HR SPECIAL ...................Corporates Log into Mobile Apps, Social Media to Rope in Best Talent

Corporates Log into Mobile Apps, Social Media to Rope in Best Talent   Companies such as Citi India, Accenture, HCL Tech are updating their talent sourcing strategy for better results Polishing your CV for that dream job? Brushing up your social media profile and practising online interviewing may help more. As employers compete intensely for scarce talent, companies such as Citi India, Accenture and HCL Technologies are turning to new apps, big data tools and social networking websites to acquire talent. Citi India recently adopted apps Blue Jeans and Video Recruit to enable business managers to interview candidates remotely from across locations. These apps eliminate the need for traditional video conferencing facilities, enabling candidates to connect to the interviewer via their mobiles or tablets. “Apart from being cost-effective, such technology enables us to keep pace with the growing talent requirements by closing open positions in a timely manner,“ said Sarab Preet Singh, head of recruitment, learning and development at Citi India. Others such as Accenture are using a mobile app that has a digital interview tool with an automatic interviewer that picks random questions to interview a cross-section and collects data on the talent base. “By using this app the catchment area of our hiring reduces dramatically. It will also help us when we want to explore a new market for talent in a new city ,“ said Manoj Biswas, ýmanaging director, human resources at Accenture. A recent global survey by professional services firm Deloitte on human capital trends shows that 60% of respondents have just updated or are currently updating or revamping their talent sourcing strategy while another 27% are considering changes. “Employees today have different expectations...creative companies are today discovering new ways to attract talent,“ said Jeff Schwartz, global human capital leader, Deloitte USI. Recruiters realise they have to do things differently to attract and manage talent than what they were doing seven-eight years ago to expect better results. The study shows that nearly 45% of candi dates now apply for jobs on mobile devices. Most compa nies today use social net working websites to post job openings while the more in novative ones also leverag social media to build net works of people interested in the company that might turn into high-quality recruits. The report also suggests tha organisations can now lever age big data tools from ven dors such as LinkedIn, Face book, Entelo, Gild, TalentBin ied and others to identify and Work4, Identified and others to identify and source quality candidates around the world. Information technology company HCL Tech nologies has used in certain locations a video based interview through a secure connection that can be conducted from a desktop and al lows the interview to be recorded and assessed later. “We also make sure that we are availabl for conversation and engagement with the po tential candidate on FB, Twitter and Glass door,“ said Naveen Narayanan, global head talent acquisition at HCL Technologies. r The company has also started using gaming tools to engage people who have accepted their job offer but are yet to join the organisation. It gives them a platform to engage with their peer group and others in a gaming format. “The socalled ready talent available has not really ris en. In such a scenario companies are using the social space more and more to network with t groups of potential candidates on the basis of their skills and engaging more to be seen as an employer of choice. Also, employees today are expecting a lot more engagement on mobile,“ said Narayanan. DCB Bank is also changing its talent acquisi tion strategy to be able to do mass hiring efficiently . It is evaluating recruiting process oute sourcing, use of social media, working with partners who provide the `hire and train' mod el and new campus hiring initiatives. The bank has adopted a unique strategy to combat the challenge of candidates opting out t after accepting offers and before joining, said Hamsaz Vasunia, HR head at DCB Bank. “We are launching an induction app with superhero avtaars through which we will be able to at, tract the GenY and Millennial Gen. This tool will increase the engagement of the candidates with the bank and will definitely improve our selection-joining ratio,“ said Vasunia. Besides, companies such as Citi India and HCL have integrated marketing with recruiting. At CitiPhones, for instance, the company reaches out to candidates with the help of its e marketing team through Facebook for walk-in interviews and also offers iPhones to its employees for maximum number of referrals.
RICA BHATTACHARYYA

 ET140701