle that support this activity, inc. our channels to market, employee referral programme, candidate assessment, candidate & hiring manager feedback and the construction of meaningful MI dashboards – which in itself provided insight into some additional areas which needed focus.  

We’ve also onboarded some exceptional new team members into the Global TA team, building upon our TA capability and ensuring that we’re not only in a really positive position, but also looking forward/thinking more strategically moving into 2021.  

Q2: What would you say are your biggest accomplishments this year?

It’s nice to be able to talk about some positives given the year everyone has had. I’d say there’s a clear top three! As I’ve mentioned, we’ve recruited some very talented individuals – adding to a strong team which now has a very diverse skill set and can drive the talent acquisition agenda forward. They’re all amazing to work with and I can’t wait until we can get back into the office and spend a bit more time together.  

The biggest single piece of work which we’ve delivered as a team this year has been the development of our Global EVP. On this 4-month journey we immersed ourselves into our business to fully understand what it’s like to work at IWG, interviewing senior leaders across the globe, running employee focus groups covering twelve of our main markets, undertaking extensive competitor analysis and market insight & finally, gaining feedback from >5,000 candidates from across 38 countries. This robust EVP development will play a vital role in ensuring we are positioned with creative thought, great branding and a focus on key audiences and job families moving forward.  

Finally, but equally as important we now have clear and robust monthly data and insight. This is key to providing the team with the narrative behind the operational delivery and where we can improve both our processes and candidate experience.  

Q3: What advice would you offer others for 2021 and the slow return to normal that we are hearing about?

That’s a difficult one. Everyone’s situation will be different. But one of the best pieces of advice I was given early in my career was ‘don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, it’s where you learn’. And as we move into 2021 I like to think that sometimes a wrong turn can actually end up leading you onto a better path - but don’t be afraid to break the mould, take control and create your own.