Hiring the Best Talent
The global pandemic brought and continues to bring a high degree of uncertainty, ambiguity, and change in the ways companies and people have operated in the last few decades. Be it our ways of working, flexible work hours accommodating for work-life harmony, and yet the need to manage talent effectively, in a remote environment. The pandemic has forced organizations to adopt and accelerate their digital transformation journey, dynamically altering the way they hire new talent to enable a hybrid work environment.
War for talent
The pandemic has put us through many challenges over the last 19 months. It has proven that adversity brings out resilience among people and hence that necessity is truly the mother of innovation. While companies are operating on processes, one area which has taken a full turn is the hiring of new talent. In India, the campus hiring landscape is often referred to as a ‘war for talent’, with each company looking to hire the best students from tech and MBA campuses. The mode of engagement with students begins well before the formal hiring timelines and until 2020, was predominantly in person. 2020 forced companies to innovate and build a 100 per cent virtual engagement strategy for the first time, which was welcomed by students, professors, and campus placement committees alike. Companies invested in building in-house technology and tools to enable virtual engagement possible, while others saw an opportunity in partnering with small-medium businesses that provide virtual engagement services. While one cannot replicate the in-person experience like for like, however, engaging with students virtually, came with its own set of benefits for companies as well as campuses, optimizing for time and efficiency.
Virtual hiring
Until a few years ago, if one mentioned the concept of virtual hiring, it would feel too far-fetched, especially in the Indian context. Hiring students without physically meeting them even once through the hiring process seemed out of the ordinary. Yet fast forward to 2021, companies have now seen two cycles of hiring candidates successfully in a total virtual environment. This transformation could not have come easily for any company.
Change management along with investments in technology to shortlist candidates, provide students a great interview experience and ultimately help them gain a better understanding of the values of their dream company.
The workforce of the future prioritizes doing meaningful work and wants to know how their work impacts society and the overall organization’s vision. Hence, organizations must understand and leverage these drivers among prospective candidates.
Another factor to hire the right fit is that companies have to become more proactive about ensuring that potential employees know about the core business. Assessing and allocation play a major role in understanding whether a potential hire fits the organization and by extension their team. Companies need to understand the skills and experience that employees bring to the table and accordingly create a profile that aligns with the employee’s vision.
As we step into the future, we are seeing an evolution from the traditional hiring pattern to virtual recruitment and onboarding a remote workforce, across industries.
Amazon has hired thousands of students over the last two hiring cycles from all over India across roles in engineering, applied sciences, business management, supply chain, operations, finance, HR to analytics, content creation and acquisition, marketing, real estate, corporate security, video, music, and many more.
Virtual hiring has also enabled a smoother transition for prospective candidates – from B-School to the corporate world. At Amazon, we have curated an 8-week long incubation/induction program that allows our talent to immerse themselves into Amazon’s culture, network with a broad spectrum of people and departments to avoid working in silos, and learn from leaders directly.
As an organization, Amazon has created an inter-connected ecosystem of working models that enables all levels of leaders to work together and impart knowledge to the new talent.
Amazon introduced the ‘Amazon Future Builders Program’ (AFBP), a flagship leadership development program for students studying in premier B-Schools in India. The AFBP Incubator is an exclusive onboarding program for transforming MBA graduates into Amazonians through immersion sessions, classroom/case study-based upskilling sessions, fireside chats with leaders, culture assimilation sessions, and cohort building via social activities.
Amazon offers all students, a six-month onboarding program that provides new hires access to cultural assimilation, community building, and peer-networking opportunities through structured monthly connects during their first six months to help with their virtual onboarding and finding their feet in the corporate work environment.
As we think about hiring the best talent in the virtual environment, it is all the more important now to continue our efforts in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. It is important for us as recruiters to resonate with the ethos and values of our prospective candidates.
In the evolving landscape of hiring, it has become a necessity to continue efforts in the investment of the right technologies and tools to help corporations curate a more diverse workplace and create a culture that is aware and eager
to adapt.
At Amazon, we have always prioritized to innovate on behalf of our communities to benefit their learning and development. As we like to believe that at Amazon, it is always ‘Day One’.
Upgading skills
The pandemic has also apprised us that skills need constant upgradation. Besides academic qualifications, recruiters and companies are looking for look for smart, flexible, and customer-obsessed candidates who can play a significant role in raising the bar and are culturally aligned. Other areas that are important to develop for a prospective candidate are leadership, problem-solving skills, analytical skills, resilience, and empathy.
Companies are looking for talent who think differently and analytically, question assumptions, and are inclined towards building new things, all in a bid to create a gratifying experience for the stakeholders involved.
What was relevant yesterday, may not be relevant tomorrow. The first step to scale and improve hiring is to understand and align the individual, team, and organizational goals. Leaders should establish their strategic priorities for new talent. The virtual mode of operating has taught us to be more flexible and thoughtful of where the talent we hire comes from.
In the times to come, companies will want to explore alternate and less traditional sources of identifying the best talent that fits best with their organization’s vision.
As recruiters look for talent largely from the top school in the country, they need to work towards building, embracing, and maximizing the learning agility of the potential talent.
Companies need to focus on the individuals’ capability and willingness to learn new skills and accordingly devise programs that help them grow. Recruiters have an opportunity to understand how (which skill) and where (the area) the employee can learn and grow. The opportunity to reskill and upskill through various training sessions/modules implies that everyone has the opportunity to pivot to a different industry or sector and increase their scope of work in this digital economy.
Recruiting the best talent is a mutual evaluation practice among companies and students. Covid-19 has altered the way organizations recruited talent. In the new normal, candidates deep dive into the kind of companies, they want to associate with.
As recruiters, it is our responsibility to cultivate a culture-forward thinking, affirmative and empathy-led workplace. These values trigger motivation and commitment amongst prospective candidates towards any organization, which will in turn attract and help retain the best talent.
