The Situation

A 90-year innovative global Fortune 100 company providing software, hardware and services integrating physical and digital communications engaged inTalent Consulting Group to conduct an organizational assessment of their talent acquisition function. The company was in the midst of a three year Human Resources transformation designed to strategically align HR with the business.

The one group that was lagging in performance was Recruiting. The HR leadership team called on inTalent to assess the effectiveness of the talent acquisition function and make recommendations on organization strategy and structure in order to deliver top talent to the company.

The outcome of the engagement would reveal opportunities for improvement and establish the road map and project plan to implement and affect change. inTalent was asked to assess:

• Is the Recruiting group organized as effectively as possible?
• How does the business view our results?
• Are we a considered a strategic partner to the business?
• What does talent acquisition need to change to drive and enable future business growth?
• How do we become a high performing organization?
• How should we reorganize: Centralize? Decentralize? Matrix?
• How do we compare to other benchmark organizations?

The Challenges

The company had just completed a three-year transformation. The HR leadership team was unconvinced that what they had put in place was the most effective way to lead recruiting for the business. There was significant noise from the line managers about the service delivery model. Company leadership wanted answers quickly and inTalent was given an accelerated timeline as a result.

Internal calendars were difficult to coordinate due to other initiatives. Also, there were significant challenges understanding the data—poor metrics and flawed numbers meant the labor load of recruiters was difficult to evaluate. Recruiting tools (e.g., screening, evaluation, consulting skills), sourcing capabilities (e.g., ads, Internet, databases, agencies), tactical versus strategic initiatives (e.g., CRM), and performance metrics (e.g., time to fill, cost per hire, manager satisfaction) all required a deep assessment. The company was in flux during the transformation, and some of the HR members thought this engagement was stressing those who were handling a lot of change. Understanding all the constituents change management issues were critical to the success of the project.

The inTalent Solution

inTalent engaged in step-by-step in-depth analysis of the talent acquisition organization. Interviews were conducted with the executive leadership team, as well as other key stakeholders across the organization. Additionally, we led focus groups, data collection and document reviews, and championed a thorough analysis of key data, core processes, applicant systems, hiring metrics and demand plans, recruiter and team performance, and user satisfaction ratings. At the conclusion of the audit, inTalent had a thorough understanding of all internal and external hiring processes, system utilization, performance metrics, reporting capabilities, and compliance gaps.

The Result

inTalent delivered a strategic organizational overview and assessment, as well as a functional plan with organization design alternatives. After facilitating discussions with the CHRO, the HR leadership team was able to make decisions about the future state desired, and co-create and implement a new talent acquisition strategy. inTalent’s focus on change management, communication and training were key success factors to achieving a successful completion and adoption of the recommended strategies. Final deliverables included:

• Executive Summary: provide an overview of all findings and highlight key takeaways and recommendations to HR/TA leadership
• Process & Systems: provide detailed documentation of current process and system utilization and show gaps with future state.
• Recruiting Resources: provide overview of current labor load, sourcing strategies and recruiting tools, and show gaps with future state.
• Benchmarking: provide operating models of competitors showing current state and future state gaps.
• User Satisfaction: provide survey results of current users and opinions about current state and future state
• Recommendations: provide roadmap to move from current state to future state with near-term, mid-term, and long-term priorities.