Last week we had the pleasure of inviting Eduard Burer, Head of Talent Acquisition and Talent Development at SaaS company, Uberall, for an in-depth Q&A on his experience and advice on improving one’s Talent Acquisition department. We’ve broken down the key highlights of the session below – if you’d like re watch the full Webinar, please get in touch direct.
Eduard has been working within the recruitment sector since 1999 and has worked with large companies like Philips, Dell and Deliotte as well as helped a number of startups excel through growth stages. He started his career in headhunting (which in his opinion is the most valuable training all recruiters should experience) and ended up becoming Founder of three companies – THNK – School of Creative Leadership, Recruit for Good and FARE Capital.
Starting at Uberall
“My main goal was to create a department that is a partner to the business instead of having only an administered department.“
Initially at Uberall, the TA department was arranged in a totally different way. Essentially, Head of Talent Acquisition and Recruiters acted almost as separate entities. He wanted to open up the team and needed people with the right seniority to partner with the business so implemented the following initiatives:
- Hired the right people
The team was paramount to success at Uberall claims Eduard. He focused on hiring the right people for his team who drive to be successful as well as have the autonomy and authority to really make an impact themselves.
- Internal search department
The Uberall team reduced agency support to a minimum following last summer, after building a core team of recruiters. Early on, a large section of the recruitment team left which drove them toward an RPO (Recruitment Outsourcing Process) system. Now however, they have a strong core team who are able to focus their efforts on sourcing talent.
Generating inbound applications
“We became known in the right networks – tech recruiting and commercial recruiting circles.“
The number of inbound applications at Uberall have increased dramatically over the years. According to Eduard, there is not one secret, but several…
Branding consistency
Branding was a huge focus for the team moving forward – the techniques were simple: be active on LinkedIn, share videos, have interviews with candidates and so on. The result meant the employer branding increased within the right networks and in turn created a stream of inbound applications.
Branding recognition
The result of Talent Acquisition and marketing working closely together. distinguishing the difference between Corporate marketing (B2B) and Recruitment marketing (B2C) allowed them to draw in whole new batch of applications.
Talent Communities
He learnt that to be more visible within the right communities of top quality talent, you have to actively source in the right places. This created a buzz within these talent communities and generated fresh interest.
Going global
“Nowadays, it does not really matter where you are located to hire talent. You can recruit from any continent for candidates from one location.“
Uberall have offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris, Cape Town and San Francisco, with the majority of their US department working remote.
To recruit in different countries can obviously be a challenge. Being in the office physically generates motivation through the team dynamic and atmosphere however, according to Eduard, it is what you get out of it and not where you’re sitting. It does help though if you:
- Know the market
- Speak the language of the vacancy
- Have local partners for legal issues
Working through a pandemic
“Looking at next year: it is a black box, but I am positive that we’ll grow further within different markets. We have a bright future for ahead of us!“
When the outbreak started, Uberall was aggressively hiring with 50 openings. Strategy has since changed however with the focus shifting toward what is needed for the next 6 months. Eduard calls this “smart hiring” – essentially a company that grows fast and sustainably.
Talent Acquisition structure
“When you have a big company and do not have a strategy it can becoming a chaos. We set up for growth and moving forward, that is the way we structure our strategy.“
Talent strategy is really important, because companies are built in different phases. If you’re recruiting for a company of 20 people, you’ll have a different strategy and be more selective than recruiting for a company of 100 people. The bigger you get the more need there is for a strategy.
Learnings at Uberall
“Recruitment machine sounds really mechanical and I really believe that recruiting still has a lot of human touch-points but with the right system we can all make it a lot easier.“
It’s vital you find the right ATS (applicant tracking system) for your organisation. Find one that works alongside your team’s workflow and you’re one step closer to building a reliable recruiter machine.
Key learnings from Uberall:
- Have the right talent in your team who are able to go with the changes.
- Make sure your expectations towards the business are clear and outline what can and cannot be expected from the recruitment team.
- Build a good recruitment machine. You may have the right data but the correct tracking system is just as important!
If you have any further questions on the webinar or you’d like the full recording please email info@nobelrecruitment.com.
