To The New Work Experience as Talent Acquisition Professional

I am currently working as Talent Acquisition Professional at TO THE NEW. It was a campus placement. It is an amazing organization to start. It is not a startup but a mid-size growing organization headquartered in Singapore. Some of its clients are Alibaba Cloud, Cloudworks, Tata Play, Tabcorp, etc. Founded in 2008, TO THE NEW is one of the fastest-growing companies with a growth rate of over 60% since 2017. The company’s passionate team of 2500+ members. TO THE NEW is quite vocal and fanatical about it’s values: Authenticity, People Centricity, Customer Focus, Complete Ownership, Continuous Improvement. TO THE NEW has been rewarded as Great Place To Work 8 times in a row.

Talent Acquisition professionals play a pivotal role in attracting and hiring the right talent to drive organizational success. Their ability to source, assess, and select top candidates significantly impacts an organization’s ability to build a skilled and motivated workforce.

Primary responsibility is to identify, attract, and hire qualified candidates for open positions within the company.

Here are the key roles and responsibilities of a Talent Acquisition professional:

• Job Analysis and Planning: Collaborating with business unit heads to understand the hiring needs and requirements of the organization. Conducting job analysis to create accurate job descriptions and specifications for the positions.
• Sourcing: Using various sourcing strategies to attract potential candidates. Utilizing the various sourcing channels like Naukri, LinkedIn, Hirist, Insthyre, etc.
• Screening and Interviewing: Reviewing resumes and applications to shortlist candidates that meet the job criteria. Conducting screening interviews and HR Round (last round) to assess candidates’ skills, qualifications, and cultural fit with the company.
• Candidate Experience: Ensuring a positive candidate experience throughout the hiring process. Keep candidates informed about their application status and provide feedback when necessary.
• Employer Branding: Promoting the company’s employer brand to attract top talent. Showcase the organization’s culture, values, and benefits to potential candidates.
• Negotiation and Offer Management: Coordinating salary negotiations and handling offer discussions with selected candidates. Ensuring that the candidate’s expectations align with the company’s offer.
• Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Management: Using applicant tracking systems to maintain and organize candidate information, ensuring a smooth recruitment workflow.
• Onboarding Support: Collaborating with the HR SPOC to facilitate a seamless onboarding process for new hires, ensuring a smooth transition into the company.
• Data Analysis and Reporting: Utilizing recruitment metrics and analytics to measure the effectiveness of the hiring process and identify areas for improvement.

Learning

As a Talent Acquisition (TA) professional, there are abundant opportunities for learning and growth within the field.

• I did both technical and non technical hiring.
• Technical Hiring: Java Developers, Python Developers, Adobe Experience Manager and Quality Engineers.
• Non-Technical Hiring: Localization (Labelling), HR and Marketing Interns.
• I learned about various competencies and what all skills and tools required for the same. For Example: I’m hiring for Quality Engineer key skill required are Automation Testing and tools required are Selenium, Java, Rest-assured, Maven, etc. (Note requirement may vary)
• I learned about company and candidate mapping from Naukri and LinkedIn.
• Conducted research on the job market and industry trends to understand candidate expectations and compensation benchmarks.
• Explored methods for building and maintaining a talent pipeline to have a pool of qualified candidates ready to fill future roles.
• Enhancing my interviewing skills, particularly in behavioral-based interviewing techniques to better assess candidates’ soft skills and cultural fit.
• Focusing on improving the candidate experience throughout the hiring process to attract top talent and enhance the employer brand.

Scopes:

• Improvement in communication skills, interviewing skills, negotiation skills, etc.
• Better assess candidate’s cultural fit.
• TA Professionals can advance to roles like – HR Ops, HR Business Partner, HRIS, etc.
• One can explore various competencies or can participate in onboarding or creating the salary slips, etc.
• Learn about various policies of the organization, labour laws, etc.
• Specialize in streamlining and optimizing the recruitment process to improve efficiency and reduce time-to-fill metrics.

The scope for TA professionals is diverse and can cater to various interests and skillsets. As TA plays a pivotal role in shaping an organization’s workforce, there is significant room for growth and career advancement within the HR domain for individuals who excel in this field.

Pros and cons:

• TO THE NEW has been rewarded as Great Place To Work 8 times in a row.
• Provide a structured environment that promotes stability and consistency.
• Tie ups with brands like Samsung, Geetanjali, etc.
• Provides various facilities like lunch, cab, relocation benefit, food wallet, etc.
• Hybrid work mode.
• Incredible increments.
• One of the cons is office politics.

The specific pros and cons of an organization can vary widely and depend on factors like leadership, organizational culture, and the industry’s competitive landscape.