Improving the Talent Pipeline, from End to End

BY Angelica Frey | November 20, 2022

Despite layoffs in the technology sector, the labor market remains tight. Organizations that prioritize the experience of the candidate throughout the onboarding process stand the greatest chance both of improving the talent-acquisition pipeline and hanging on to talent.

As the head of talent acquisition and university relations at BASF, the world’s largest chemical producer, Crystal Lannaman was faced a unique set of challenges over the last two years, as phrases like “the war for talent” and “the Great Resignation” became common parlance. “The pressure comes from the manufacturing side,” she said during a recent From Day One webinar titled “Improving the Talent Pipeline From End to End.” “How do we make and increase awareness of the lifestyle of the manufacturing environment?” she continued, noting that it’s not something that candidates and job seekers see as a traditional path to a six-figure salary.

The difference lies in the values beneath, and in ensuring the value proposition matches the candidate, so that they receive what they expect. “It’s talking about the purpose,” echoed Deb Hallmark, the senior director of talent acquisition at CEC Entertainment, which includes brands like Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza. “Not a lot of people think they’ll have a career in hospitality,” Hallmark said.  “When you think about the emotional connection, we’re memory makers [through the experiences offered at Chuck E. Cheese]. They see it, we call it out.”

Organizations Are Steadily Xhanging the Paradigm 

TIAA, a financial-services company, is trying to find a balance between the brand’s ethos and how to appeal across demographics. Angie Wesley, TIAA’s SVP and chief global talent acquisition and workforce strategies officer, singles out women, early talent, and people wanting to return to work after a forced or voluntary hiatus in the past two years. “As we think of how we can appeal to different audiences, we’re thinking of media strategy and think of how we can push info to people,” she said. “The candidate experience is paramount.”

Digital technology and data play a leading role. “If we think of what we do in HR in general, we have to change what we do in talent acquisition as well: we have to live in this hybrid world,” said Karla Samdahl, the VP of global talent acquisition at Cisco. “We’re digitizing our platform even more; the candidate experience has changed. Interviews are on video, and how we look at assessments, how we interview, and related conversations are different. Now that we’re offering online platforms, we're providing opportunities in different ways.”

At CEC Entertainment, Hallmark described the last 14 months as being spent in focus groups, both internally and with candidates, studying what was working and what was broken. “We also studied data, data, data,”  she said, actively measuring the past six to eight months.

A study and data-heavy approach is crucial in global companies such as Western Union, where James Stirling, who leads its global talent Acquisition team across 45 countries, says that the process is “no one size fits all. It varies from one country to the other: it's important to understand nuances.”

Upskilling, Reskilling, and Reframing Internal Talent

Transferable skills, or a transferable mindset, has also been a main focus at TIAA. Wesley says that they’re very active in recruiting early talent in business and wealth management. “We need that younger generation to influence their generation to think about their future,” she said. “You don’t need someone with experience, you need someone with the drive to understand that purpose.” For this reason, “[At TIA] we also set clear messages around how talent moves in certain areas, where mobility is going to be more fruitful,” she said. “There’s career mapping that crosses over other leaders.” You can start in customer service and end up working in data science or portfolio management.

Webinar speakers, top row from left: moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company and Angie Wesley of TIAA. Middle row: Crystal Lannaman of BASF, Deb Hallmark of CEC Entertainment, and Karla Samdahl of Cisco Systems. Bottom: James Stirling of Western Union (Image by From Day One)

“Promotional velocity is crucial,” Samdahl said. At Cisco, leaders want people to see a career progression, so they focus on how to strengthen the existing foundation, how employees navigate how they see their path. “Upskilling and reskilling is key,” she said. They have three-term rotational projects, where employees can step into specific roles every 18 months, with managers looking in and exposing them to a new skill set.

“We have a variety of calibrations, but how do we get out of the cycle of leaders wanting to hold onto high-performing talent?” Stirling said. The solution, for him, is giving executive recruiters more access to real-time data: someone might be ready for a move, and while it's not in that same structure or department, they can be moved and promoted somewhere else. “The focus is on internal talent getting ready for their next-level role.”

‘A New Assessment of Where We Are’ 

When it comes to workforce development and reaching out to external candidates, awareness is key. “In manufacturing, we struggle to find women,” said Lannaman, returning to her earlier point. This difficulty is sometimes attributed to the work being shift-based, but other shift-based professions like nursing do not have this same problem. “It’s more about thinking about a new assessment of where we are,” she said. “We’re partnering with middle schools, high schools, and college to bring awareness of what this work can be.” There is a three-pronged approach to this process: outlining the purpose, explaining what the so-called “package deal” is, and addressing the skills required, with an emphasis on transferable skills.

Samdahl outlines that “years in a role” are now less important than a specific skill set. “Even though they had a two-year sabbatical, they still have a trajectory of aligned skill sets,” she said. “Our recruiters have become talent advisors, being able to influence hiring managers.”

The internal versus external hiring dilemma remains a complex question. “One of the things we're seeing in an industry, when we think of our job description, is that we’re deliberate in what we need vs what we like,” said Wesley. For instance, at TIAA, they dropped education requirements, and realized it’s better to find someone who can perform at 75% at first and then improve to 90% than it is to wait six months for a 100% fit. “It’s not always a single hit, it does not have to be in the bullseye,” she said. “Internal growth, whether vertically or laterally, can allow new growth to come in externally.”

Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Milan and Boston.