In the Ocean of Talent: How to Spot A+ Players?

The world is evolving rapidly, and the future of work seems more dynamic than ever. Spotting the right talent and bringing them to speed in a short period is a challenge that needs to be tackled carefully. To create a team of A+ players, we are constantly evolving our Talent Acquisition Strategy at Hevo Data. This blog will highlight the Search process that delivers Top Talent at Hevo. This includes metrics, indicators, data points, trackers, and the overall Search process for critical positions.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” — Lincoln”

We’ve recognized the importance of “sharpening the axe,” and we try to build a meticulous system that sets up the Search process for success. It primarily pertains to understanding the “Who,” “What,” and “Where” of the particular positions that we are hiring for. (Read this blog to know how we do it — Click Here). Once we have sharpened the axe, it’s time to get the ball rolling!

Gauging the Talent Pool

It is essential to understand what the Talent will accomplish, in tandem with understanding the Talent itself. “Alignment” is the secret sauce of a winning Hiring process!

Based on the role requirements, we create a Talent Pool Tracker by following these steps:

1. Setting-up Inbound and Outbound: We collect Inbound interests through our Careers Page and other portals while hunting for passive candidates using Linkedin
2. Preparing a Longlist: We curate a Longlist of candidates that look like a “good fit” based on their Experience, Education, Previous companies, Roles, etc.
3. Rating profile: We involve the Hiring managers to rate the profiles as “High priority/Medium priority/Low priority/Skip” based on relevancy and find patterns among the Priority profiles.
4. Pool Analysis: If the initial Longlist of 50 profiles doesn’t give us a combination of 40 “High Priority” and “Medium Priority” candidates, we go back to the drawing board.

We gauge the Talent pool primarily to ensure that the Candidate’s expectations are aligned with the role. If our role is aligned with the Talent Pool, we set up the Selection Process. Otherwise, we try to Scale-up/Scale-down/Modify the position itself. When we get it right — The hiring pipeline lights up!

Pipeline Performance

When the search process begins, we create trackers that help us determine how the Talent Pipeline is performing and how we can get the right hire. Some of the metrics that help us are:

1. Count of “High Priority” Prospects: This is simply the number of relevant candidates interested in a specific job role. We draw comparisons across different roles to forecast the “Yield Ratio” and also to reconfigure & calibrate our pipeline building effort accordingly.
2. Sourcing Channel Effectiveness: This helps us identify the best sourcing channels for specific job roles. Over time, we gain enough insights to identify the right channel for a particular set of candidates.
3. Yield Ratio at Every Stage of the Process: This is a ratio of “Number of candidates qualifying a stage” to “Number of candidates who participated in the stage.” Based on the data we get from here, we recognize the “Pipeline risk” and try to engage with more clarity or provide the candidates with relevant information that sets the right context.
4. Prospect Conversion rate: This is a ratio of the number of prospects who have responded to the total number of passive candidates we identified. This helps us understand efforts to keep a strong talent flow in the pipeline and de-risk the selection process.

We do use other metrics in the process, but the above are the ones that have proven to be the most useful for us in recent times.

Stakeholder Involvement

It’s vital to get the “right hire”; that’s the reason we focus so much on “defining the right hire.” However, a profile that looks splendid on paper can still turn out to be a mismatch.

How can we reduce the risk?

By keeping stakeholders involved throughout the process.

Usually, the Hiring Manager, Team Members, and Leaders are involved only during the Role Briefing sessions and interviews; the onus of finding gaps is primarily on the TA team. However, to reduce the risk and ensure a smooth hiring process, we keep stakeholders involved throughout the process. Some of the key contributions from their side are:

1. Experiential Inputs: When Managers and Team members have been working in a particular domain for years, they can provide inputs that help us determine the proper sourcing channels, previous companies, career trajectories, and persona. These inputs come in handy during every stage of the process. They may also raise flags in certain situations that we may overlook.
2. Hiring Review Process: The Pipeline Performance and the Hiring Process is dynamic, and we need to adapt to rapidly changing situations. We conduct Weekly Review sessions with Stakeholders to give them a holistic insight into the Hiring pipeline, discuss challenges, and set expectations. The stakeholders share their view of the candidates they have met or the submissions they have reviewed; it helps the TA team better understand the expectations and align the Search process accordingly.

At Hevo Data, we are building teams that try to understand every problem in detail, break it down and then find a solution. This requires the Talent Acquisition Team to be flexible, quick, and willing to go the extra mile!

Did this blog get you vibing with how we do things at Hevo?

Write to rahul.mishra@hevodata.com to chat about our Talent Acquisition strategy.