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.
Transcript
The 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. We are available on YouTube and Spotify, and stay tuned for weekly episodes.
My name is Lydia, and joining us today is Isha Bhatia, Global Talent Management Lead at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. Good morning, Isha. Thank you for joining us on this podcast.
Isha: Morning, Lydia. Very happy to be here. Thank you.
How Does Talent Management Play a Role In the Recruitment Process?
Lydia: Isha, you've spent your career in HR. And interestingly, with a first degree in mechanical engineering. Nice transition there. Today, you lead the Global Talent Management function for Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. Tell us about some of the areas you've prioritized in this role.
Isha: Talent is an extremely critical function for us, and we have talent along with what we call the resourcing function. While recruiting starts with the whole attracting candidates and getting them in, I think the talent management part of it comes in almost in parallel.
We would like to consider our recruiters as talent managers because their job does not stop after they bring the candidates in. In many places, we focus on include having a strong undifferentiated employee value proposition.
How might we translate that into a strong employer brand to attract the talent we need? As part of the talent management function, I think our job spans the entire lifecycle of our colleagues. It starts with our strong employee value proposition for the organization and how that translates into an employer brand, through which we attract the talent that we need, the best talent out there.
A big focus is on the technology solutions we are deploying to attract and identify the talent we want to bring across different markets and business areas.
From a talent management perspective, I think these colleagues are with us in the organization. There's a lot of focus on how we might continuously provide opportunities for them to grow and learn and have a career internally.
So internal career mobility is a big focus area for us, and deploying our talent areas where it matters would be the entire gamut of what we call talent management in the organization.
Lydia: Ensuring you have the right talent today is a challenge. And especially within the digital talent space. And we are now hearing lots of discussions around gamified assessments, including how this might contribute to a positive impression from candidates.
But how different is this approach in terms of candidate experience compared to traditional assessments?
Isha: I think that's interesting because technology has accelerated, especially in the last two years, where many organizations have started using different methods of assessing the candidate base.
Our experiment with gamified assessment has largely been in what we call our graduate hiring space or early careers, as we call it. And we implemented a gamified assessment solution from biometrics, actually, for the same.
And this assessment tool is very different from a traditional ability test where you are typically doing aptitude or numerical or logical ability-based questions. Compared to that, this one is a game, basically, and it's really interesting and a fresh take.
The interesting sign sitting behind it is that it is still helping you assess certain key future skills that will be important for our candidates in the future. So, while as an individual, you're basically playing the game, but actually, the AI of the tool is at the back end, mapping it against certain key skills that we have fed into the critical profile of the success profile that we have created for a successful candidate.
So, I think the biggest change is the experience of the individual or the candidates themselves. It's leveled the playing field a little bit because otherwise, traditional aptitude-based tests seem to favor students from a particular background or discipline more because it's more math or a particular type.
But I think when you're doing a game, it doesn't matter what background you're coming from. So that's one big part. And then, of course, the entire experience itself is less threatening, and that's the feedback we've been getting that it’s fun.
Also, it is way more intuitive because this is what they're used to. Everything else that this Millennial population or other Gen Z is into, it's very similar to that. So, that's what the gamified assessments have been, for us, in the early experiments that we've had with it.
Lydia: How early are you in the deployment of this gamified assessment?
Isha: We basically have had one successful season of our graduate hiring using this. I must add that it's not just the gamified assessment only. It's a multi-step process, as you can imagine, so the assessment sits right up the front of the entire assessment process.
We also do something called a value-based assessment, which is another integral part of our organization, where we check whether your core value system matches with us as an organization or not.
That's fairly gamified in the sense that it's very scenario-based, very role-play-based. It’s not theoretical questions being given to you when you're supposed to answer. It's putting you in a particular situation and seeing how you might want to reach out and how you will react.
Those are our two tests that happen upfront, and as you proceed through the pipeline, you would then be called for a video interview, and candidates who complete that are then called for an in-person Assessment Center. You do meet a human in the process. I think it's a beautiful blend of using both technology solutions to help us narrow our pipelines.
“We get 10s of 1000s of applications from across the globe. Having a technology-based solution upfront enables us to expand our reach and helps us bring very diverse or reach out to a very diverse candidate pool.”
I think that's the biggest advantage of using something like that. And the early sort of metrics that we are getting in shows us a better application rate, more adoption, and more completion of the games. In the past, we've had people start the assessment process but not complete it.
We have better completion of games happening this time, which means at least they're finishing the first step. So, to do that, some early trends coupled with better diversity in the pipeline and in the application sort of tool, which, of course, was a big metric for us.
Lydia: When you speak about gamified assessments, are these applied across all roles in different verticals, or do they deploy primarily in your experiment for a specific type of role at this point?
Isha: Our graduate hiring happens across multiple businesses. So it's happening for our corporate banking side. It's happening in our consumer banking. It's happening for some of our technology teams. It's also happening for some of our risk functions.
So the answer is yes, it's being applied to different lines of businesses across multiple markets. We hire in about 25 plus markets. It's happening across all markets. And we did experiment with, basically, using it across the board.
Lydia: On a deeper level, what might these assessments reveal about the applicant pool itself?
Isha: I think the biggest one is how many people are engaging with the games. And clearly, if more people are playing the game, applying, and completing the games, it corroborates the fact that this is something that talks to this generation and is a preferred style for them.
So they're finding it fairly intuitive. I think that's a big piece for us. We've got great feedback on the experience itself. ‘It was really easy. I enjoyed the process.’ I liked the feedback it gave me because it gives you a report on your personality.
Lydia: So, it gives it to the applicant.
Isha: Yes. That's another add-on to it. I think those are some of the great early indicators for this one.
The Importance of Future-Ready Workplaces for Employees
Lydia: And you've spoken about the recruitment process at an early stage. Let's talk about some ways you've approached talent retention at Standard Chartered.
Isha: That's a big focus area for all organizations, especially considering the upgrade resignation. We've been calling it after the COVID year.
The workforce, demands of the workforce are changing. People have been looking at questions like, ‘Why am I working? What do I want from my job? What do I expect from my organization?’ And so on. So, I think it was extremely important for us to listen to what our colleagues listen to, as well as what people are saying, and adapt to that. One of them, I think, was a hygiene factor, but we were among the first organizations to implement a hybrid working arrangement. It was in the plan even before COVID hit, but it accelerated with COVID.
That is one of the big pieces that we've been focusing on. We call it the ‘future-ready workplace.’ It gives you the ability to work, decide your timings, decide the days, decide your location, from where you would like to work.
The other big piece that we've also been focusing on is well-being at work. It has become extremely important post-pandemic. From a talent retention perspective, colleagues need to feel that they belong to the organization, and the fact that they can, they're going to be hard. There are avenues for them to express themselves freely, and support and help are available as needed.
So well-being below is another big area for adapting some of our solutions to what the colleague needs. We do these regular employee listening sessions, where we get feedback from our colleagues, and one of the areas there has been around career advancement opportunities.
That is important to people. So, how we provide that for our colleagues is a focus area. We deployed solutions, like an internal talent marketplace, that enable them to experience opportunities in different parts of the organization, interfacing with the internal gig setup.
And just in terms of providing continuous learning opportunities, that would be another place where we now have an internal learning platform that is almost positioned as the Netflix of learning in the interface. The way it looks and feels, how you can interact with it, and how it curates content for you are based on what you are interested in or the part of the organization that you're in.
Similar to how Netflix works with its recommendations, this platform also recommends learning and development opportunities for colleagues.
Talent retention is really broad. How we react to it is a sum of what we think where the future is going and hence what we think we want to provide to our colleagues. But at the same time, for us, listening to our colleagues is extremely important, and hence, you are adapting solutions to solve that and to address that. I think that would be the key.
What Are the Biggest Hurdles for Employer Branding Today?
Lydia: And on that note comes the employer brand. What, in your opinion, might be the three biggest hurdles for employer branding today? Are the disruptive environments that we've seen recently one of them?
Isha: I think it's not that. Anything is supremely different. I think it's the expectation and the demands of the workforce that has changed and evolved. And you're so keeping up to that would be the key challenge from an employer branding perspective.
It's also been a factor in what part of the employee value proposition we want to translate into our employer brand. What are we? Why are we different? What sets us apart from other similar organizations? And why should somebody join us? These are the key facet we would like to put the message out there.
We've been focusing on different strategies, which include looking at specific talent segments. So, how would we target graduates? How would we target experienced hires? How would we target what we call our alumni here, people who worked with us at some point and then moved on?
So, we rang employees. If there is a segmentation or an entire focus on reaching these specific groups or segments, as we call them, then there is another element in terms of putting our strategy out there, which is what is the organization standing for?
We recently launched our bold stance, as we call it, or a WhatsApp chat. It basically says what the purpose of the organization is.
"What is the positive impact we want to make on the communities in which we work? Putting that message out there is a key part of the employer branding strategy. "
And then, finally, there is also an element of location or markets that come in. Because we are extremely strong in Asia and emerging markets, we will talk a lot about some of those facets as well. So, I think it's an overlay of multiple things, especially for an organization as broad and big as ours. But I think it's a constantly evolving approach to ensure that the key talent segments we want to reach out to, so we are doing that in an extremely proactive and topical manner.
Measuring the Success of Your Employer Branding Campaign
Lydia: How do you measure the success of your employer's brand branding campaign or strategy?
Isha: You have your usual metrics regarding how your different campaigns are. How many impressions did it gather? What was the engagement with your content? The likes, the shares, and the comments. I think these are the hard ones for you to look at. A lot of the campaigns may typically have some call to action. ‘Apply here’ or ‘click here to learn more, and something where you got to do a next step, which tells us that people have engaged with it. I think those are harder metrics that we would go after.
There are also other important pieces to look at. For example, our branding opportunities that we’ve done out there, or the employer of choice. We are getting feedback from colleagues who are already in the organization. In terms of a net promoter score, we would ask, ‘Would you recommend this as a place to work for somebody outside?’
So, those would be both outward and inward-looking metrics to see how these campaigns are landing.
Lydia: Talent teams that bring fresh new hires into companies also need to play a role in facilitating that transition from a graduate school environment into the world of work as well.
Today, especially, we're seeing a unique time we have many generations in the workforce. What might be some ways for talent teams to facilitate this better as we move into the coming years?
Isha: It is an extremely important topic for us.
“Working in this space, the big factor would be in helping the new generation assimilate into the organization.”
And we do that via different interventions of having a very structured plan for them for the first 12 to 18 months that they join us. There is a program that they go through, which has exposure or allows them to have exposure to different parts of the organization, where they are learning on the job, coupled with self-learning through the platforms that we have incorporated with a lot of mentoring and learning from seniors in the organization.
We also complement that by having a buddy system. You’ll have a senior, preferably from the same college, who is your buddy to help you navigate through the initial phase. The entire ecosystem is in place to support this new young hire assimilating into the organization. And I think that then complements our work to make intergenerational workforce work.
As you said, you have four or five generations at work at the same time, especially for organizations like ours. So, how do we make sure that our seniors, who perhaps are two generations away from the young graduates who are coming in, are working cohesively and moving in the same direction?
We experiment with reverse mentoring to get some juniors to mentor the seniors. We have a very strong sponsorship program, where the seniors act themselves, not just as managers, but as sponsors for this talent, and can help them navigate and grow in the organization. We do many workshops to put everybody on the same stage and talk about what technology means to you.
And what do relationships mean to you at work? Just talk about things to increase sensitivity and ensure that we are not just hiding behind stereotypes and saying, they don't understand me, this generation doesn't get it, etc. But having that honest conversation so these innovations can flourish together.
What kind of technology do HR leaders and recruiters need to consider to execute their recruitment plan successfully?
Lydia: Technology is the backbone of businesses today. And there are plenty of tools to automate hiring, such as Manatal’s ATS.
So, how might technologies such as an ATS help ensure a successful hiring strategy or help recruiters execute that successfully?
Isha:
“The backbone of any successful hiring strategy has a strong Applicant Tracking System. And there are multiple options out there. I think, for us, what has also been important is how your ATS talks to the other technology and structure you have in the organization.”
Whether that is your learning platform, your talent mobility platform, or your internal employee portal so that you can leverage the insights that come from each of these, as step one, you need to have a strong app.
We are also experimenting with bringing a CRM into the mix so that you can manage your applicant tool and prospective candidates to target people who join you for events and engage with your employer brand campaign.
So, how do you target them specifically, and how will you get them to apply to you? Once they do, then they flow through the ATS.
And it's also about, once people are selected into the organization, are we able to track how they are progressing, how they are performing? Because at the end of the day, you want to know the quality of hires, and the retention time for them. You’ll want to be able to get your insights and say, “Candidates from this particular background stay with us longer.” Or, “Candidates from this institute do better in different things.”
Nonetheless, ATS is the backbone of it all. And so how you leverage the insights from that, I think, is the real way to unlock the power of what these technology platforms can give you.
Advice for recruiters on how to get a better understanding of their audience
Lydia: Thank you so much, Isha. I'm sure plenty of people out there, especially those starting in recruitment or talent management, have so many facets that you've just mentioned. That’s what they're also facing.
What advice would you give someone starting in recruitment and talent management today?
Isha: I think, of course, the starting point really would be to understand our business. What kind of candidates are they looking for? What are the skills that they are specifically looking for? Not just technical but also what we call leadership or power skills. That is going to be important in the future for those roles. So that getting a really good hang of that would be a key part. At the same time, know your audience, knowing whom you are going after and where that audience is available. Where do they hang out? That is where the recruiter needs to be.
And if I can give you some advice, I think it would be about having the ability to challenge, the ability to ask your hiring managers, “Why not?” There will always be a traditional, safer way of looking at a particular candidate.
But, I think our job as recruiters is also to challenge that a little bit and say, “Why don't we consider somebody from this background? Or, “Why don't we take a bet on someone else?” And this is where some of these tools, your scores in an assessment tool, and things like that come in handy. They will enable you to say, “these candidates may not be coming from the top tier Institute and so on. But, there is enough to tell us that these could be promising candidates.”
I think that's the big role recruiters can play in actively managing diverse colleagues coming into the organization.
Lydia: Thank you so much, Isha, for your time and wonderful insights today. For the audience's benefit, if they want to reach out, where can they connect with you?
Isha: You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm available as Isha Majithia Partea. You can find me there. And again, happy to be here. Lydia, thank you so much for having me.
Lydia: And we have been in conversation with Isha Bhatia, the global talent management lead at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. If you like our content, please subscribe to our channels and stay tuned for more weekly episodes of All-In Recruitment. Thank you.
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