Adjusting Talent Acquisition to a Changing Operations Model: Lessons for Creating and Repeating a Successful Strategic Talent Initiative Robin Ritter Director, Talent & Learning Systems General Mills Kristy Sidlar Strategic Account Manager, Futurestep
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Adjusting Talent Acquisition to a Changing Operations Model
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Adjusting Talent Acquisition to a Changing Operations Model:
Lessons for Creating and Repeating a Successful Strategic Talent Initiative
• High Standards of Process and Strategy: Implement best practices for improving talent acquisition processes, measure performance and foster continuous improvement
• Great Internal Recruitment Practice, but Resource Constrained: This created high expectations for talent acquisition performance for large project under tight timeline
Who Is Needed To Make the Initiative Work? The initiative touched a variety of positions across organizations
Outsourced Provider • Project Leader • Team of up to 6 recruiters • Research Team • Additional resources as necessary - Implementation Leader, Account Manager
General Mills • HR Director • Associate HR Manager • Corporate Recruiting Manager • Recruiting Assistant • Additional Resources as necessary
KEY LESSON: • Effective outsourced recruiting is not a “turnkey” operation.
• A great provider is effective because of its ability to work with your internal resources. • Even if you outsource, you need a dedicated in-house team to make it work.
• Breadth and Depth of Scope: Positions open at four levels nationwide (US) • Tapping Internal Talent: Re-assign some employees from retail sales • Reaching External Talent: Engage recruitment provider (Futurestep)
Strategy: • Engaging an outsourced provider • Establishing Ground Rules for internal/external recruiting team collaboration • Managing the outsourced recruitment process (Futurestep/General Mills)
What Went into Managing the Recruitment Process (Outsourced or In-sourced)
• Customized and targeted sourcing strategies • Two levels of pre-interview screening • Setting up interviews • Provided onsite support for interview days • Processed reference checks • Collaborated with client team on hiring decisions • Onboarded new employees • Conducted follow-ups with new employees to gauge satisfaction levels
• 5000 names provided to execute on sourcing strategy • Better than 3:1 interview to offer ratio • 98% offer acceptance rate • 100% of candidates who accepted offers were retained through five months
after start date, including those whose contracts could not be finalized in advance.
• 100% percent of senior positions filled with degreed candidates • 52 external hires via Futurestep • 35 internal transfers • Relocations were limited to only 14 positions • New hire quality exceeded company expectations.
Based On This Success, additional markets were selected for conversion, leading to PHASE II
Situation (2008) • Additional cities rolled into the direct sales force model • Need to hire 14 additional sales professionals
Business Need • Some positions filled with in-house talent • 7 – 12 roles to be filled by Futurestep
Why it “looked” easier than Phase I • Confidentiality was not a factor in this initiative • Model best practices and key learning's from the phase I project • Similar sourcing methods but fewer restrictions (smaller hands-off list, staggered start
dates) • A smaller project (smaller seemed easier)
Areas of Focus (remained the same): • Positions open at three levels nationwide (US) • Tapping Internal Talent: Re-assign some employees from Retail to the new foodservice sales team • Reaching External Talent: Engage recruitment provider (Futurestep) to support external process • Tap into existing knowledge base / experience – Futurestep and General Mills
Activities: • Similar to Phase I with the exception of the interview schedule – more flexibility
Results • 785 names provided to execute on sourcing strategy • 3:1 interview to offer ratio • 100 percent offer acceptance rate • 100 percent of senior positions filled with degreed candidates • 9 positions filled by Futurestep • 5 positions filled through internal transfer / promotion • New hire quality exceeded company expectations
What are your real recruiting gaps and how will you address them?
#1. A Great Recruitment Function was in Place at General Mills • Best practice organization • Process focused • Complete understanding of and success in recruitment
but… • The project had a tight timeline. • Too few resources to address hiring need.
#2. We thought we needed… • A partner with foodservice sales recruitment experience, • An ability to quickly and discreetly attract and screen qualified candidates, • And give us the Names, let us handle the Process
but… • We found that it became less about the talent acquisition partner’s functional
or industry experience and more about their process expertise
What is needed for a successful outsourced recruitment partner?
• Go-to-market strategy • Immersion into the client culture • Processes established and followed to get to the end result • NOTE: Strategy, Culture and Process drives success for in-house
teams as well.
Key Lesson • Prioritize the competencies that will make your partnership most
successful (in our case – large scale process expertise).
We Know Flexibility is Key, But What Does it Take to be Flexible?
Setting the Stage: A Robust Project Kick-off • Define project roles • Establish processes • Set timeliness and milestones
Challenge: When the Reality Defied the Plan • Shortly after the project kick-off it became clear that the project timeline was going to be tighter than
expected.
Response: Quickly Shifting Resources (without having to “Redefine” the process) • Once it became evident that the timeline was truncated, Futurestep shifted resources and front-
loaded the team
Key Lesson: Establishing Structure is Key to Flexibility • Initial work to clarify roles, processes and milestones can facilitate collaboration and problem
• Geography: Given the large geography covered by the hiring project, the team organized a few regional interview days in NY and CA.
• Volume: Interview days required dedication by a large number of participants.
• Complexity: Scheduled events outside of corporate headquarters were more complicated to manage.
• What Works? In this case, on-site interviews were most productive and effective. Candidate impressions were stronger when visiting the corporate office.
Key Lesson: • Capitalize on your strengths and what “sells” your organization. Maintain maximum
Building On Success/Creating and Expanding the Initiative (PHASE II)
Background Thought second phase would be easier because the project was smaller. Moving into
phase II initiation, General Mills recruiting team changed in two key positions.
Challenges of Second Project • Smaller scope made this a less visible component of the daily responsibilities of
line managers, HR and the recruiting team.
• Changes in team structure (FS and GMI) created some re-work
• Individual players had changed. We relied too heavily on the fact that the processes were plug and play. Smaller project didn’t necessarily mean less work in managing key processes.
A Wildly Successful Initiative: We achieved the business objective. Put in place the team to make new business model succeed.
Success will Bring Challenges and Expectations: New needs, changing parameters, comparison to previous success.
Fundamentals Will Always Be Important, On First-time Project or Repeat: Establishing the groundwork, managing expectations, ongoing review and improvement.