Creating a work environment where all colleagues can excel is key for global employer WTW.

WTW Talent Acquisition Lead, Clare Lewis, and Talent Acquisition Manager for France, Catherine Sanzelle understand the importance of inclusive recruitment and were interviewed about WTW's culture and how they work to find the best talent.

Catherine has worked at WTW since 2019 and has extensive experience in Recruitment and HR in the Insurance market, recruiting across Europe for various organizations and roles.

Supporting managers to hire the best talent 

"My role at WTW is to assist managers in the recruitment of their new employees, and working with my team, we focus on creating ways of attracting diverse talent to our organization across all levels and lines of business," explains Catherine. 

Clare is Talent Acquisition Director for WTW's European business and like Catherine, she supports WTW hiring managers and business leaders to think about how the company can attract the best possible talent to the business.

"I’ve been fortunate to live and work in a variety of countries and this enables me to partner with our business and recruiters to empower colleagues and future talent to bring their true selves to the workplace. An inclusive environment isn’t just a tick box for us, it’s a way of life!" explains Clare.

Recruiting diverse talent 

When asked how difficult it is to recruit diverse talent, especially amid the Great Resignation and War for Talent, Catherine suggests that "WTW is at the forefront of inclusion and diversity (I&D) and one of the ways we do this is by promoting inclusive recruitment best practice, by aligning ourselves with internal inclusive committees/networks, as well as through external partnerships with local or international organizations such as myGwork." Gwork is a global networking hub and job board for LGBT+ professionals and students. "It’s certainly more challenging than ever to attract diverse talent," continues Catheine. "The Great resignation is not exclusive to France but experienced globally. In France we know the Insurance job market has a niche pool of talent, with so many companies looking for the exact same talent profiles."

Clare agrees: "As Catherine shares, globally this is a challenge and economic uncertainty with a major shortage of skilled talent. What we do well at WTW is ensuring that we don’t just talk about inclusivity but that it’s something candidates get to experience from the moment they look at our careers page (we’ve worked hard to ensure it reflects a truly global footprint) right through to their experience when they join the organization. The war on talent has really challenged us to look at different pools of talent with transferrable skills; promoting opportunities to our internal colleagues and partnering with external vendors who can help us identify talent that may not necessarily be aware of who we are and all we have to offer."

Challenges for recruiting international talent

Looking at some of the top challenges for recruiting international talent, Catherine believes finding international candidates involves logistics of finding the right opportunity, with the right scope of the role, and the right skills. For example, something like language capability is more important in some roles than others.

"What we do at WTW is try not to limit candidate opportunities simply due to where they are based and challenge our managers to think creatively about what is really important (such as essential skills), which allows us to cast the net more broadly and attract more diverse talent," says Clare. "We try to make it clear on our job description what’s really important rather than an endless list of criteria which may exclude great talent; this helps us identify talent in other markets/locations and allows us to be more flexible in experience and skills that are essential versus nice to have."

Recruiting LGBTQ+ talent from overseas 

When asked what specific actions WTW takes to recruit LGBTQ+ talent from overseas and to ensure that they are in a safe environment/community, Catherine says: "Our company has been promoting inclusion and diversity (I&D) for many years through measurable actions internally (something which both HR and the business commit to doing) and partnering with various internal I&D committees looking at ways to further promote opportunities and share learnings/I&D best practice. Associations such as Le Refuge in France are an example of a key partnership that helps young LGBT+ people to find accommodation in times of great personal difficulty. This is just one example of how WTW has engaged an external partner to help us ensure we are engaging a much broader talent pool. "Being able to bring your true self to work is something that is incredibly important to us and at WTW we not only have policies and best practice that ensure colleagues feel empowered to bring all that makes them unique to their role, but we have initiatives such as ‘License to Hire’ (inclusive recruitment training that we encourage colleagues to take) that remind us of what’s important to remember throughout the recruitment experience." 

Ensuring recruitment processes are inclusive

Sharing some of the incentives that WTW uses to attract and retain international diverse talent, Clare explains: "We make sure we cover why this is important to us on our careers page but also in our job adverts and weave I&D priorities into our recruitment process from the start right through to the end. We also cover key relevant information about our many I&D networks and councils on our intranet, and we take time to partner with external vendors that focus on attracting and promoting diverse talent. In addition to this, we have the most fantastic Global Employer Brand team that built out specific training and materials for us to promote and learn about inclusive hiring practices."

Catherine says WTW supports international recruits to overcome any cultural barriers, and to feel welcome and included at the company, by ensuring there are many resources available for WTW's international recruits to access directly via WTW's intranet.

"For example, employees who have chosen to work in different regions share their advice on how to manage international mobility depending on the country chosen. We also have teams of managers along with international and local HR colleagues who are trained to provide guidance in this area. We are very much a company which uses open and honest communication, to enable our colleagues to grow, develop and thrive," reinforces Catherine. 

Search out an international career with WTW 

WTW is committed to developing a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive work environment where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated.

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