Recruiting to help a company grow is a typical situation that many resourcing leaders find themselves in. But what is it like to recruit for a company that is hyper growth mode and what are the key challenges to overcome?
My guest this week is someone who is very familiar with this hyper growth scenario. Justin Anastasi is Talent Acquisition Manager for Evolution Gaming, a company that is currently growing by 50% year on year. In our conversation, Justin talks about the strategies and technology Evolution Gaming use to help them recruit for hyper growth.
In the interview we discuss:
▪ Managing roles as projects
▪ The positive and negatives of automation and the continued importance of humans
▪ The role of technology in supporting process
▪ Stakeholder partnering
▪ Research and Talent Intelligence
▪ The importance of Employer Brand and standing out from the competition
Justin also shares some advice for recruiters facing similar challenges and gives us his predictions for the future of Talent Acquisition.
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Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Support for this podcast is provided by Smart Recruiters, the hiring success company. Smart Recruiters is a full talent acquisition suite with candidate relationship management and an applicant tracking system all in one modern platform. With an extensive marketplace of more than 300 vendors and a user experience that candidates, hiring managers and recruiters alike love, companies from Ikea to Bosch to blah blah Car leverage Smart Recruiters to attract, select and hire the talent they need to grow and expand their business. Visit smart recruiters@www.smartrecruiters.com to find out why companies across the globe consider them to be the number one ATS replacement.
Matt Alder [00:01:08]:
Hi everyone, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to episode 111 of the Recruiting Future podcast. Recruiting to help a company grow is a common situation that many resourcing leaders find themselves. But what’s it like to recruit for a company that’s in Hyper growth mode? And what are the key challenges that need to be overcome? My guest this week is someone who’s very familiar with this hypergrowth scenario. Justin Anastasi is Talent Acquisition Manager at Evolution Gaming, a company that’s currently growing at around 50% every year. Keep listening to hear about the strategies and technologies Justin uses to deal with the challenges involved with Hyper growth.
Matt Alder [00:01:55]:
Hi Justin and welcome to the podcast.
Justin Anastasi [00:01:57]:
Hi Matt, thanks for having me.
Matt Alder [00:01:58]:
My absolute pleasure. Could you just introduce yourself and tell us a bit about who you are, what you do?
Justin Anastasi [00:02:03]:
Sure. So my name is Justin Anastasi. I’m the Talent Acquisition Manager for Evolution Gaming at the moment. I would suppose my, my role is very much spanned across various different countries. So currently based in Malta and from Malta, I’m responsible for all talent acquisition activities for both Malta, Romania, Canada, now London, Belgium and Spain.
Matt Alder [00:02:29]:
Wow, that’s, that’s a sort of fairly diverse geographic spread. How big is the company?
Justin Anastasi [00:02:34]:
Well, to be honest with you, the company is, is very large, I would say across various other countries as well because there is countries such as Riga, Latvian. We’re also opening up another studio in, in Georgia. So at the moment I would say it’s in excess of about 3,500 employees. Very much on rapid growth from, from that number onwards. So that would very much change by tomorrow or end of month.
Matt Alder [00:02:59]:
Interesting. And I suppose there must be some, there must be some really interesting recruitment challenges associated with, with that. What, what, what, you know, what are the sort of main challenges that you’re facing?
Justin Anastasi [00:03:12]:
I think to be Honest, the, the biggest challenge we have as Evolution Gaming is certainly the, the fact that we are a hyper growth company. I think a lot of the, you know, a lot of other companies tend to grow at a fairly standard rate. And funnily enough, I was, I was hearing a conversation that we were having with, with our CEO Johan and basically he was mentioning to us that, you know, a lot of companies do talk a lot about, you know, the fact they’ve grown by 5% or they’re growing by 10% next year. And that’s a really big achievement, which rightly so it is. But when you’re looking at Evolution Gaming and seeing that we’re growing 50% year on year, if not more than that, the question becomes, I suppose, you know, what do you call that? I mean, of course a success. But from a, from a talent acquisition perspective, it’s also makes or adds another, another element to recruitment that is not the norm.
Matt Alder [00:04:07]:
And how, I mean, how are you dealing with that? What sort of recruitment methods and talent acquisition techniques do you use to really cope with that hypergrowth?
Justin Anastasi [00:04:17]:
I mean, to be honest, technology definitely does help a lot with achieving those goals, having last year rolled out an ATS system called Smart Recruiters to the actual sort of recruitment life cycle. But I think the biggest element is how you manage each role individually. Now I suppose for a hyper growth you’d probably be asking how do you do that for such a fast growing company? The trick for me, I suppose is to manage each position as a project as you would as a project manager, for example. So basically managing the timeline from start to finish in terms of every single ingredient, if you will, to get that person to, to get the role open and to get the role hired, the person starting, the person onboarded. So very much managing as a project, I think is how we tend to overcome the hyper growth because you do need that visibility into every aspect of recruitment, especially having so many facets, especially nowadays.
Matt Alder [00:05:24]:
And do you have quite a large team that you work with? What’s the structure?
Justin Anastasi [00:05:30]:
Well, at the moment I would say it’s not a large team for the, for the scale or broadness of the countries and the roles that we cater for. So I would say at the moment we have six people in the team, soon to be six, so five currently. I suppose the question then is how is that proportional to that level of growth? I think it is all about just finding efficiencies. So where do you need to be spending your time? The talent acquisition specialist. And where don’t you need to be Spending that time, the next, the next element that is utilizing technology in the best, the best way to get the most out of your team.
Matt Alder [00:06:14]:
And how in terms of sort of use of technology, how does it support the team on a day to day, day to day, day to day basis?
Justin Anastasi [00:06:23]:
I would say massively. Massively. So there are certain elements of the recruitment process depending on the tool that you obviously go for, the tools that you have in place. For me I look at automation as much as possible. However, I would say it’s both a positive and also a negative to technology. Yes. With it your processes can run a lot smoother, you can have very detailed reports, you can actually manage the candidates lifecycle through that recruitment process in a very structured way. I suppose the, the, the main thing for me is to not lose out on the human element through, through that process which I think can be, can be quite tricky, especially when you’ve got a hyper growth situation. And it’s something that we tend to focus on quite a lot, maintaining the human element whilst using those technologies to boost efficiencies in the recruitment process.
Matt Alder [00:07:22]:
And what parts of the process do you think that the human element is most important in?
Justin Anastasi [00:07:27]:
Interesting question. I mean for me it’s very much the interview process. I think that is definitely the actual interview itself. The human element certainly needs to be maintained. However, off the back of that, I think someone who’s carrying out an interview can only really go so far. I mean I’m. Back when I was, when I was in sales or account management rather we used to. And I was making that move to recruitment. I remember people used to tell me that selling maybe a banner on a website or anything like that. I mean the product doesn’t say no. You know, going into recruitment you just soon discover that yes, the product does say no. Right. And essentially what does that mean? Is basically understand one who you are speaking with and is that the right person to be speaking with in the first place and that no. Is it really a no or is it, is it an objection? Is it something that you’ve missed? Is it something that you know should be on a job description or something you should have clarified before? Is it just a misunderstanding? I mean there’s so many different elements when you’re dealing with people. I think there’s always got to be a human element to the process and that’s where the balance comes in between technology and that human piece.
Matt Alder [00:08:49]:
I’m guessing that another part of that must also be the nuances between the different geographies that you’re Recruiting in, how does that kind of manifest itself? What are the differences between, you know, sort of looking for talent in those, in those, in those different countries?
Justin Anastasi [00:09:07]:
To be honest, the differences are profound. I would say that the general basics for any recruiter, be external or internal, I think would actually remain the same. But when you’re dealing with these various different markets, you do really have to understand the market itself, from economic climate to the actual employment situation. So for example, in Sweden, they have great benefits and a very strong economy. And how do you move people from Sweden to an economy maybe that isn’t as strong or doesn’t have as many benefits for an employee? So you really do have to understand those dynamics and a lot of that comes from gaining that market knowledge before you start your, your recruitment process in order to understand how you to tailor those basics to be able to best achieve your results.
Matt Alder [00:10:07]:
And I suppose one of the, you know, one of the, one of the challenges in any market is getting the attention of the talent that you’re, that you’re looking for. How do you get your name out there? How do you, you know, how do you get people to sort of pay attention to you guys as a brand?
Justin Anastasi [00:10:26]:
This is quite interesting, I think, to be honest, keeping up with a lot of the ongoing trends within the industry. I think employer branding has been something that’s definitely been gaining momentum and I think come 2018, certainly going to be a focus for a lot of companies. The reality is that we really do need to stand out. I mean, not only us, but I suppose anyone in a talent acquisition role is to find that unique selling point that makes them special. I don’t think it’s about appealing to everyone. I think it’s about appealing to those people that are the most in line with your core values and then trying to identify that and be in the right places is what then sort of sets that up for success or failure really. So I think for us, it mainly pivots around our, our core values and reaching sort of understanding who that right person is and what they look like and appealing to them, but also maintaining that, that human element. And by that I mean not just talking about, you know, what the person has to do or just what the benefits are, but what does the person actually gain out of being part of this living organization.
Matt Alder [00:11:44]:
That definitely makes a lot of sense. I suppose what would be interesting for me would be to find out a bit more the actual kind of channels you use to, to, to, to reach people. Are you doing a lot of proactive sourcing? Are you Doing marketing, advertising. What, what’s the sort of, what’s the mix of approaches that you’re using to, to, to, to, to reach such sort of large volumes of talent?
Justin Anastasi [00:12:08]:
Again, again, quite, quite interesting and it does vary depending on the type of profile that you’re looking for. So I mean the, the go to response will boards, agencies and various other, various other things. I think in terms of channels, I don’t really feel that we do anything in terms of channels that would be I would say very different to what’s accessible to other companies. It’s more, I would say what we advertise and what we say in those adverts that makes that more successful than perhaps other companies as well as the ability to understand not just what we’re dealing with now in terms of current needs, but where we know what we expect to be receiving in the future, be it a month, three months or maybe even a year beforehand. So I would say for me the main channels nowadays is actually becoming more, I’ll say feral. And also social media, I don’t think social media is any sort of new trend. I think where everyone is, everyone is using it. But again, it’s the message that you’re conveying and I do definitely foresee the referrals to be more of a, more of a growing contributor to any company’s continued growth.
Matt Alder [00:13:37]:
Absolutely. And I think it’s really interesting when you’re talking about the fact that your messaging is the thing that’s kind of differentiated, you know, differentiating you, differentiating you from the, the competition. And you also, you know, obviously are doing a lot of, you know, research into the markets that you’re, that you’re looking at. I mean, how, how do you sort of gather this information about your audience? How do you find out what it is that’s going to resonate with them the most?
Justin Anastasi [00:14:09]:
Well, for me, I think it’s a, it’s a mix of a couple of things actually. I mean the, the first thing I would suppose most people would say would be, would be Google or just do some research. You know, I mean that’s probably the easiest, the easiest thing to do. But I tend to find the most accurate information comes from the actual people themselves, be it the people that are already in the market or in the country that you’re, you’re looking at, but also the people that already, that form part of your company. So focus groups and actually doing, gauging people’s opinions and people’s thoughts. I mean it’s, at the end of the day, it’s a trying to attract people. So why not get that information directly, directly from the source and people who are already experienced or well versed in that market.
Matt Alder [00:14:53]:
Also, what advice would you give to other corporate recruiters who are, who are working in a, in a similar sort of hyper growth environment?
Justin Anastasi [00:15:01]:
To be honest with you, I would say be persistent would be the best, the best advice that I could give. And if you can do it today, don’t wait till tomorrow. I think that’s definitely, definitely the advice that I would give. And also to partner well with the operation and with your key stakeholders because it’s through that partnering and through that relationship that you’re able to be able to project and plan your needs ahead. So yes, you will always have a recruitment need and yes, you will always have targets you need to achieve. But ultimately if you have that relationship and you are able to plan ahead, then you’re bound to have success.
Matt Alder [00:15:43]:
And just to dig down into that a little bit deeper, are there any kind of specific things that you do in terms of how you communicate with your stakeholders and your hiring managers to keep that sort of process running smoothly?
Justin Anastasi [00:15:58]:
Absolutely. I think at Evolution, we’re quite known for having very much a close environment. We do tend to say quite a lot that it’s the Evolution family. So I think maintaining that relationship is fairly easy for us. But more specifically, I would say regular clear communication, certainly a lesson that I learned in the early start of my career. It is really just all about communicating, both communicating your successes and also communicating your failures. And if you do have those failures, understanding what went wrong and what you could be doing better the next time, being able to confidently communicate them to your stakeholders without any fear of, any fear of maybe that not being well met. Because ultimately from an operations perspective, it is all about planning, it is all about gaining that understanding. And that all does come from the right communication.
Matt Alder [00:16:58]:
Absolutely. I mean that certainly makes perfect sense. So, final question. What are your predictions for the future of talent acquisition?
Justin Anastasi [00:17:07]:
I think my, my predictions for, for talent acquisition would probably be that as we continue to see this, this candid driven market become even more of a, of a candidate driven one, there’s of course going to be considerable competition between various different companies both in the same industry and out of it for sometimes even the, the same talent. So I think the, the key trend I see is strong emphasis on companies trying to, trying to establish a strong brand and stand out. The other element I would say would be AI and how that integrates into the current recruitment process, but also being able to balance that with the human element and not losing out on that.
Matt Alder [00:17:57]:
Justin, thank you very much for talking to me.
Matt Alder [00:17:59]:
Pleasure, Matt My thanks to Justin Anastasi. You can subscribe to this podcast in itunes, in Stitcher, or via your podcasting app of choice. The show also has its own dedicated app, which you can find by searching for Recruiting future in your app store. As of this week, the show is also available in the podcast section of Spotify. You can find all the past episodes@www.rfpodcast.com on that site. You can also subscribe to the mailing list and find out more about Working with me. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next week and I hope you’ll join me.
