TA Standardization for Scale and Productivity

How strategic alignment and standardization transformed hiring at a global technology giant: insights from Martin Warren

Haste (when hiring) makes waste

In the fast-paced world of scaling global companies, growth often outpaces process. This was the precise challenge facing a prominent tech giant operating across eight countries in Southeast Asia. When Martin Warren joined as the Head of Talent Sourcing & Channels, he began experiencing ramifications of prioritizing speed above all else. His investigation led him to a singular fracture point of the most foundational hiring asset: the job description. 

“I would read some of the jobs and realize I had no idea what they were saying or who they were targeting.” 

The push for speed and lack of underlying standardization created fragmented processes that quietly undermined efficiency.

At the forefront of this struggle, addressing systemic inefficiencies. His approach wasn’t blaming recruiters or their hiring manager partners for aggressive hiring goals and timelines. He sought to evaluate how a truly effective talent function thrives, beyond individual moments of brilliance. For this, he realized he needed robust systems and unwavering leadership alignment.

The pains of a siloed hiring process

The problems stemming from this lack of standardization were multifaceted and deeply impactful. At the heart of it was a “wild west” of job writing, where each team or region created job ads in their own style, lacking any unified standard. 

“Across our different markets, a single role could have five wildly different job descriptions. It was chaos.” 

This lack of consistency caused immense trouble for sourcing. The team, tasked with finding top talent, struggled to consistently understand hiring manager requirements. Their efforts were often misaligned, leading to wasted time and ineffective candidate pipelines.

“What I saw was more often than not, there was a huge misalignment between the requirements. What the hiring manager wanted, what was not put on paper, and therefore, what was posted, was misaligned with their hiring vision.” 

Compounding this was an organizational silo, with Talent Acquisition Operations (TA Ops) reporting under HR Operations. This structural misalignment prevented Talent Acquisition (TA) from fully owning and optimizing its core processes, exacerbating inconsistencies. 

This structure also impacted the prioritization of recruiting technology infrastructure. When Martin joined the company, they relied on an internally built job repository for managing job ad content, plagued by “10+ minute load times.” This severely hampered collaboration and efficiency. In addition to being slow, to the point of unusable, it was disconnected from their SmartRecruiters ATS and lacked a connection to performance. 

“A big focus was to make sure what we’re presenting to the outside world is compelling, is authentic, is different.” 

So TA and their hiring manager partners were often selecting job content without understanding historic performance.  No systematic way to “track job quality and candidate pool quality” meant continuous improvement was nearly impossible, as systemic issues couldn’t be easily identified or quantified. Finally, the company was embarking on an ambitious plan aimed at diversifying representation within the organization, yet they were hamstrung by the inability to adopt best practices, standardized language, and components that increase inclusivity and adhere to evolving regulations.

“Our representation goals came from the board and our CEO. They had a big spotlight on them.” 

Establishment of clear requirements

Recognizing that simply “trying harder” wasn’t the answer, Martin’s team understood that a fundamental systemic change was needed. Their vision centered on building a scalable, standardized solution that would empower their talent acquisition efforts. They identified several key requirements:

1. Capability Building. Recruiters and hiring managers needed comprehensive training on writing effective and standardized ad copy. To truly succeed, they needed to go “beyond the classroom” with in-context guidance and reinforcement. 
2. Process Ownership. Establishing who owned the process and key steps within it was crucial for velocity. 
3. Modern Integrated Technology. Outdated, custom systems that didn’t interact with SmartRecruiters limited how the team worked, forcing the process to be a disconnected set of linear activities.  
4. Performance Tracking. Performance was crucial to unlock sustained, continuous performance. Ideally, this track would place data in the hands of the entire hiring team. 
5. Built-in Compliance. As regulations became more complex and company expectations escalated, the system needed to help TA deliver, not just protect the company. 
6. Enforced Standardization. Providing an example was no longer sufficient; his vision was to “lock down critical job ad components” such as the company profile, benefits information, and diversity statements for consistent application across all postings.

These requirements weren’t just a wish list; they were strategically designed to transform TA into a proactive, data-driven function, to unlock productivity and improve overall hiring performance.

The partner search

The search for a solution began broadly, with initial inquiries using search terms like “JD management,” “JD writing,” and “DE&I.” They evaluated general writing tools such as Textio and Grammarly, but quickly found these weren’t “recruiting-specific” enough to address their unique challenges. 

“Textio, Grammarly…they’re more generalist types. Offering vague promises of language improvement without the standardization and measurement of process and performance to make it automatic.” 

During their search, Martin’s team quickly realized they needed more than a tool. They needed a partner who was part technologist, part hiring domain expert. He emphasized the importance of collaboration with a partner who is not only supportive but also deeply familiar with the intricacies of recruitment, noting that many technology companies lack this understanding.

“We needed a vendor with deep domain knowledge, really good customer success, and truly understood what it meant to be in the seat of our recruiters, hiring managers, and sourcers.”

The breakthrough came when they received a “SmartRecruiters partner recommendation,” which led them to Datapeople. 

“He told me that Datapeople is a really good platform with a deep integration with SmartRecruiters. He shared that they are used by many SmartRecruiters customers.” 

Several factors tipped the scales in Datapeople’s favor. In their initial interactions, Datapeople exhibited a “strong customer success” ethos and deep “domain expertise in TA.” Their platform met and exceeded the team’s vendor requirements, excelling in prioritized dimensions such as integration and customer success. 

“What truly set Datapeople apart wasn’t just the features; it was the people. Sales and Customer Success demonstrated an understanding of our nuanced recruiting challenges that instantly built trust. With Datapeople, we had a partner who truly understood our world.”

Beyond the initial rollout

As the team rolled out Datapeople, a crucial learning emerged. Recruiters and hiring managers were myopically focused on score attainment. Martin and the Datapeople Team realized that training and enablement may have overly reinforced this by using the score in the Smart Editor as a proxy for performance. Which, while true, was overly simplistic. 

“They would do the work to reach 85, and then almost stop. Oftentimes, not addressing the other suggestions and recommendations from Datapeople. So while jobs and standardization improved, it left additional performance on the table.”

Working swiftly together, they completely reimagined training and enablement to focus on creating genuinely better, more effective content that resonated with candidates and hiring managers, not just hitting a number. This insight led to a significant strategic pivot. Rather than focusing solely on top-down directives, they focused on individuals and teams where adoption or consistency were outliers, and not in a good way. This more localized approach, with more customized content, fostered organic buy-in and ownership across the organization.

“Turning those initial skeptics into our biggest advocates was pivotal; they became the most effective trainers and evangelists because they intimately understood the prior struggles.”

Sustained productivity and elevated performance 

The business case for this transformation was robust, centering on three core pillars: undeniable “quality outcomes improvement” in their job ads, enhanced “inclusivity and pay disclosure compliance requirements,” and the successful “establishing clear ownership within the TA team,” fundamentally elevating TA’s strategic standing. 

The strategic investment in standardization, powered by Datapeople, yielded profound results, significantly elevating performance and unlocking widespread productivity across the talent acquisition function. 

1. Capability Building. With Datapeople, hiring teams had a copilot for their hiring, leading to greater capability building. 
2. Process Ownership. Thanks to Datapeople, a single TA-owned hiring process was instituted, measured, and improved. 
3. Modern Integrated Technology. SmartRecruiter integration, powered by Datapeople Anywhere, meant that recruiters never had to leave their ATS. 
4. Performance Tracking. Datapeople consumed and complemented SmartRecruiters’ analytics. With Datapeople Insights, data-driven hiring is within the reach of everyone.  
5. Built-in Compliance. The company’s risk of non-compliance was slashed. Datapeople made adherence to inclusivity best practices and alignment with regulatory and job board requirements effortless. 
6. Enforced Standardization. Establishing and measuring adherence to company-specific standards nearly eliminated role, team, and country misalignment. 

“Our process shifted from a constant struggle to a streamlined operation. Our recruiters were no longer interpreters; they were architects of clear, compelling job opportunities. We saw less time wasted, better quality applicants, and a meaningful lift in our overall hiring performance.”

Martin Warren’s experience at this global tech giant vividly illustrates a critical truth in talent acquisition: sustainable success hinges not on individual heroics but on the strategic implementation of robust systems. By moving beyond disparate efforts and investing in standardization, the organization was able to unlock TA capacity while improving hiring performance.

This journey underscores the enduring value of designing foundational TA systems that foster clarity, consistency, and compliance across the entire hiring lifecycle. For any scaling organization, it’s a powerful reminder that true productivity and elevated performance are unlocked when strategy meets system and human-centered process design.

“Standardization isn’t about rigidity; it’s about building a robust engine that empowers everyone, from hiring managers to recruiters, to perform at their best. It’s the bedrock for any high-performing talent function. Datapeople was instrumental in us achieving our vision and reaching our potential.”

About Martin Warren

Martin Warren is a highly accomplished Talent Acquisition leader renowned for building global Talent Sourcing and Channel Centers of Excellence. With deep expertise spanning diverse industries from Tech to Financial Services, he’s adept at developing innovative global sourcing strategies, leading high-performing teams, and driving operational excellence. Martin is a recognized authority in HR Tech, having provided expert guidance on the implementation and utilization of a wide array of solutions, including AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT. A foundational member of the LinkedIn APAC Customer Advisory Board for multiple years, he’s also a prolific educator, having trained over 1500 recruiters globally on critical skills like prompt engineering, talent mapping, and workflow optimization, consistently elevating TA performance and impact.