Is an Integrated Talent Team the secret to unlocking efficiency and improving your talent experience? This nuanced topic was discussed by industry leaders Manjuri Sinha, VP of Talent Success & DEI of OLX, and Amit Bhatia, Co-Founder and CEO of Datapeople, during a recent webinar. Manjuri, speaking from her own experiences at OLX, provided actionable considerations before you make the leap and a proven path to achieve your integrated team vision. The contents of their discussion will help you more critically assess whether your future is indeed with an Integrated Talent Team.
Benefits of an Integrated Talent Team
You’ve likely heard about the promise of Integrated Talent Teams. The combination of Talent Acquisition, Diversity, Equity and inclusion, and Human Resources should provide tremendous efficiency and effectiveness potential. For Manjuri and Amit, the following are the strongest reasons to consider combining teams.
- Improved Engagement: A unified team fosters a holistic approach to employee experience and attracting and retaining top talent.
- Streamlined Processes: Breaking down silos between TA and HR leads to more efficient work and faster (more aligned) decision-making.
- Quality Hires: Integrating talent functions allows for a more data-driven approach to evaluating EVP (Employer Value Proposition) effectiveness and ensuring quality hires.
- Manager Empowerment: Onboarding managers receive more consistent engagement across the entire talent lifecycle, improving not only hiring but also retention.
- Experimentation Culture: Encouraging experimentation with tools and processes like AI coaches can lead to innovative solutions.
- Skills-Based Talent Management: Instead of focusing on hiring or retaining team members, an Integrated Talent Team can focus on skills and sourcing wherever is most efficient (on the open market or upskilling employees). This approach shifts the unit of work and opens up new perspectives on existing talent and part-time talent.
Building a strong Integrated Talent Team
The road to build an Integrated Talent Team is not always going to be straightforward. As you walk the path, Manjuri has some advice that helped her at OLX.
- Leadership Backing: Initiatives like team integration require strong support from leadership. They must see the potential and appreciate the path to achieve it.
- Shared Goals: Establish clear goals aligned across all departments for success both before integrating and after. Ensure you look not only inward within the talent team but also externally with the business and those outside of the company.
- Team Investment: Prioritize team development in the form of learning as well as technology such as Datapeople to maximize potential and allocate resources most effectively.
- Communication & Transparency: Bring the team and the company on the journey by clearly communicating goals and progress will not only build trust but will secure support if it becomes necessary.
OLX’s Integrated Talent Team Impact
To ensure you’re on the right track, Manjuri shared immediate ways her Integrated Talent Team made an impact.
- EVP Reset: A single talent team allowed for a more holistic and consistent approach to evolving their employee value proposition (EVP) based on company changes and market conditions.
- Quality of Hire Metrics: Looking at the entire talent lifecycle as a combined team, they were able to more honestly evaluate the quality of their hiring. To do so she recommended using pulse surveys, candidate feedback, and offer acceptance rates which her team accesses regularly from Datapeople Insights to measure EVP effectiveness and quality of hire.
- (Hiring) Manager Surveys: Consistently engage with managers, even those not actively hiring, to learn how you can be of further assistance and anticipate future hires.
TA leadership should be a natural candidate to lead
As Manjuri and Amit shared, Talent Acquisition leadership should be primed to lead the Integrated Talent Team. To position yourself to have that opportunity, she shared some recommendations.
- Niche Expertise: While it may be counterintuitive, it is incredibly valuable to show your ability and expertise in an important niche area such as compliance. Raising your hand to own a problem area outside of Talent Acquisition will be noticed. To do so, you may wish to consider innovative technologies like Datapeople’s Smart Editor, which makes inclusivity, hiring efficiency, and compliance second nature.
- Networking: Build a strong network within the TA community to share knowledge and learn from peers. We all experience the influences of the market differently, be open to learning from others and share your learnings to close the virtuous loop.
An Integrated Talent Team may, or may not, be your future. But understanding the opportunities, journey, and outcomes will help you be more confident in the next evolution of how your company engages with talent. You can hear more from Manjuri and Amit by watching their webinar on-demand.
