Get More Talent! How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale

8/22/2019 Get More Talent! How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale

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How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale


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Get More Talent! How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale | 1

FOREWORDIt may surprise you, but the most signicant challenge acing startup and expansion-stage technol-

ogy companies today may have nothing to do with technology at all. Instead, according to a recent

report by Silicon Valley Bank,1 the most problematic hurdle or those businesses revolves around

another word starting with the same letter: talent.

In its annual Startup Outlook report, SVB revealed that 90 percent o sotware executives plan to

add headcount in 2013 i, o course, they can actually nd and attract the type o people who

will help their companies grow. Astonishingly, 90 percent o those same executives believe they will

have trouble doing exactly that this year.

In other words, the war or top talent is still being waged. And i your growing sotware company isnt prepared to compete, it

may not be able to keep up.

So, what should your expansion-stage business be doing to nd, attract, and retain the kind o top talent that can uel its

growth? Some o the most orward-thinking companies are developing their own talent actory a team o in-house recruiters

who can manage the recruiting process with actory-like precision.

In Get More Talent! How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale, OpenView outlines the benets o building

an in-house talent actory, explains which types o companies should be doing so, and lays out a clear process or creating, manag-

ing, and measuring a successul talent team capable o helping to dramatically scale your business as eciently as possible.

Ultimately, however, the argument or building a talent actory within an expansion-stage sotware company is simple: You need

top talent to grow. I you arent able to recruit enough o it, you will likely struggle to keep pace with your competitors. And, i you

recruit the wrong type o talent, you may unwittingly create a ticking time bomb. A correctly designed and implemented talent ac-

tory can help you mitigate those issues, while also improving your companys culture, visibility, credibility, and cost-eciency.

Is your business ready to build a talent actory? And do you have what it takes to do so? Read on to nd out!

Keith Cline, Principal, Dissero

1. Startup Outlook: The Issue o Talent, Silicon Valley Bank, May 2013.
http://dissero.com/http://www.svb.com/startup-outlook-assets/cover_slide.htmlhttp://www.svb.com/startup-outlook-assets/cover_slide.htmlhttp://dissero.com/


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CHAPTER 1:IS AN IN-HOUSE TALENT FACTORY

RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

The saying goes that a companys most valuable asset is its people. That adage is particularly true at the

expansion stage, when companies typically experience explosive growth and need to hire a steady stream o

talent to ll critical roles throughout their organization. Take too long to add headcount or worse, hire the

wrong people and you could quickly put your company in danger o not being able to thrive.

When the time is right, smart companies get around this issue by hiring a team o dedicated recruiters to manage

their recruiting and hiring. They invest the time, energy, and money to develop that team and outt it with the right

processes, tools, and techniques. At OpenView, we call this process building a talent factorybecause it results in a

strong pipeline o talent that is procured with actory-like precision through tested recruiting best practices.

While the main unction o a talent actory is to recruit and hire top talent or your company,

this encompasses a variety o tasks, including:

Meeting with hiring managers and discussing the needs o their teams

Creating job descriptions and providing salary inormation

Screening resumes o inbound applicants and responding appropriately

Attending career airs and building relationships with colleges and universities

Proactively sourcing candidates through a variety o mediums, including social networks

Conducting initial phone screens to determine t


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Acting as a project manager to move candidates through the interviewing process

Implementing interview and evaluation best practices throughout the company

Completing reerence checks

Extending oers

Assisting in onboarding new employees

The Benefts o Building a Talent Factory

I you are a rapidly growing expansion-stage company, establishing a talent actory will be vital to your com-

panys continued growth. In act, according to a 2012study by the Boston Consulting Group,2 recruiting has

the highest business impact o any HR unction. So, even i you dont yet have a ull-fedged HR department,

building an internal recruiting team can create a signicant impact by:

Lowering

recruitment costs

Many companies that do not have a talent actory or an in-house recruiter use sta-

ing agencies or the bulk o their hiring. For ull-time employees, agencies can charge

20 to 35 percent o the hires rst-year annual salary as a nders ee. Depending

on how many roles you hire each year, you may be paying more in ees than what it

would cost to build and operate your own in-house talent actory.

Driving higher

ROI

Not only will an in-house talent actory result in a lower cost per hire, but it will

also enable you to hire multiple candidates (should there be more than one open-

ing or the same position) at no extra cost. An in-house talent team can also main-

tain an ongoing pipeline o candidates with a particular skill set, helping you make

repeat hires more quickly, and implement programs to improve employee retention

(e.g., establishing programs to promote work/lie balance).

2. Realizing the Value o People Management: From Capability to Protability, The Boston Consulting Group, July 2012.

All of these activities

are vital to the talentacquisition process.
https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/people_management_human_resources_leadership_from_capability_to_profitability/https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/people_management_human_resources_leadership_from_capability_to_profitability/


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Fostering a

better candidate

experience and

building culture

along the way

Having a talent actory will create a more streamlined hiring process that ensures

that each candidate your company recruits goes through the same procedures,

meets with the same people, answers similar questions, and is told the same

inormation. In turn, your candidates will have a better overall experience, and your

company will be able to make a more educated decision on which candidate is the

best t or the job, because there is continuity in the process.

Shaping your

companys

culture

A talent team can help shape company culture and impact its development through

its policies and programs.

Improving

visibility

Talent specialists also act as ambassadors, representing your company and its culture

to the outside world. By attending career airs and on-campus events, a talent team

will provide valuable marketing or your company, creating more visibility within your

desired candidate pool. A quarterly networking event led by your talent team can

also pay huge dividends or talent acquisition by showcasing your company and its

employment opportunities.

Increasing

credibility

Candidates will always be more responsive and exude more condence when they

eel they are being treated as an individual, rather than an application. A talent

team can serve as liaison between the candidate and the hiring manager, improv-

ing communication and, ultimately, your credibility even among candidates you

dont end up hiring.

Creating a

greater sense

o urgency

Because the internal recruiting team will be in the trenches, they will recognize the

need or new hires more quickly and be held accountable by the hiring managers who

are awaiting qualied candidates. Additionally, the hiring managers will be asked

to provide more timely and complete eedback i the recruiting team is in the same

oce, allowing or a shorter eedback loop and aster decisions.


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Who Will Beneft Most rom this eBook?

This eBook is intended or the key stakeholders at your organization who will be responsible or building your

talent actory, as well as your talent team itsel (director o talent/talent specialists). Stakeholders may include

the CEO, COO, CFO, or VP o human resources at companies that:

Are at the expansion stage, which means that you have a prod-

uct oering, a set o satised customers, and are executing a

core go-to-market strategy; you are also growing at a rapid rate,

which creates a need to hire employees quickly.

Have at least 75 employees and/or are orecasting extreme

growth. I you are too small, or are not projecting hiring or

enough positions, the ROI will likely not be high enough to

justiy setting up a talent actory.

Are hiring at a steady rate. Generally, this is 10 to 20 hires per

quarter, or about one hire every one to two weeks. I not, the

money you spend on resources and salary to employ a recruiting

team will likely be higher than what you are currently spending

on talent acquisition.

I this is the case or your company, then you need to decide

whether hiring a talent team makes sense or your company.


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Does Building a Talent Factory Make Sense or You?

The rst thing to evaluate when considering whether to create a talent actory is the cost. As with any hire, it is important that

you have room in the budget to add to the team. Beyond a competitive salary and benets package, there is the cost o addi-

tional resources such as upgraded LinkedIn accounts, multiple job board postings, and networking event sponsorships.

On the fip side, it is also critical to assess whether you can aord notto build a talent actory. While the expense o doing somight seem high, the money you are saving on recruiting costs by not hiring a recruiting team could very well be canceled out

by lower productivity rom managers who are spending a signicant amount o their time on recruiting and onboarding. I a tal-

ent actory makes nancial sense or your business, this eBook can be used to supplement your own hiring unction or serve as

a guide to building a talent actory rom the ground up. The ollowing chapters cover the core elements o building and execut-

ing a talent actory, including:

Whether you are at an early stage startup, expansion-stage company, or a mature corporation, hiring top talent is always a priority.

This eBook will help you ensure that your business can most eciently nd, attract, and compete or that talent.

Identiyingthe resources your

talent team

needs

Exploring how the

talent team shouldlead the overall hiring

process o your

company

Hiring a directoro talent and/or

talent team

members

Explaining the

metrics you need totrack to measure and

strengthen your

talent team


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CHAPTER 2:ASSEMBLING AND MANAGING A TOP-NOTCH

TALENT TEAM

How you choose to build your talent team depends on a number o actors. I you already have recruiters in

place, the next step is to hire a director to ocus on strategy and develop recruiting best practices. I you

already have someone in a director role, you may need to nd recruiters to hire additional roles. Or maybe you

have no HR or recruiting unction at all and need to start rom scratch.

In this chapter, we will assume that you are building a team rom the ground up, starting with a director o tal-

ent. However, even i you already have recruiters in place or will be hiring them rst, there is valuable inorma-

tion in this section on scaling a talent team.

The Composition o a Talent Team

What does a talent team look like? Ideally it will have a director who oversees the hiring process at your company and man-ages the recruiters. For the purposes o this eBook, we will reer to those recruiters as talent specialists. Their role is to identiy

talent or your organization and manage the hiring process. In addition, talent specialists can take on other projects such as

setting up internship programs, establishing employee retention initiatives, and lling other HR/recruiting-related roles. The

director and talent specialist roles are explained in detail throughout this chapter.


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Getting Started: How to Hire Your Talent Team

I you already have a director o talent in place, or i you have a VP or director o human resources, he or she should be respon-

sible or hiring the team. I your company doesnt have anyone in a human resource unction, consider these actors when

deciding who else within your company should take charge:

Capacity: How many people or teams does this person already manage? Would they be able to eectively manageanother team?

Function: It rarely makes sense to have a talent team report to your CTO or VP o marketing. Someone in a similar opera-

tional role is a logical choice, and at smaller companies, the CEO may even be best. As a rule o thumb, a talent team ts

in well among the administration, HR, and nance departments.

Location: The person managing your talent team must be in the same location as the team being hired. Collaboration is

important when setting up the team, especially at the beginning.

Experience: Look at the resumes o your executive team. Someone who was in an HR or recruiting unction earlier in

their career might be a good choice to manage the team until a director o talent is on board.

Whoever you choose, that persons frst responsibility will be to hire a director o talent.


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Hiring a Director o Talent

When hiring a director-level recruiter, it is important to initially determine what the scope o that persons responsibilities will

be. Will he or she be responsible or talent acquisition and human resources tasks,

or just the ormer?

I your director o talent will hold other HR responsibilities, you should look or someone who not only has extensive talentacquisition management experience, but who has also managed the HR unction at a growing technology company similar in

size to your organization. This director o talent/HR will be expected to manage the ull talent/HR unction, at least until your

company scales to the point where you require a VP o HR or Chie Talent Ocer.

General Responsibilities

Although specic responsibilities or a director o talent will dier depending on your companys needs, some standard respon-

sibilities include:

Hiring and

terminating

Hiring recruiters, managing them or success, and terminating underperormers

when necessary. I this person is the only member o the talent team, then

they will also be charged with all open requisitions.

Strategic

hiring plansWorking with hiring managers to map out the hiring plans or the year.

Budget

management

Ensuring that the talent team is eectively operating within its budget,

and periodically perorming cost and productivity analyses.

Goal settingDeveloping metrics or the talent team, and creating quarterly and annual

goals that the team can measure against to determine success.

Day-to-day

management

Working with the talent team to put best practices into place, resolve impedi-

ments, and help them achieve their quarterly and annual goals.


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Perormance

reviewsConducting perormance reviews with each member o the talent team.

Hiring or

high-level roles

A director o talent can be instrumental in hiring or C-level positions or

or a board o directors search, where a deeper network and more experi-

ence are required.

Picking a

technology

The director o talent should play a role in overseeing the selection o recruit-

ing technologies and be the administrator o the applicant tracking system

or the team (see Chapter 4).

Once you determine the areas o responsibility that your director o talent will own, you can prepare to launch your search or

the right candidate. Please see page 50 in the Appendix o this eBook or a sample job description or a director o talent.

A director o talent is responsible or setting and executing your companys talent acquisition strategy and

should be comortable not only overseeing a team o recruiters, but also leading searches or an array o positions,

rom an entry-level sotware engineer to your next CMO. That takes the right combination o

recruiting expertise, management experience, and strategic insight into both your organization

and industry.

Diana Martz, Director o Talent, OpenView Venture Partners
http://openviewpartners.com/people/diana-winings-martz/http://openviewpartners.com/people/diana-winings-martz/


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http://labs.openviewpartners.com/ebook/get-more-talent/

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