The Chapman Consulting Group and GSK Co-host Singapore Talent Roundtable

On 5 December, The Chapman Consulting Group co-hosted a networking session for Talent Acquisition Heads in Singapore. The event, which was held at GSK, was attended by TA leaders from a wide range of industries including banking & financial services, hospitality, IT&T, oil & gas, property, media & PR and the pharmaceutical sector. Although the attendees represented diverse industries, it was striking that each faced similar Talent issues involving systems, team capabilities, social media and alternative channels, assessment and interview processes, recruitment metrics and analytics, employer branding and incentivising the TA team. With a general theme of ‘innovation,’ there was an enthusiastic and open discussion around creative solutions to the common challenges faced by these HR Leaders.

Role and Structure

With increasing expectations on the TA function, many organisations are moving away from the traditional model with one TA person handling the end-to-end process. The group kicked off with a discussion on outsourcing the administrative aspects of TA, by setting up a separate resourcing group for building of talent pipelines, and creating an executive search team, thereby removing the employer branding responsibilities.

Employer Branding

There was an interesting discussion about the blurring line between employer branding and marketing. An example was given where a hospitality/resorts business gave free entrance tickets to candidates who interviewed with the company. This was both a good employer branding strategy, and a shrewd marketing initiative that increased sales for the business. One TA leader commented, “The worlds of TA and Marketing are increasingly overlapping. We are exploring options for offering rewards to candidates, both successful and unsuccessful. Not only does it help with engagement and understanding, but it also drives revenue to the business through the process.” It is now possible for the TA function to go beyond its ‘normal’ scope, and put on its ‘marketing/business’ hat to look at how it can contribute to the bottom line.

The Changing Face of a Recruiter

It was agreed that there might be a need to look at what makes a good recruiter, apart from relevant recruitment experience. One TA leader shared, “Hiring someone from a different background, rather than a traditional recruiter, has brought a different perspective into HR. This added a fresh and interesting dynamic to the team, and we saw pockets of innovation in how we branded ourselves and sourced for candidates.”

Incentivising the Right Behaviour

A banking TA leader spoke of the need to look at new ways of incentivising the TA team, such as rewarding for successful hires through direct sourcing. He also cautioned the need to carefully design such a reward scheme to ensure that it drives the right behaviours. Another TA leader shared how she successfully incentivised external recruitment agencies to provide more Singaporean and female candidates by paying a higher rate for such CV’s. This was positioned sensitively as a short-term strategy to meet the organisation’s diversity goals with the help of recruitment partners.

Social Media

This was a topic which generated much discussion and interest, but it also had more questions than answers, as only one company was able to say that it has successfully sourced candidates through Twitter and Facebook. There was also an interesting anomaly regarding the usage of LinkedIn. Although LinkedIn is considered to be the default recruitment tool that every recruiter is expected to use, a banking TA leader shared her difficulties in getting the TA team to use LinkedIn effectively, as well as in collecting and analysing ROI for the sizeable investment in LinkedIn licenses.

Innovation is About Taking Small Steps

It was evident from the discussion that innovation is not necessarily about making radical changes; it is also about the courage to think differently and to make small changes. The TA function is evolving, not only due to increasing demands and expectations, but also because of the willingness of TA professionals to think “outside the box” to attract and hire the best talent for the business.

We would like to thank Laura Thomas and her team at GSK for hosting such a successful roundtable event, and we look forward to reconvening with this group in 2015.