All-In Recruitment is a podcast by Manatal focusing on all things related to the recruitment industry’s missions and trends. Join us in our weekly conversations with leaders in the recruitment space and learn their best practices to transform the way you hire.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Lydia: Welcome to the All In Recruitment podcast by Manatal, where we explore best practices, learnings, and trends with leaders in the recruitment space. If you like our content, please subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay tuned for our weekly episodes. My name is Lydia, and joining us today is Amit Kundu of NielsenIQ. Amit, you are the Executive Director for Talent Acquisition for APAC.
Amit: Yes, absolutely. I am the head of the talent function for the APAC region, and Lydia, it’s an absolute pleasure to be here on the call today. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Navigating the Talent Space
Lydia: So Amit, what’s kept you in the talent space? Tell us a little bit more about the story we spoke about pre-show.
Amit: There is an interesting story of what kept me going and what actually motivated me to come into the talent space. It started at home, by the way. My father was an entrepreneur, and he used to spend a lot of time recruiting, training, and retaining talent for his business. I’ve also seen him evaluating their performance throughout the year and letting people go if someone is not performing.
When I saw him in action, it always fascinated me how he did it. How can he hire strangers, form a team, and motivate them to work together for a common goal? This curiosity is what drove me to pursue a career in talent management. When I started my career in the corporate world, I quickly realized that there’s always a talent gap in the organization. It doesn’t matter what size the organization is, how big it is, which domain, which industry—it just doesn’t matter; there’s always a gap.
My role as a Talent Acquisition Professional, in bridging that gap and bringing the right people to support the organization’s growth, is what really motivates me. There is always a new puzzle to solve. Talent functions have a direct impact on an organization’s bottom line. There is so much that a Talent Acquisition team can add to the organization and this is what keeps me going. This is what motivates me day in and day out to do my job in my current role.
Lydia: That is a very interesting angle and perspective you’ve taken, with an entrepreneurial side to Talent Acquisition. So, you’ve come in and seen it from the business perspective. In this role that you’re currently in with NielsenIQ, what are some areas that you’ve prioritized?
Amit: So, I have four priorities that I’m really focusing on, along with my team. The first is to understand the business priorities. I’m ensuring that the Talent Acquisition priorities, strategies, and our ways of working are aligned to support business growth. We are there to support the business, and many times, functions like Talent Acquisition and talent management start working in silos, which doesn’t help. It makes the function redundant. My priority is to ensure that I stay close to the business, make changes whenever required, and stay true to the business growth.
The second priority is continuous team development and growth. Once you identify the business priorities, you need to be very clear about what set of team you need to drive those priorities and how you develop the team. My focus is to assess the gap in terms of what we need to achieve and what skill sets we have available right now in the team to perform. If there is a gap, how do I bridge that gap? How do we develop the team, keep them true to the overall priorities and help them do their job better?
The third priority is technology. It goes without saying that technology is touching every aspect of life, every organization. What I’m trying to do is identify one or two key technologies or tools that can allow my team to create more space and time for themselves to create more value-added activities like business partnering, consulting with the business, and providing market insights, which could make them unique, which would help them make the right decisions and also engage with the talent more effectively. Through this technology, I want to take away those transactional activities that can be automated and let the team focus on the core areas from a talent function point of view.
Also, staying on technology, there’s a lot of discussion about AI and Generative AI. What I’m also trying to explore is how these tools and technologies can help us make our processes smarter. The benefit of having an AI or Generative AI tool is that it learns 24/7. You have data coming in all the time. It’s not humanly possible for your team to work 24/7. So, if you need to make decisions faster, if you want a form through which you can learn faster and get insights, you need some form of AI or Generative AI tool, that can monitor the data and generate insights 24/7, which will ultimately help the team as well as the business to make the right decisions.
Last but not least, is prioritizing internal mobility as an organization. We are really committed to giving the right opportunity to the top talent. This also helps us bridge the skill gaps, reduce the time to fill, and reduce the cost. This requires extensive communication and awareness, and the most important thing is understanding our available talent internally.
It’s easy to say that it’s internal talent mobility, and people say, “Okay, you have people, just move them.” No, you need to understand the talent that you have available internally. Not everybody has the skill, or they may have the skill, that is not there in the resume, it’s not in the system.
So, having those conversations, making people aware of the internal mobility plan, and facilitating that is another priority that we have. These are the four things that I’m really focusing on, and I believe this is going to help shape the organization much better in the coming days.
Lydia: Would you say that these four elements or four pillars, are crucial parts of what some may call future-proofing Talent Acquisition?
Amit: Absolutely. See, that’s another thing we need to understand as a talent function; many times, we get stuck with the current problems, with the current situation. We need to start thinking about the future. How we can make an impact in the future, and how we can start building the talent for the future. Some of these focus areas that I have, this is what we did, this is what’s going to help us not only solve the problems of today but also build a strong talent community for the future, and also a strong team of Talent Acquisition to solve the problems of the future.
Maneuvering the Internal Mobility Process Maze
Lydia: Internal mobility is interesting when you have to fill these gaps. What kind of process is involved in making sure that you've got that internal mobility program quite solid to begin with, in order for you to be able to move people around?
Amit: So, the most important thing is that you need to have a very clear process. Internal mobility can be quite complicated if you don’t have clear processes, clear mandates, and timelines.
Because when you move people internally, it also impacts the existing team. So, how do you facilitate that entire process, moving people internally, backfilling those roles, the timeline to backfill those roles? All these things need to be clearly defined.
The second thing is communication. It’s very important not only to communicate with the talent available internally but also with the business leaders to help them understand why internal mobility is important, right? How does it help the organization retain its top talent, and also help them grow in the organization? So, that’s really important.
In terms of the timeline, from launching the internal mobility policy and making it live, it depends upon the organization’s size, honestly. I mean, how big is the organization, how complicated is the structure of the organization? In NielsenIQ, when we launched this process, we were determined that we wanted to do it really quickly. There was a sense of urgency, so we literally went from no internal mobility policy to a full-fledged internal policy within 60 days. That was the timeline. That was the timeline that we did and what we have also started observing is that because of this internal mobility, our attrition rate has gone down. And also, our time to fill is improving every quarter. So, these are some of the benefits that you have for internal mobility, and this is the timeline that we’ll look at when we implement a policy.
Lydia: In terms of attracting the talent that you would see out there in the market and new talent coming in, what are some best practices that you can share in terms of what you've implemented to not just attract and retain this top talent in a competitive market?
Amit: NielsenIQ is an excellent organization to work for. We are pioneers in customer behavior intelligence, working with some of the largest and most advanced clients in the FMCG, tech, and durable industries. To match our clients’ growth and aspirations, we have made significant investments in technology and people. However, if we don’t share our story with the rest of the world and with the talent outside, nobody will know about the great things happening in the organization, and we will not be able to attract talented individuals.
In addition to the usual social media communication and advertising, what we ensure is that we organize leadership talks on a timely basis so that external talent can hear and interact directly with our leaders who are leading these changes and initiatives in the market. They can have direct interactions, ask questions, and understand how the organization is shaping up and what kind of investments we are making, not just in technology, as mentioned, but also in people. This is an excellent way to connect with the desired talent pool and also understand their aspirations. What today’s talent is looking for in an organization to build their career and stay for the long term. This is an innovative way that we have started, letting people know about the great things happening in the organization, and we have started seeing some great results.
Apart from that, in terms of future talent assurance, we invest a lot in early careers. We know the kind of future talent we need every year. Based on that, we built our early career program, and it is not just a hiring day event. We engage with those organizations, with those institutes, and let them know about what is happening in the organization. How are we helping shape the future? What kind of information we’re providing to our clients and how they can benefit from it. Having the future talent ready and making them aware of what’s happening in the organization is also a critical part for us in terms of attracting and retaining top talent in this market.
Aligning Data-Drive Talent Strategies with Analytical Business Culture
Lydia: Now, from both those groups, it seems as if growth, NielsenIQ being a place for growth and development, is definitely the angle that it’s taken there. Also, NielsenIQ is, as you said, known for its emphasis on data analytics and insights, etc. So, how do you make sure that your talent strategies are well aligned with the company’s sort of analytical business culture?
Amit: Great question. This also helps us think as a Talent Acquisition function about how relevant we are to the organization and to the business. The first step to being an analytical function is to understand and acknowledge what data we need to measure in order to be a successful function that impacts the business. So, we have a clear set of KPIs and SLAs for the talent function.
We know the data that we need to measure these KPIs and SLAs and to ensure that we meet these KPIs and SLAs, we have a dashboard that is fully automated and displays real-time data about the performance and also the health report of the Talent Acquisition function. This includes both the leading indicators as well as the lagging indicators. Many times, I’ve seen organizations focusing more only on the lagging indicators, like what has already happened in the past, but what we do is we also try to use this data to analyze and forecast how we are going to perform in the future based on our current performance.
In addition to that, we have made this dashboard and this data available to all the relevant parties, including the Talent Acquisition team members, the business leaders, the hiring managers, and the HR function.
It’s quite transparent; they all can see how we are progressing, what are the focus areas, and what kind of actions we are taking. So, it’s a two-way communication. It’s not just us publishing the data and letting them know how we are performing, but also taking feedback from them about what area we need to focus more on, based on the upcoming growth plans they have or the upcoming priorities.
As I mentioned, we use this data not just to focus on how we are performing now; we also use this data to anticipate our future performance. One of the examples I can share with you is the simple candidate conversion rate. For instance, we look at the data that right now; if we are filling a position in an X period of time, then what kind of candidate conversion we are achieving right now, is it one to five, two to five, three to five? If we need to improve performance by 10%, then what do we need to improve in terms of conversion to achieve that target?
So, these are the kinds of conversations that we have internally, not only to understand our current performance but also to drive these changes and influence the performance in the future. This becomes a part of a strategy and communication to the business, which also gives them the confidence that we are thinking ahead of time, we are trying to match the business pace. This is how we use data and analytics in the talent function to have an impact on the organization.
Lydia: It’s interesting that you said how Talent Acquisition is a function that has a direct impact on a business. There have been several views that say Talent Acquisition or recruitment is an indirect contributor to the business function, and usually, the discussion or the challenge is to get a voice at the table. So, your view is definitely far more forward, and it definitely sounds like you have a seat at the table already. So, what does it take to get that kind of say in business decisions?
Amit: The first thing is understanding the business. I have seen that, in some organizations, the HR team and the Talent Acquisition teams have different access to the business because the business feels that the HR function may understand the business more than the Talent Acquisition function. But at NielsenIQ, and I also, personally, the first thing I do is understand the business. When you understand the business, you speak the business language, acknowledge the business challenges, and the business automatically starts acknowledging the fact that yes, you are an important member of my overall plan.
It’s also important that once you understand the business, how quickly can you make changes in your ways of working, and give that confidence to the business that yes, I will make an impact on your bottom line, on your business, by making these changes. This is my commitment. This is how I’m going to drive it. So, for any business, if you look at the expectation from the talent function, recruitment, or hiring it is a given, you have to recruit people. That’s why you exist in the organization, but how are you helping me as an organization in terms of making the right decisions? Are you sharing market insights? Can you let me know what the competitors are doing better than us in terms of attracting talent or retaining talent?
If I need to look at a different set of talent, can you let me know? We cannot hire talent with this kind of skill set. However, we have some options available. Can you give me those insights? Another thing is, can you help me build the talent pipeline for the future? This is what we do really well at NielsenIQ because of this close contact with the business, we understand what kind of changes are happening within the talent space, and what kind of roles we can expect in the future. So, we start building the talent pipeline, and we give those insights that if you want to hire people with skill set ABC, this is how much it’s going to cost you. This is what the lead time would be.
So, when you’re making changes in your organization, please keep in mind the cost factor and the time factor because these are critical. Cost is an essential element for any business at any time. So, once you start giving those inputs and you start understanding the business challenges and their pain point, you’ll automatically get that seat, and that is what we have done really well at NielsenIQ.
Strategies for Long-Term Engagement to Retain Talent
Lydia: That cost relating to the time to hire and getting the right talent in, ensuring you have the whole talent plan mapped out is definitely costly. Not just in terms of money but also in terms of time. So, the next question would be employee retention. Obviously, you’ve already spoken about internal mobility, and reducing attrition, then there are also opportunities for growth.
In terms of employee retention, what might be some other plans that NielsenIQ perhaps has in place? Or maybe new experience might be useful for organizations that want to look at this element or this factor and how Talent Acquisition contributes to this happening.
Amit: As for my experience, I have seen that many organizations have a recruitment process focused only on filling a position. But at NielsenIQ, the way we have designed our process, it’s not just about filling a position. It’s also about retaining talent, and we do it in multiple ways. The first is, that we have an amazing assessment process. This assessment process not only tells us the fitment of a candidate for the role we are recruiting for but also what development areas we need to watch out for once a candidate comes on board. That’s a great insight for a hiring manager. Just imagine, you are recruiting a person, and you get a report that this person has the following skill sets matching the role, but you also need to watch out for the following things.
Start working on your coaching plan, on your development plan, when the person comes on board. And this is the exact conversation we have with the candidates, with the talent during the interview process, very transparently. You have the following skill sets, which is why we would like to make an offer. But you also need to be aware of the following development areas, which we are ready to invest in and spend time on you. But you also need to reciprocate. That’s the level of transparency we maintain in our evaluation process from day one.
The second thing is about the engagement level. Apart from the role, which is very basic—this is a job description, these are the roles and responsibilities you need to execute—those are given. But what we also do as a Talent Acquisition function is that we make the talent aware of our value propositions. When you join the organization, what kind of behavior do you need to exhibit, what are our employee value propositions, what are our principles, and how do we develop our talent internally? We also let them know our internal mobility program well in advance so that they can envision that once they join NielsenIQ - “What long-term career they can build with NielsenIQ?” And, “How much time does it take to get to the next level?” This is what Gen Z wants. If you look at Gen Y and Gen Z, they don’t want to wait for things to happen. They want that control. They want to know that, “If I join, I want to have control of my career.” When we start communicating all these things, we make them aware and we also let them know how you can create, how you can control, and navigate your career in NielsenIQ. These are some of the things we practice really well at our recruitment stage, which helps us ensure that we not only attract the right talent but also give them visibility about what their future will look like once they join the organization.
Adapt to Thrive in an Ever-Changing Landscape
Lydia: In fact, the intent for retention is already embedded into the process, it looks like. Amit, we’ve reached the last part of this and just before we wrap up, I would like to ask what advice would you give someone who’s starting out in the people space today.
Amit: So, when I started my career, the first thing that my manager told me — and I still remember it and am still practicing — and I mentioned this multiple times during our conversation, is to stay close to the business. We, as a talent function, are not a silo department. We are there to support the business and the organization. So, it’s important if you’re starting your career in talent or joining any organization at any stage of your career, to spend time to understand the business, understand the business priorities, understand the organization's priorities, and adapt to the strategies. This would require one to change. I have changed myself, from organization to organization there’s no way we can say, “This is my style of working and I will continue to work like this throughout my career.” That is not an option these days. So, we need to adapt based on the business priorities.
The second is to use technology. Don’t hesitate to use new technology like ChatGPT, and Co-Pilot from Microsoft, and see how these tools can help you to do your job better. Of course, every organization has its own technology stack, which we should definitely spend time and understand. But then individually as well, we should be aware, we should be technology-aware, we should be aware of what are the new things coming up in the market and how it can help us individually to grow.
That takes me to the next point, which is to never stop learning. Many times I’ve seen that once people join a new organization, or when they join their dream organization, they stop learning, they start doing the same thing again and again. That’s a perfect recipe for disaster. So as a talent function, you cannot stop learning; there is so much available in open space to learn, develop, and be ready for the future. So, never stop learning.
Last, but not least, it is to challenge the status quo, be agile, be open to change, do not confine yourself to a certain style of working or to a mindset. This cantus mindset of not changing or sticking to one specific way of working will have a very short lifespan in today’s world. So, these are the four things that I practice even now and I would suggest this to anybody who is starting their career in the talent function, or even changing jobs and joining a new organization.
Lydia: Thank you so much, Amit. These are great and valuable insights you have given, rather a very close look into the processes involved in creating a solid Talent Acquisition function that is not only prepared for the immediate needs of a business but also for the future needs of the business. So, it’s been great having you on the show. I’m sure whoever’s listening in today might want to pick up a conversation with you. So, where can they find you? What’s your preferred channel?
Amit: The best way to reach out to me is via LinkedIn. I’m fairly active on LinkedIn. You can find my profile, drop a message to me, send a contact, conversation requests. I’d be more than happy to get into any conversation. I like talking to people. I like learning new things, sharing my experience, and learning from other people’s experiences. So, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Lydia: Thank you very much, Amit.
Amit: Thank you so much, Lydia, it’s a pleasure having this conversation.
Lydia: We have been in conversation with Amit Kundu of NielsenIQ. Thank you for joining us and remember to subscribe to stay tuned for more weekly episodes of All-In Recruitment.
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