How We Built a Robust Talent Acquisition Journey for a Major Tech Player
Written by @Zacharoula Liarou
Recently, REBORRN had the opportunity to help an extremely dynamic and fast-growing company build its Talent Acquisition journey to attract, assess, and hire top talent more efficiently and effectively. Here is how we did it.
The Challenge
Searching and obtaining the right talent is an ongoing challenge for many companies today - especially those that are growing at a hyper-rapid pace. For this reason, a tech company with global operations and over 1500 employees, partnered with us on a large-scale Talent Acquisition transformation project.
With over 100 open positions and a goal of hiring over 500 new employees, our objective was to ensure that the right talent was being sourced and recruited by implementing a streamlined process that aligns with the company's values, is data-driven and objective, and provides a positive experience for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers.
Our Approach: Agile-inspired and Design-led
In order to offer a tailor-made solution, we had to be fully aware of the challenge, the company's culture, and the hiring team's needs. This is why we placed great emphasis on our assessment procedure, which included interviewing the Talent Acquisition team and Hiring Managers, shadowing candidate interviews, and understanding the ‘as is’ Talent Acquisition journey, including its pain points and successful moments.
Following the completion of our onboarding process, we officially began the project by delivering a one-day design sprint to present our findings, share our point of view, and plan the next steps in collaboration with the Talent Acquisition team. Using specific exercises and frameworks inspired by the design thinking methodology, we co-created and prioritised solutions with high efficiency. Through this process, we narrowed down the areas we wanted to focus on, which included:
Talent Acquisition Journey & Capabilities;
Candidate Experience;
Data & Automation.
Given the scale and complexity of the project, we have decided to follow an agile approach moving forward to ensure that we can adapt to changing requirements and collaborate closely with our stakeholders during the development process.
We worked in two-week sprints, held weekly routines to assess progress and plan for the next sprint, and conducted retrospectives to improve our ways of working and deliverables. Throughout the project, we leveraged the capabilities of REBORRN's Organisational Designers, Data Analysts, Copywriters, and Visual and Motion Designers as needed.
In this case study, we will walk you through the steps we took to build a streamlined Talent Acquisition Journey while keeping the Candidate Experience at the forefront. In an upcoming article, we will delve into the details of our Data & Automation work-stream.
How the Talent Acquisition Journey and Candidate Experience work-streams came to life
Talent Acquisition Journey & Capabilities
Our Objective: Elevate the overall Talent Acquisition journey as a strategic differentiator to the company’s growth.
In collaboration with the company's Talent Acquisition team, we developed a range of solutions to elevate the overall talent acquisition journey. These solutions include a competency framework, a well-defined and efficient talent acquisition process, a targeted approach for senior candidates, and supportive TA materials and guides.
Competency Framework
We started by designing a competency framework to ensure that we have a structured approach to identify the skills, knowledge, and behaviours required for each job role.
We built the company’s competency framework across three main pillars: Horizontal, Vertical, and Leadership.
The Horizontal pillar focused on the company's values and expected behaviours, which formed the core competencies for all employees, regardless of their level of seniority. The Vertical pillar incorporated aspects of the Horizontal pillar while focusing on specific functional areas and the Leadership pillar defined the leadership competencies required for people managers across the organisation.
Finally, we described the behaviours for each competency, clarifying what success looks like.
Talent Acquisition journey
After having the competency framework ready, it was time to design the Talent Acquisition Journey. Our goal was to have in place a well-defined and structured process that provides a consistent experience for everyone involved.
Throughout this journey we:
Redesigned the stages of the process, their scope, and the objectives.
Clarified the role and responsibilities of the hiring team (Recruiters and Hiring Managers).
Created interview preparation kits that include a description of the competencies, what to look for, interview questions and scorecards based on answers, as well as evaluation criteria of non-verbal cues.
Created supportive TA material (brief and debrief templates) to help the Hiring team have meaningful and constructive conversations
A targeted Talent Acquisition journey for Senior Hires
Taking into consideration that senior hires are a specific and highly strategic population for the company, we created a specialised process that includes a stronger acquisition (search) dimension, as well as a stronger focus on evaluating and assessing leadership capabilities. For that reason, we leveraged the existing stages with emphasis on techniques and frameworks relevant to that population and we also suggested interview questions that focus on competencies related to leadership and strategic acumen.
Training
Training the hiring team is crucial, yet often neglected, in ensuring a successful recruitment process. While a well-designed recruitment strategy can attract top talent, it is the team executing the strategy that determines its effectiveness. By providing training to the hiring team, companies can ensure that all members understand the hiring culture and are equipped to execute it consistently and effectively throughout the recruitment process
For that reason, at the end of this first work-stream, we delivered a custom training on the redesigned recruiting process and the newly established competency framework to further support the Recruitment team in their new role.
Candidate Experience
Our Objective: Turn the interactions with the candidates into wow moments
In a previous article that we wrote called “How To Create a 5-Star Candidate Experience and Win In the War for Talent”, we explained the importance of the candidate experience and how the company’s reputation can be heavily affected when a Talent Acquisition process is designed without taking into consideration the candidates’ expectations and how they feel, think, and act when they interact with the organisation.
For this very reason, a natural next step of the project was to craft a memorable and diversified experience for the potential candidates.
We achieved this by:
Re-designing job ads using the right tone of voice that is cool and fresh, mirroring the company's growth. We wanted them to stand out.
Creating new candidate communication templates that are timely and relevant while helping the recruitment process be fully automated and quick, yet still providing a great candidate experience. We aimed to create promoters of the brand, even if someone is rejected for a role.
Crafting an offer letter that no candidate will be able to say ‘no’ to, and a benefits kit containing all the information about the perks and benefits of joining this fast-growing company.
Creating a video that explains what a candidate should expect from their first interview with the company, along with some tips on how they can prepare for it.
Creating a behind-the-scenes video about what a developer’s life looks like within the company.
Our Factors for success
Undertaking such a large-scale project with multiple deliverables is inevitably demanding. Here are the key factors that made this project successful:
Co-create solutions with the client. By engaging the client in the design and implementation process, we co-created solutions tailored to their specific needs and priorities and achieved the stakeholders’ buy-in and adoption.
Start with the brilliant basics. By beginning with the basics of the Talent Acquisition journey, such as defining competencies and behaviours, we established a clear and consistent framework that served as the foundation for all subsequent work.
Embrace an Agile approach. By adopting an iterative and flexible approach, we were able to effectively manage the complexity and uncertainty of this large-scale project and adapt to changing priorities and feedback.
Tailor processes to different talent needs. By differentiating the process based on talent needs, we provided a tailored experience that met the expectations of candidates at different levels of seniority and roles.
The tech company is still undergoing a period of exponential growth globally and its ability to maintain high standard of quality and preserve its unique culture would not have been possible without the successful transformation of the Talent Acquisition process.
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