Simplify Recruiting in a Distributed World with Social Survey VP of Global Talent Acquisition

And happy Global TA Day today. I just found out that was the thing this morning, but I'm really thrilled that we have our own day now. But yeah, so I came here from Eventbrite in April where I led our global talent ops team. And one of the things really that stayed consistent in all of my talent acquisition roles is really trying to simplify recruiting processes and then get buy-in from a broader team. So I'm really excited today to share with you some of the strategies that I've learned along the way. So in case you aren't familiar with Social Survey, we're a reputation management, modern CX platform that automates your entire customer feedback process. So we do this by helping you collect more real-time CX data. We actually lead our industry with a 54% survey response rate, and then analyze that data by automating all positive ratings to immediately impact your online reputation and traffic, and then streamlining any maybe not so positive reviews for a really quick resolution. And then lastly, with that, we help you act and create more business. So some of our customers are seeing 14 to 25% lifts in revenue within their first year, which is really exciting for us. But yeah, ultimately our goal is just to help you turn your entire customer and employee experience process into your biggest competitive advantage. But with that, let's just get into the agenda for today. So candidate vetting is more critical now than ever before. According to Lever's 2020 State of Recruiting report, over 60% of companies agreed they need to hire workers with skills that weren't necessarily needed before, like adaptability, communication, and a big one I assume is technology proficiency. And 81% of recruiters said that work more closely with hiring managers as a result of just the pandemic. So today we'll go through 1, creating a healthy talent pipeline. So really how to pivot your pipelining strategy to fit your needs. 2, implementing the best talent ecosystem. So what solutions can you bring into the fold to help with that quality of candidate and also to just ensure that you aren't burning out your recruiters. And lastly, 3, expanding your HR programs to drive change, which really can be summed up in the old adage of working smarter instead of harder. So yeah, step 1, um, creating that healthy talent pipeline. Uh, there are definitely different ways to create a healthy pipe, and I think it really needs to speak to your business at the moment. So I'm going to share how we did this at Social Survey this year. When I was hired in April, our team here in Nashville was small, but we were growing. We were only a team of, I think, 10, um, and the original hiring My plan was going to be to hire around 25 people, mostly in the customer-facing orgs, and that was going to be by the end of the year. So they had also just launched a referral program, which I was really excited about, but the majority of our candidates were being sourced by just our one recruiter at the time. So I joke a lot that my 5-week plan quickly turned into my 1-week plan because around that same time was when there was unfortunately a lot of layoffs in the Nashville tech scene. So we pivoted to hire most of these customer-facing roles now in Nashville, because there's just all this amazing talent out there that wasn't necessarily there before. We had to move pretty quickly, lean on those referrals to get connected with the right candidates at some of those companies that had just had these massive layoffs. And you'll see what the combination of our sourcing strategy, these new referrals, um, our reach in applicants increased a lot from Q1 to Q2. So that pivot came with us having to hire another recruiter at the beginning of the year, um, or the quarter, sorry, to really help with that increase in hiring. And that allowed me to work in the background with optimization and automating as much of the process as possible, because my team, unlike, or like a lot of others in the recruiting world, they're full-cycle recruiters, but they're also right now doing all of their own coordinating. So it's really, um, the big hiring push is a really heavy lift. So also at this time, we brought in some critical tools like Crosscheck, which we'll kind of talk through a little bit later. And also I decided at that point to really work with somebody who I believe is a genius in the employment branding space, but she helped us get an EVP and some other branding work done because I knew eventually we were going to make that shift back to sourcing for specific roles once our big hiring push was done. And I really wanted to set my team up with success with, you know, a new optimized process, uh, all the tools that we need for sourcing. We'll now have this steady flow of applicants and then Crosscheck, which helps us automate, but also with prospecting. So step 2, um, it's important for us, I think, or anybody when thinking through optimization to really figure out where you'll see that most lift. So for us, It was really in that recruiter time spent. So we leaned into finding technologies that would meet the needs that we were trying to solve, and then really just sat down and thought through what steps in our workflow that we could automate to improve that workflow and just candidate success and piping. So that leads us to the, the Lever Automation Hub. I am obsessed with it. I'm constantly trying to find new ways to use it. And I've implored my team to find new ways to use it. One of the, the ways that we were frequently using it was around knockout questions with location. So when we were really trying to fill those Nashville-specific roles, we implemented that. But there are a lot of different places in the recruiting and onboarding process that the automation, depending on stage or where the candidate is on their journey, is just going to be really helpful for you and your team and help help give some of that, that lift there. So here's some more data from Lever's report around tasks that recruiters wish were more automated. The biggest one being setting up interviews with video capability. I think that's a no-brainer in a new, almost all virtual world, but also some are hiring manager feedback, scheduling, auto-screening applicants. And the candidate survey process, which we also implement and automate the candidate experience surveys as well as the diversity surveys. And that has helped us so much with our process as a whole. And then also data and reporting and offer letter editing. And then another big one for us was around reference checks. That's always been one for my team that had— they were— they felt like they just didn't have enough time in the day to get their reference checks done. And that is really where Crosscheck came in for us. We saved so much time and resources by automating that reference check. And it also integrates with Lever and I think a few other ATSs. And as an aside, the team there is just amazing and easy to work with and always on top of customer support. So that was, it was a really big deal for us to implement that tool. It gave us a lot of lift and also helps us with prospecting. And I'm currently working with them on their Quest to be able to find and accurately measure quality of hire, which I think if you are a TA professional, you know, that's probably the purple squirrel metric that we are all searching and hoping to find. So I'm just really excited to work with them on that and hopefully get that fleshed out by the end of the year. And for talent relation management— relationship management, I think it's now more critical than ever to build trust and a lasting relationship with your candidates. And one of the best ways to do this really is through personalization and email management. So ensuring that you have the CRM built into your ATS to help manage all of your communications in one system where the audience is focused to streamline in the future. A CRM can really help you at each stage of the funnel. If you're looking to improve you know, different pieces along the way. So it'll help you understand how many emails you need to send, what messaging works best with candidates and how much of a response rate you got back. And it's also just a great addition to a strong sourcing strategy if that's where your company is focused. And I think we could all just be better at sourcing. So the next step, And step 3 is driving that change. And I think to help simplify your recruiting and drive that change is, you know, to bring in your stakeholders along the way, but really just implement those changes based on your own data and what makes the most sense for your org. It's not going to be a cookie cutter. It's going to be different depending on your company and what stage your company is in. So for us, one of the big things that we implemented outside of those automated candidate satisfaction surveys, we're also hiring manager satisfaction surveys, because I think sometimes there, there's like hidden nuggets there with your hiring manager, right? They know things or can help you with steps along the way. They are really the masters in their own field, and this can really be helpful for you to look at things in a different way and can also be helpful for you if you and your team find that you are in a hiring freeze. It can also kind of give you some insights there. So this is some more data from the Lever survey, and they, they found that actually only 14% of that like mid-market space is on a hiring freeze, which is really great. And a number that kind of blew me away, but there are, these are some ways that recruiters were using their time during hiring freezes and something that you can kind of use as a data point along the way for you if you ever find yourself in that same scenario. So some of those are being navigating other COVID-related HR tasks, assisting other departments at your company. I know that's something that have been really dug into prior to their layoffs, cleaning up recruiting data, which is a pretty big deal and something that I hope lasts post-COVID because I think, you know, it's easy to forget to clean all of those things up as you're going through it and you're really busy, but in the long run, it really will help you optimize all of your processes and kind of call out any big lifts that you need. And then others are rethinking recruiting recruiting process and engaging more with employees. And then another big callout from that survey is just changing the emphasis on diversity and inclusion as a result of COVID-19. And they found here, which I think is a really great stat and, and is just amazing in general, but 50% of recruiters said that they will make D&I more of a priority. I know here at Social Survey, we implemented Lever's diversity survey, which is also automated and awesome, but it's been great for me to see that when we're, where we're increasing our diversity and our reach as we're implementing new sourcing efforts and programs in our recruiting team. And so for us, we look at things like age, gender, and ethnicity in our particular survey, but you can add or delete or customize as needed, which I think is really great. So you can look at your data and really understand where you need to make those moves. And I'm personally digging in now to see how we can best utilize the just had an updated— an update to their survey structure to help really better understand where our diversity is in our pipeline and how far along they are going. So yeah, I think the big takeaways that we saw success with are one, building that employee value proposition in your brand. I think it's just really important when your hiring teams are speaking to candidates that both your recruiting team, but also all of your panelists are have streamlined messaging and your EVP, I think, is your north star for all other employment branding. So that would be the first step for me. If you are implementing an employment branding strategy is to just really start with that EVP and you can get as granular or as small as you need, depending on what your, your hiring strategy is. Two, surveying teams for feedback. So like I said earlier, we baked or we implemented the automated candidate surveys and hiring manager surveys, but We baked both of those, the scores, into our recruiter scorecard. So each month, we look at the scores and where our recruiters are because it's that experience and being a customer experience company is just really important for us and for our team and making sure that, you know, everybody feels good every step of the way from your stakeholders to your candidates. 3, leveraging automation. I think there's just so much time that can be saved if you can find some of the things that you're manually doing a lot of and find— figure out ways to automate them, whether it being in the Lever Automation Hub, whether it be bringing on tools like Crosscheck or, you know, other scheduling tools, but really think about your team and where you're spending the most time. And your recruiters will tell you, I'm sure, in every one-on-one where they're spending the most time and things that they would love to get off their plate. So, you know, think about it that way and try to find ways that you can automate those heavy lifts. Number 4, make way for personalization and candidate relationship management. This one I would say is just really crucial, especially in the time that we're in. I think we're at a really interesting time in history right now, and that relationship management is just really top of mind, both for candidates for companies and for your recruiting team. So make sure that relationship and that experience is top of mind for you as well. And lastly, prioritizing diversity and inclusion. So that just isn't— that isn't just in your metrics. I would say that should really be a top-down initiative and approach where you can bring your data and really understand where you need to make those changes. And getting your leadership on board is really important, but also make sure that you're having that conversation with your hiring managers or your hiring team while you're in your kickoff meetings and make sure that they understand how much diversity can help your team and your business in the long term. And so yeah, with that, I'm happy to open the room up to any questions if anybody has any. I'm available on LinkedIn, would love feedback, any tips that you've seen. And yeah, thanks so much.

Thanks, Meredith, for those great insights. We do have a few questions that have come in. And for those on the line, feel free to drop in any additional questions to Meredith. In the Q&A option, but we'll get started. Meredith, question that came in: Where did you start to prioritize your recruiting tasks when the pandemic hit?

Yeah, so I actually shifted right in the middle of the pandemic to Teams, right? And so for me, my first priority coming into this new team was really to understand the landscape, understand where we were, because I think benchmarking is so important. You can't get better or know if you're getting worse if you don't know where you start with. So we, I came in and immediately did that lever cleaning, which I talked about earlier. And then again, it really quickly, we had to prioritize all of the hiring. And so it was, okay, where are we spending our time? What is something that we can implement to like really make this faster for you? And so we, we went with a new recruiter and getting that automated reference check, which took out, you know, 45 minutes of the recruiter's day. So that's kind of where our priorities line. My mom always tells me, work or worry in the proper order. So for me, it's like finding the big things that you can make sure that you're tackling first and then, you know, kind of do the effects downstream from there.

Makes sense. Let's see another question that came in. What advice would you give a company struggling with their referral marketing efforts?

Yeah. So first I think if you haven't done that EVP or you haven't talked to them, really talk to your employees, right? Understand why they're not referring. Is there something that you need to make changes within the company? Are they not comfortable or do they not feel incentivized? I think, you know, the biggest thing that you can, the message that you can get across is referrals shouldn't just be about a bonus. Referrals shouldn't just be about, you know, getting some kind of cool trip somewhere, but referrals last longer at your company. They're more engaged, they cost less to employ, and really you're your team would have a built-in friend there. So making sure that people understand that referrals are by and large just better candidates and teammates. I think that you can, you know, take that approach to help them understand why referrals are so important. But you know, the incentives don't hurt. So find out what, what makes people excited to go there and have fun with it. I think a standard bonus sometimes isn't always the best approach and you could do a raffle or find out what people care about. People are always willing to tell you. So get those surveys out and just really understand your audience, I think, is the best thing to do.

Great. Next question: Given most companies are working from home, would you say companies can potentially hire from any location globally now?

Yeah, so that's interesting for us too, considering we did just like launch this Nashville customer-facing hub, but I think For me, it depends on the role and it depends on the relationship to the rest of the team, right? So we are currently hiring enterprise AEs. I think as an enterprise salesperson, you've been there for a long time, you understand this, the landscape, you don't really need to be micromanaged, you can kind of work on your own. So at that level, I think you can hire anywhere and they could be successful anywhere. But I think you should really look at the team as itself. I would call it like an SDR, on the other hand, I think does work much better in a team scenario where they can be in a location together. And hopefully soon we can all get back to— no, I don't think we'll ever be normal— that we could all get back to an office where we can— you can work together. And, um, but yeah, I think it, I think it really just depends on the team, the manager, and, and the person. I trust my team to get their job done anywhere, but they've been at it for a long time. If it was somebody that needed that you know, that little extra help, I think it would make sense to have them in the office or at least close by so that you could connect a little bit easier.

Absolutely. We'll take one more question because we're right about time. This is more around the philosophy of employer branding. How does it play into your recruiting strategy today?

Yeah, so it's huge for us. I took recruiting branding for granted at Eventbrite. We had already had a brand when I got there. And it really kind of slapped me in the face, I guess, a little bit when I got here, just being in a startup, and people not really knowing your brand. And so really understanding what steps we can take and measuring everything along the way. I think I'm very much a let's throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks kind of person. And so from the branding space, as long as we have that EVP, that North Star that tells us this is what differentiates us from any other CX space or technology platform or company in Nashville. And we know that that's our, our North Star. And that's what everything kind of needs to align to. I love to just try to try out different things and see what works and what doesn't and just measure all of it. But branding is definitely something that I think falls to the wayside a little bit, like there's, there's not a lot of budget for it. A lot of the times you're leaning on organic. And so I think making sure, A, that you are really close with your marketing team and understanding the marketing strategy is also going to be really important. But just having a philosophy at all is, I think, the first step to a really strong employment brand.

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for your insights today. And thank you for those that joined and joined the conversation. Have a great day, everyone.

Thanks. Bye.