“It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.” ― Louisa May Alcott.

This is the philosophy Steven Augustino Yudiyantho, Talent Evangelist and Head of Human Capital Talent, Organization and Performance at PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk of Indonesia believes in. Recognizing this difference becomes even more crucial in today’s world where the competition for talent is intensifying day by day.  In such cut-throat scenarios, what can organizations do need differently to ace their game?

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Steven shares his views on the evolving TA space and some of the new-age technologies that TA leaders can leverage to improve their hiring.

How have you seen the Talent Acquisition function evolve over the years? 

In leading organizations, talent acquisition (TA) is the key to a company’s overall success and profitability. The difficulty in winning scarce talent from competitors to meet demanding business goals requires TA to build a strong competitive advantage for talent. An agile proactive TA process needs to create a workforce which aligned for business success. 

Five years ago, organizations began to embrace digital social networking, focused on employee engagement as a solution to retention, and high touch application processes for candidates. Impacting by the ‘change drivers’, includes economic downturn, skill and knowledge shortage for critical roles, Gen Y and Gen Z entering the workforce, and talent-driven market, makes TA play a critical role - beyond selection process - in achieving an organization’s top priorities.

Therefore, TA is not only about the focus on the recruitment process, but the important thing is establishing total employee experience starting from early engagement up to on-boarding process. To ensure that, we have the right people with the right skills at the right time and at the right cost. On top of that, TA function is also about building the Employee Value Proposition (EVP), because it will attract talent. 

What are some of the latest trends changing the game in the TA space?

There are four disruptive trends impacting talent acquisition, including shifting demographics, workforce expectations and engagement, globalization, and the rise of technology. 

By 2020, surplus talent will be limited to a few emerging economies, forcing businesses to think carefully about long-term talent location strategies. At the same time, the number of people 65+ is continuing to grow at an unprecedented rate. On the flip side, the career span of the younger employee is extending. Generation X and millennial employees increasingly are looking to their employers to provide meaningful work, flexible environments, and development opportunities.

Employees who feel in control of the variables in their working world likely will have a heightened commitment to enhancing company results. Simply put, engaged employees are a competitive advantage driving strong, sustainable results by directly impacting customer behavior, brand loyalty and overall brand reputation. As organizations evolve, so does the need to enable, engage and reward top talent in innovative new ways. 

The added challenge is to empower locally, while thinking globally. Global talent strategies and HR programs should be developed to allow for geographic variances in regulatory, economic, market and cultural diversity so that they can source, manage, train and compensate this global workforce.

Organizations must think and act globally, looking beyond traditional boundaries for top talent, while creating a unifying community that is welcoming and supportive of global workers. 

What’s more, this process is accelerating with the rise of local, social and mobile technology. No organization, regardless of size, can compete without responding to this new digital age. Technology is transforming the way we do business and impacting how we create, deliver and capture value. 

What are some of the new-age technologies that TA leaders should leverage to improve their hiring? 

1. Technology optimization - Robotics process automation (RPA) software and Artificial Intelligence (i.e. chat bots) 

Leveraging RPA software that performs human actions/automates repetitive tasks, across multiple HR applications. This will not only change will enhance the way in which TA work in performed but may impact coordinator and administrative roles. Besides that, AI (i.e. chatbot) is changing the way in which candidates interact with TA. The Applicant Tracking System is vital to the candidate experience and today’s competitive hiring market. Social talent pools are influencing candidate selection more than ever.

2. Predictive analytics – Developing data points into insights 

TA needs to begin linking market data, turnover analysis, retention data and more to enhance the sourcing and recruiting process. This data has become vital to the business and its critical roles; identifying and tracking key metrics is necessary in order to remain competitive.

3. Contingent workforce – by 2020 half of the workforce will be classified as contingent workers.

Employers across the globe spend over $3 Tn on the contingent staff of all types. This number is only expected to grow by 2020 when half of the workforce becomes contingent. TA must play an active role in developing and executing a contingent workforce strategy to remain competitive. Those components would make the TA process become better, faster, and cheaper.

Any particular tech skills TA leaders should pick up along the way?

Data analytics, digital, and top grading- TA leaders need to use these three things to drive business and talent decisions.

Leading organizations need to improve these components to identify future leaders by using employee performance/assessment data, manage productivity by utilizing employee engagement statistics, shape the workforce by leveraging skill/competency data for predictive analysis, determine effective incentive program and ROI by analyzing employee engagement, improve diversity metrics by using demographic and survey data, predict career success by developing a hiring algorithm using interview and recruiting metrics, quantify performance by differentiating and quantifying business results between top and average performing FTE’s based on employee assessment data , forecast change by conducting ‘what-if’ analysis of the effect of promotions, environmental, and operational changes. 

And the last thing is to improve performance, by collecting performance data to identify areas of needed improvement.

What are the top three metrics that TA professionals should track to measure the impact on business performance?

a. Speed to productivity (from onboard until delivering the target)

b. Diversity (means innovation and capability)

c. Top Talent (% of total hires to attract other top talent)

Can you share a couple of factors that are driving the change in Talent Acquisition?

a. The rise of millennials, because they have short time employment cycle (max. three years).

b. Agile structure which will shift lifetime employment into project-based.

c. Now is more important, meaning into money. EVP more matters to attract and retain talent.

What are the top challenges HR leaders are facing not only in your organization but across the board in various sectors when it comes to hiring skilling talent? What solutions would you recommend? 

a. Scarcity, especially in high demand skill. For example, data science and cybersecurity. Sometimes organizations need to develop the capability and invest on it internally.

b. Make (develop internally – development program) or buy (hijack from other org) decision, because of the short time employment. You need to think to invest in the right skill.

Recruitment marketing is quickly picking up in organizations. According to various researches, candidates are more likely to apply for a job if that company actively manages its employer brand. How can organizations become a brand that people want to work for?

You need to ensure that you have sufficient talent magnet. Because nowadays, in the digital era, the employee will be interested to follow the figure who can inspire other talents to join the organization. Social media activity is also supporting this goal. In other words, social media initiatives play a prominent role. Lastly, connect the employee purpose and organization purpose to align the ‘Why’. The interest of the company and individual are inseparable.