This week, Betts founder Carolyn Betts Fleming joined a panel, hosted by Lever and composed of four other experts in the talent acquisition and HR space for a one-hour conversation. The topic: Why talent optimization is a crucial component of any business strategy in the tech space today, and what companies are doing to meet the talent optimization imperative head-on.
If you suspect we’re exaggerating the importance of that imperative, a poll taken at the top of the discussion should remove any doubts you have. Over half of respondents said they were already well into the process of developing a talent optimization plan, with another 25% saying they were now starting to give the issue some thought.
Speakers on the panel included:
- Carolyn Betts Fleming, founder and CEO of Betts Recruiting
- Jackie Dube, SVP of Talent Optimization at The Predictive Index
- Mike Fitzsimmons, CEO of Crosschq
- JD Conway, Head of Talent Acquisition at BambooHR
- James Parker, Sr. Manager of Global Talent Acquisition at Glassdoor
Keep reading for a sample of some of the insight shared. And watch the full presentation on-demand right here to get the rest of it.
3 big questions for HR and talent acquisition teams
Here are three key questions posed to the panelists, and a sample of their answers to each one.
Question 1: How have pipeline management and team structure changed for your recruiting team?
Given recent economic news, you’d be forgiven for expecting a recruiting company’s pipeline to all but run dry. But when panel moderator Mike Fitzsimmons posed this question to Carolyn, she clarified that while April was indeed a slow month, May has seen no small number of companies start to ramp their hiring back up.
Among those companies, though, hiring looks different now than it did pre-pandemic. Volume hiring of junior-level sales reps has scaled down and given way to more high-level strategic hiring. Later in the discussion, James from Glassdoor echoed this observation.
Question 2: How have you thought through talent optimization to support the new needs of the business?
If this experience has taught businesses anything, it’s that they need to be flexible with their team structure if they hope to take sudden, drastic, and unexpected changes in stride.
“Think about building something now that will make you better able to pivot down the road.”
JD Conway, Head of Talent Acquisition, BambooHR
But structuring your business in a flexible way is an investment, and it takes time. The smart play is to start early. As JD from BambooHR said when asked this question, “Think about building something now that will make you better able to pivot down the road.”
Question 3: What measures are you using to listen to and inspire your workforce right now?
At times like this, internal communication is key – especially top-down communication between leaders and staff. We’ve spoken a lot about this at Betts, both here on the Betts Blog and in presentations that Carolyn has given at virtual events like Outreach Unleash.
In this week’s panel discussion, the other leaders weighed in on the topic as well. Jackie at The Predictive Index, for example, shared her company’s use of “no-meeting zones” – times of day when there’s a company-wide block on meetings – to give their employees more breathing room. They also have weekly Q&A sessions over video, in which the leadership team takes questions from the team and makes important announcements. Jackie noted how the nature of the questions they receive has changed over the last several months: Early on, naturally, people were asking about layoffs. Then the team started hearing more questions about product changes, and, finally, about the company’s plans to one day return to the office.
Watch the full discussion for lots more talent optimization insight
These answers are just a small sample. Each panelist weighed in on each question, so what you’ve seen in this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg.
Beyond the questions, there’s a lot more you’ll get by watching the full discussion. There are best practices, key steps for success, and more. Take a look, and good luck on your talent optimization journey!