EP36: The Kraft Heinz Company - Future-Proofing Talent Acquisition (With Jacqueline Abeel)

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 week, Jacqueline Abeel, Talent Acquisition Business Partner at The Kraft Heinz Company joins us to share strategies on diversifying recruitment strategies to fulfill business needs now and in the future.

Also in this episode:

• What goes into crafting job descriptions that attract the right talent?
• What skills do TABPs need to have in today’s context?
• How do you ensure candidate care throughout the process?

‍

Transcript

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 and stay tuned for our weekly episodes.

I'm your host, Lydia. And joining us today is Jacqueline Abeel, Talent Acquisition Business Partner at the Kraft Heinz Company based in the US.

Good afternoon, Jacqueline. Great to have you with us today.

Jacqueline: Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Jacqueline’s Journey In The Talent Acquisition Space

Lydia: So Jackie, you've spent close to eight years in the recruitment field, and you've built some specialization in technical recruitment.

Walk us through your journey, and why is this a field you feel strongly about?

Jacqueline: I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in social work. So I worked with people of all different ages, specifically children and teens. I loved that work, and I loved helping people. But I decided that I also wanted to make money, and unfortunately, in the helping profession, it's just not there.

And I kind of always had my eye on recruiting because I have friends that were in recruiting and in that space. I wanted to find something where I could still help people and also have fun doing it and make money. Plus, I played sports all my life too, so I have that competitiveness, and that's part of the drive and recruiting also.

Being in recruiting is about winning, getting the best hire, and getting recognition, and that's always what I've sought to get. So I reached out to this small recruiting firm, and they took a chance on me. When I first started there, I had eight hires, I think in my first week, and I went full force into it. I had to take a significant pay cut to start that role. But because I got into that role, I made more money than I would even make if I stayed in the helping profession, and I've not looked back since.

I love getting to know people and hearing about their journeys, getting them new jobs, and changing their lives.

I think definitely now being at the corporate level, I'm seeing it more because I have more time with those people. I used to work a lot in contract recruiting. So I didn't have as much time, but now that I'm on the corporate side, I have more time to put care and thought into how I work with individuals.

Lydia: You've been with KraftHeinz for some time now. So what might be some key areas of focus for this role?

Jacqueline: So coming up on a year, but it feels like I've been here a really long time. I specialize in all roles- IT and Global Business Services, that under it could be a data engineer, solutions architect, head of IT infrastructure, or cloud engineer. Those types of roles.

Then the Global Business Services, those are any roles that fall under that. Mainly, I handle all roles in North America. So Canada and US. I am working on some roles in London and Amsterdam. But those are mainly my focus.

The Whole Process of Technical Recruitment

Lydia: So technical recruitment - what might be the process behind that?

How are things done and timed from the point of requisition? I understand you're also working remotely.

Jacqueline: Typically when we get a requisition, it has to go through a slotting process and be approved. Once it's approved, we have a kickoff call that happens with the hiring manager.

From there we go over all the questions about the role.

I usually also try to bring insights about how many candidates are in that area with that skill set. How hard is it going to be? So I go over expectations of when I'm gonna send over candidates - usually within three days.

When I expect feedback, which is usually in a day, and how quickly do they want this role to start?

I usually have my HR business partner in that meeting with me. So he's able to balance out if there's anything that a hiring manager may say; he's able to be that other voice, which is extremely helpful in this space.

That's typically how the process goes, once we get a role to start. The expectation in the past was that we had to fill a role in 50 days. But that has recently changed.

KraftHeinz is more focused on quality than they are on trying to fill a role in that amount of time. I think it is a great thing to do because that will lead to - well I’m already having quality hires - but I think it will get even better, without having to race to the finish.

Lydia: For technical recruitment, what might be the approach toward assessments?

Jacqueline: As far as trades, obviously, we want them to have the software skills that we may need for the role. But outside of that, it's important for us to have the right fit for our business, the IT business, and KraftHeinz.

So really, I'm looking for someone that has the ambition or desire to succeed. And then also diverse candidates, it's so important at KraftHeinz. One of our values are we demand diversity.

And as part of every interview process, I also want to make sure that there's at least one woman and one person of color in the interview when there are three people at the end.

So that is a huge thing for me, outside of those traits, I would say, also a passion. They have a passion and a desire to succeed, and they want to be a part of a culture that even though Kraft and Heinz separately has is old, technically. But together, we're a new company, and we want someone that wants to be a part of that innovation.

How Do You Future-Proof Recruitment?

Lydia: I noticed that you've also created recruitment strategies that are meant to fulfill business needs now and also in the future.

So what might be some ways to think about future-proofing recruitment?

Jacqueline: I think this is so important, not just in technical recruiting, but in all areas of recruiting.

I think the biggest thing about how you can prepare for this is making sure you're in those meetings with senior business leaders.

They're able to see what's going to be upcoming and what is the vision for the next few years.

We have something currently within IT that's called IT 2025. They already have an outlook of what functions are going to need specific roles. So what I have done is I've partnered with one of those leads to try to work with him on how we can bring future talent in. One of those strategies is to start bringing in people that have just graduated. Start a boot camp and a program so we can start getting that talent.

Because the thing that we've seen and we've been missing is - since I've started - I have not hired anyone with under five years of experience.

We need to start growing them as soon as they graduate. Because people are going to grow out of these roles. So I think that's important.

On top of that is pipelining. When I know that I get roles consistently, I always have a search that goes into the background of those people that could be used for different positions in the future.

Let's say, if I had good candidates that did not become the new hire, and I have an area where they can be, I can reach out to them in the future. But not only those people but always just searching in the back of my mind. Because I know that I get data engineers and cloud engineers, so just always keep a pipeline of potential candidates as well.

Talent Acquisition’s Role Managing Multi-Generational Workforce

Lydia: It's interesting that you say you've diversified that strategy to also include campus hiring. But it's also interesting to see how that has gone into the mix as well. Because ultimately, you will also be creating a multi-generational workforce.

You've got the depth of the company that's old, and then the newness of a startup in a young merged company.

So, what's the role of talent acquisition business partners to make sure that you're managing this multi-generational workforce well?

Jacqueline: I would say in a nutshell, not only are we recruiters but we are business partners as well. We have to partner with hiring managers, and we have to partner with senior leaders to make sure we are bringing in the right people not only in a timely fashion but the right talent in general.

Does this make sense for the business? So honestly, I would say that that is the number one thing but for recruiting, it’s making sure that I have the right outlook. And I know the types of people that we're going to bring in.

The second part of it is making sure that my job postings are attracting the right type of people, have the right language in them, and they're reaching all different ages and different types of people.

Also, I'm making sure that I'm educating these hiring managers on how their teams are supposed to look and that we shouldn't just have a team of just all white men. We need to have diversity in that team.

So they trust me to be that partner, and I think that another huge thing in this role is to have trust. If they trust you, they know that they can come to me and I will be able to show them insights, and how we can get the best hire.

Looking For Top Talent

Lydia: Now we're seeing many trends in TA and also out there among candidates, especially that it includes the rise that we see in contract work. Also, the need to build more connectivity in a workforce that is increasingly fragmented or distributed.

Then you also have to think about maintaining the productivity of these teams that are all over the place, right?

So soft skills, teamwork, etc, continue to become as critical as technical skills, right? Companies have to make sure that their teams are strong enough to go through periods of uncertainty.

So when you look out for top talent, what is it that what are some traits that you search for checking?

Jacqueline: Regarding top talent, I think that somebody needs to not only be independent but also collaborate well with others. We're really big on that here.

I think that the good thing is that they give people their autonomy, but they also want them to be a contributor to a team as well. So I think somebody that is passionate about their craft is also important. We don't want to bring people here that have a lackluster attitude and want to just sit back. We want people to go after it and get their hands dirty.

Lydia: So, what constitutes successful hire?

Jacqueline: I think I touched on this briefly before. But one being such a diverse hire I think that is important here.

Also, I think outside of that is the ambition, and desire to succeed.  Somebody tell me on a call that they want to grow to be an associate director, they want to grow to different levels in the company. I think that if on those calls, they are talking about what growth opportunities they want to do, or they see for themselves, I think that's huge.

I think, again, soft skills are important. But I think being outgoing and able to have a voice if you're able to talk to people, on different levels and have those relationships with stakeholders that will go a long way. And as you know, as long as I've been here, the successful hires that I've seen, I brought those people in.

Lydia: And they've developed in the company, and they've shown progress.

Jacqueline: One of my first hires, they wanted to promote her after six months, but we don't promote until you're here a year.

But she has had exceptional reviews from customers and clients about how fantastic her work is. And that's the type of thing that I want to see when I hire someone.

Lydia: So, how would you describe the role of a talent acquisition business partner today? What do they need to be? Or what skills should they have to be successful as a TA Business Partner today?

Jacqueline: I think being able to work with business leaders, hiring managers, and having those successes, I think is a huge part of this. You have to do that first before you can recruit. Because if you don't have that trust and relationship with them, then you're not going to be able to hire the right person. If you go to them and say, "This is what the market looks like", or "Is there flexibility on what skills we could have in this role", then if they trust you, they could say, "There's some flexibility" and "We can train this person."

Additionally, I think if you have that relationship that leads above all, and then recruiting comes after that, having good job descriptions comes after that. And it continues on from there.

Using AI To Generate Job Descriptions

Lydia: Talking about job descriptions and that outward language that you project when you speak to a candidate and give them that insight into the company, what are the elements that make up a good quality interview for a technical role, for instance?

Jacqueline: I think before we used to have very long job descriptions. But you've noticed that more people are applying on mobile devices now than ever. So I think mostly you need to keep it to one page, right? Also, people want to see benefits when they're applying for a job that is intriguing to people, and they know what they're getting themselves into. So we structure it that way -  putting the location and the times of their working hours - is something that we added in there.

Also, instead of having every single bullet point from the job description, we do it as a preview. It's just a preview of the job, when somebody is actually in the interview process, they get the full job description.

And I say that at the bottom of the job description, it does say this is a preview. But after the benefits piece, it says what's on the menu, right? Because we're trying to incorporate it with our brands, and it's only six bullet points. Because you don't want to go through all these points and see what they're looking for. That's your responsibility. And then the next area is the recipe for success apply.

Now if this sounds like you, those bullets are in first person, I have project management skills and I have led a team of five-plus people. We've removed education and years of experience to show that we're open to all levels of individuals. So they don't feel that they aren't qualified for the role, but they think that there's a chance that they could be. And honestly, because of this new format that we have started - I think it's been about a month now - the success that I've had from it has been tremendous.

I used to have maybe five to 10 applicants before, but now I have 20-plus applicants. I'm not doing as much recruiting as I used to because we've shaped our job descriptions to be more of what they want to read and be like "I have done that".

Lydia: Now we see widespread use of AI to generate job descriptions, as you just mentioned and there are different ways in which we approach that. AI has gotten to many aspects of the business, in fact.

So, how do you think TA professionals can benefit from artificial intelligence?

Jacqueline: I think something that just came out. I think LinkedIn is about to roll out if you know a specific job that's going to come up on LinkedIn, you can choose that job. Let's say, a software engineer and the platform will put those skills in there. It will auto-generate the whole job description which is definitely a time saver for somebody that needs to have job descriptions.

I think that's one thing. Another thing that could be really useful with AI is if you're able to upload a job description and it can pull out those keywords and create a search for you. It will be a huge time saver to have those things.

I mean, not that it's significant now, but sometimes you could have the call with the hiring manager about the job description and think you understand the job. But you may not totally understand it.

But that's the beauty of AI. They can pull out what they see as those important things, and they can bring up profiles that look like the job description.

So I think for recruiting that would be huge.

Impacts of Automation Tools On Recruitment

Lydia: There are many automation tools out there in the market, such as ours, Manatal.

What kind of impact in your experience using them? What kind of impact do you think these technologies and tools have on recruitment or have had on recruitment so far?

Jacqueline: I think, again, those AI tools will be really helpful with generating new documents and things that you can share with hiring managers and candidates in order for a recruiter to have to do that extra legwork. But I think companies are always going to need recruiters because people constantly are going to want that face-to-face interaction because they want to know what the experience is like at the company.

But if you have a feature on a career site that is a chat function and somebody wants to know about their application or see where they're at in the process, that can be super helpful in order to have conversations with candidates and be able to be consistent and talk with them on a regular basis. But if we're not able to, if there's a chat function where you can just ask that and they're able to give you that information. I think that would also help a lot.

Lydia: You mentioned something critical, which is the in-person experience. So let's talk about the candidate experience a little bit.

What are some ways you can ensure candidate care throughout the recruitment process?

Jacqueline: I think what has been helpful for me with working with candidates is showing that I'm human. I think that's the first step to having a good candidate experience. I think after that, even if a candidate is no longer in consideration for a role, just letting them know, and even reaching out having reached out every few weeks, "Hey, I'm keeping an eye out for you."

I know that I may have some roles coming up. And just saying, like, "I have you on my mind and keep in close in that way." I think that's been helpful as far as future roles.

As far as somebody that is in the process, and potentially going to be the hire, I think, giving them as much information as you can about the company about what the hiring manager's leadership style is, which I try to get as much detail as I can before I speak with them.

I think if when you're able to give all this information, they really feel confident and comfortable moving to the next rounds, you want them to feel that way. You want them to feel that throughout the process, so they know after going through those rounds, they're going to give their best shot. I thoroughly believe that I helped my candidates, even if, let's say they're not the best candidate in the mix, personality is so important that they could be and it's happened before. They've seen that more of a leg up than someone that skills and it's like, we know this person is going to ramp up quickly. So I would say I take a lot of thought into the candidate experience. I think a lot of that comes from my social work background, but I put a lot of care into that.

Lydia: So, what advice would you give someone starting out in recruitment today taking?

Jacqueline: I would say the biggest thing is to keep yourself organized, your calendar specifically, block off times in your calendar for you to do administrative work, don't just keep it open. Because when you keep it open, people are going to keep putting stuff on your calendar, and you want to give yourself boundaries and space with your hiring managers even with recruiting, because if you don't give yourself different time blocks, it can just turn into chaos, and we don't want that.

The other important thing is building those relationships early on with managers there. Again, this is a partner role in any type of recruiting role. Those are the people that are hiring person. So if you build those relationships with them from the beginning, you will have success no matter what in this role.

Lydia: Thank you so much, Jackie, for your great insights. That really gives us a visual idea of how to maybe structure something and the strategies that we can think about, especially when we're diversifying the workforce.

It's been a great pleasure having you on the show, and I'm sure the audience will also want to know where to find you.

So, where can they find you?

Jacqueline: Thank you for having me. They could find me on LinkedIn, Jacqueline Abeel. I think I'm the only one, and I don't know that anybody has the same similar name as me.

I'm used to always being first. So I'm sure you will find me right away in the search bar.

Lydia: Great. We have been in conversation with Jacqueline Abeel, Talent Acquisition Business Partner at The Kraft Heinz Company based in the US.

Thank you for joining us and stay tuned for more weekly episodes of All-In Recruitment.