LEAN Talent Acquisition and Agile Methodology
How LEAN Principles Contribute to Better, Smarter, More Effective Recruitment
What is LEAN
and why do we use it?
LEAN Talent Acquisition is a combination of Design Thinking and Agile Development methodologies that is known for breaking the stalemate between speedy digital production deadlines and the inherent need for high-quality Design. At its core, LEAN understands that a collaborative team environment leads to more meaningful work, and holds excellence in User Experience as its paramount Concern. Creating a shared understanding of this ideal User Experience is the ultimate goal for a lean development team.
LEAN mandates a deep cross-functional understanding from the team, facilitating engagement of and collaboration from otherwise disparate groups. The close proximity and rapid iterative capability the team enjoys as a result, allows for an increase in access to holistic market feedback, which reframes design conversations in terms of objective Business Goals. this structured reciprocity then provides the team with the ability to quickly measure what works, learn from it, and adjust the development of their product accordingly.
How LEAN Principles Guide Smart Talent Systems:
The LEAN principles outlined below are the tenets of a Talent Acquisition system consciously rooted in human-centric design and Agile development methodologies. The Bleeding Edge System favors individuals and interactions over processes and tools, focusing instead on the conversations those tools elicit in order to create the shared understanding that is the true value of collaboration.
Having established this collaborative dynamic, we are able to clearly discern the most impactful engagement strategy(s) for any given target candidate demographic while remaining agile enough to build iterative campaigns, measure what works, and continually learn as much as possible about where marketplace data might help us improve.
“the bleeding edge knows the value of working together in teams and they know how to build them.”
Bleeding Edge Client, 2016
The Bleeding Edge recognizes the importance of collaborative infrastructure in supporting performance. In this way, LEAN mandates that we must collectively seek to generate the best possible business solutions in the smallest possible time frame. Using input data from the candidate marketplace in real-time enables us to consistently be moving the Ideal Candidate Profile in a “more right” direction, rapidly calibrating with precision accuracy well before we scale our bespoke engagement strategy(s). Ultimately, the following principles embody a system that constantly tests itself, validating its proposed business solution(s) as often and efficiently as possible.
How Can We Use LEAN Principles Practically in People Ops?
Early in my career, I was thrust into a position where I had to make a lot of important decisions quickly, and the cost of getting things wrong remained perilously high. I was able to use the following Principles and their articulations within the Talent Acquisition ecosystem in order to design an iterative, adaptive, and scalable process for acquiring and retaining the best-in-class talent that can level-up any Digital company. . . every time it hires:
Continuous Discovery — Continuous discovery is the ongoing process of engagement with the customer during the design process. Learning = empathy for the User.
Small Batch Size — Sub-processes like the Bleeding Edge’s FAST 5 ensure a minimum necessary investment is made towards understanding the ideal Experience for Customers & candidates, which calibrates in real-time and validates ideas immediately in the marketplace.
Removal of Waste — If it isn’t working, get rid of it. If something’s in the way, design around it. Anything not contributing to improved outcomes should be removed.
Making over Analysis — There is more value creating the first version of an idea, than spending half the day debating its merits in a conference room. The answers to the most difficult questions we face will not be validated at the office, but instead by the market.
Shared Understanding — Lean mandates Rich competency(s) around the space/product/customer. Collective knowledge is built through Calibration activity(s), and The faster we learn about “the Why,” the faster we identify the correct signals from the marketplace for validation.
Learning over Growth — It is difficult (re: impossible) to figure out the right thing to build and to build systems around it at the same time. Scaling unproven ideas is risky. Learn first, Scale second: ensure the idea is right before scaling to mitigate risk and wasted time.
Permission to Fail — Also called “Bias for Action.” Since most ideas will fail, emphasize experimentation. Permission to fail will breed thoughtful experimentation, experimentation breeds creativity, and creativity yields innovative solutions. Frequent failure = mastery.
the Bleeding Edge’s LEAN Talent Acquisition system is continually iterating, and is able to front-load crucial learning & experimentation phases toward “top of funnel” activity streams. In this way, customers are assured of quality service sooner, and we are in-market with accurate assumptions about, and opportunities for, our target-candidate demographic. . . before our competition.
STATS
Average Cold Engagement(s) to Response(s) Ratio: 43%
Interview to Offer Ratio: 3.14
Average Time-To-Fill Reduction: ~42% (22.7 days)
Offer acceptance rate: 96%
Candidate Satisfaction: 100%
Hiring Manager Satisfaction: 100%
Retention Rate of New Hires through 18 months: 97.7%
Outside Resource/Recruitment Costs: $0
Number of Roles Unplaced: 0
Percentage of Talent decisions driven by Data: 100%
