Reflections: 31,536,000 seconds of Talent Attraction Transformation

31,536,000 seconds - did you know that's how many seconds are in a year? Funny thing, I had expected it would be more.

As I come up to a full year since taking on the role of leading and transforming our Talent Attraction team at Synamedia I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the year that has passed. And what a year it’s been – full of highs and lots of learning.

It had been a few years since I’d been stuck into the world of talent attraction and upon taking the role a few people in my network queried whether it was taking a step back in my career. For me though it was taking a big leap forward. It was the opportunity to create something brilliant from scratch and to build a team up from the small foundations that were already in place. It was also an opportunity to dive back into an area I had forgotten I was so passionate about, and I like to think I’m pretty darn good at too.

So, as I reflect on the year gone by there are 3 key learning's I’d like to share.

1)?????Building a team isn’t easy

In October 2021 I inherited a small team of 5 people. With big ambitions to focus on providing an exceptional candidate experience, focus on diversity hiring and reduce agency spend, it was clear that we needed to invest. Invest in people, training and technology.

And that we did. By looking at data and our hiring forecast we were able to build a plan which would quickly bring the team up to 15 people around the world. The early days in my new role were spent trawling LinkedIn and using my network to find the most talented people to bring into the team. This was my number one priority and key focus. We invested in an early-in-career sourcing team in India who would be the engine fueling the machine that would go on to make more than 400 hires in the last year.

When building a team, you’re not going to get all your hires right, every-time. As a leader you can invest your time and energy in training and growing your team, but it may still not work out and it’s important to not take that personally. That said, we hired some exceptional talent into our TA team and pushed people into challenging themselves to step up and take on more. By empowering your team and putting your trust in them they can and will do great things.

2)?????Think differently

As we pivot to SaaS and evolve as an organisation, Talent Attraction need to do the same. Being curious and unafraid to challenge are key here. The post-pandemic talent market went through some interesting times in 2021 and 2022 which meant it was a candidate’s market. In the UK for the first time ever there were more vacancies than unemployed people and around the world we saw unprecedented levels of compensation being offered for hires. Thankfully, the market seems to have normalised since, but it caused us to think about what our overall proposition is beyond just salary and how we go about articulating that proposition.

We have an excellent culture and people value the flexibility and opportunities for growth that we offer. All these additional benefits, such as the 5 "Time to Give" days we give to our people each year allowing them to give back to the causes and communities they are passionate about, gets people excited about what life could be like if they accept a role with us.

It’s also important to be conscious of our history and the path that has led us to where we are today: be curious and always ask yourself “could we do it better”. And we did exactly that in hosting our very first company-wide global internal careers fair which saw internal moves skyrocket in the months following. We challenged ourselves again as we launched our Campus Hiring for the 2023 intake and had the best outcome we’ve ever experienced with feedback from the Universities and Graduates being excellent.

But to do things differently does mean investing time in building meaningful relationships and taking people on a journey. From this you build trust, and this is when great things can happen. Without that, ideas will remain ideas – you need buy in and great people to bring ideas to life.

3)?????Be the person you want to be led by and be authentic

There are two schools of thought here – should you be the person your team want to be led by or be the person you want to want to be led by. Personally, I think you need to strike a balance between both. Great leaders in my life have certainly inspired and shaped my style as a leader however I have also learned that with 15 different people in my team they all have different needs. It’s important to be a fair leader, but also mindful of the different ways in which people approach their work and communicate. The Insights Discovery Model was helpful for me in learning the different styles within my team and in understanding how to get the best out of each person. And I'm sure also for my team in learning how to best communicate with me.

I also learned the real importance of being Authentic. A piece of feedback I received early on in my career is that I can come across as too formal and I know I am guilty of (at times) being a little direct. By sharing my experiences and challenges, both past and present I hope my team see me as someone they trust, are inspired by, and enjoy working with.

Final Thoughts...

And whilst I’m sure the year ahead will be full of new challenges and opportunities, I am proud to have an excellent team behind me, because without my team we would not be able to achieve great things.

If you're still here, thanks for taking the time to read my reflections. What have you learned in the last year and how have you adapted to the shift in the talent market? I'd love to hear your thoughts...