Creating a proactive TA process to increase quality of hire and decrease search fees: Adrianne Court, CHRO, Alkami Technology
Learn how to create a proactive and creative talent Acquisition Process and not leave recruiting to chance! Super impressive results with millions in savings on search fees. Don't miss it!
All my best,
Cindy Lu
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Don't have time to watch the video blog? Read transcripts below...
Adrianne: Cindy, how are you?
Cindy: Good day, Adrianne, this is Cindy Lu with CHRO Partners and HR Master Mentors and I have Adrianne Court here. Why don't you introduce yourself and your company and I would love to jump into some topics from account acquisition today.
Adrianne: Great, great. Hi, I'm Adrianne Court and I lead our talent and culture programs here at Alkami. Alkami's based in Plano, Texas. We're actually the fastest growing software company in the state of Texas and number 11th in the Us. We do basically one thing and one thing only. We create online and mobile digital banking solutions for our clients. We have nearly five million users on our platform today. Placed solely in the US. We do all of our product development, product strategy, QA, essentially everything right here in Plano. All our clients are US-based, so hopefully it gives an insight to who we are.
Cindy: So being the fastest growing company in Texas, especially in technology, I imagine that means a lot of hiring for you.
Adrianne: Yeah, yeah.
Cindy: Tell me what it was like when you first got to the organization as far as talent acquisition and kind of [crosstalk 00:01:09]
Adrianne: It's a great question. I joined a Alkami about a year ago. It's a phenomenal culture. One of the things that I've really been working on is the intentionality around our culture and really reinforcing that, not changing what it was, but as we're growing and sharing, we're intentional about it and what's special about Alkami when we're 40 Alkamist to now 400 and then on and on. What's super important to us is when I joined was that we were doing a lot of recruiting. We still are. Last year for example, before I joined we were doing 60% of our hires were agency fees, 30% Alkamist referrals and the rest just floated in and out.
Adrianne: So we spent in the millions last year in agency fees. Today we are a less than 10% agency fees, 60% employee referrals, and then the rest, through our recruiting team or just, coming in through an application process. So huge. Significant, not only in terms of dollars, but to actually see the number of employee referrals is exciting. Right? Our clients love to hear that too.
Cindy: Yeah, that's awesome. From a culture perspective, if you're getting that many employee referrals, that's the way to go. I want to come back to the client piece in a minute because I know your culture and your people are so important to your clients and I want to talk about that.
Cindy: So tell me a little bit about what you did in order... What were the first few things you did in order to take a more proactive approach to recruiting versus, I guess what I would call reactive.
Adrianne: Right, right, right. Well some of the key things, first, that's a whole nother topic, was really incorporating the culture discussion and from the onset of recruiting. But then the really the element of it was helping our Alkamists become recruiters themselves. Educating them on why and either directly or indirectly of what and why Alkami is such a great place. Reinforcing the culture. Engaging them in all types of activities, social media and embracing that whole concept of people you want to work with or people that you enjoy. You know well professionally and respect. In addition, before we didn't have any really internal recruiting support.
Adrianne: So instead of working with the agencies externally and spending a lot of money, I hired a couple people that were on the agency side to come join us who actually knew us here at Alkami and kind of built really simple. We use a technology that's super easy off the shelf. We didn't spend millions of dollars on it. Technology to manage our talent pipeline and how we communicate to our talent and then ensure that the employee referrals don't fall through the cracks. That's some of the key elements that we've done to really turn the whole pipeline around.
Cindy: Wow that's amazing. So do you mind sharing what software you use?
Adrianne: Smart Recruiters.
Cindy: SWOT Recruiters?
Adrianne: Smart, Smart Recruiters. We made the decision to go with them and within 30 days up and running, full scale allowing managers to look at applicants, us to manage referrals. The full offer process, totally automated. It's been a great tool. In fact, we just, you may have seen, we just had a huge recruiting event here at Alkami. We had over 140 plus folks interested in us and actually that came to the event, we had almost 300 that RSVP'd to the event, but we had to kind of un-RSV many of them because they just didn't have the qualifications and we couldn't support that many.
Cindy: How did you get those people to get interested in your event?
Adrianne: We created a great campaign both from us on Linkedin but we really communicated with our Alkamists. You go out and get. So it was a full campaign across the organization and [inaudible 00:05:28] share at the event we had 50 of our Alkamists, those, are our employees actually volunteer for the recruiting event.
Cindy: All hands on deck.
Adrianne: All hands on deck. It was really what the important thing we felt about that. It wasn't just about a recruiting event, it was about a branding event for us. We're kinda making a sign up, but this event, the minute you walked into our building, you met an Alkamist. We had an Alkamist at every entrance into building. We're in a multi tenant building, so every entrance in the building. They were greeted at reception. We had their name ready, we had a welcome badge. We took them on a brief tour. Then they were greeted at the elevator. Someone took them up to our 10th floor where they walked off the elevator, somebody opened the door, greeted them like every element of their experience here was absolutely, and you should have seen, I mean the social media was going crazy that evening and folks who are actually employed other places we're putting hashtag life at Alkami. So it was pretty cool.
Cindy: That's awesome. Wow.
Adrianne: Even our statistics, we had said over 140 potential candidates join us. We have 15 of those that are coming back for second and third interviews. We just had that last week. We've already made two offers and we'll probably be sending another one today. So it's been a very successful event and the expense for this was equal to one agency fee.
Cindy: That's impressive. And were these hard to find skillsets?
Adrianne: Very hard to find skillsets like toughest. We did the event, which was very specific. We said, what skill sets are we looking for? Limited at the event to those skillsets.
Cindy: So Marketing 101, know your target audience.
Adrianne: We were prepared, we knew there'd be some walk-ins. We had a special line for the walk-ins. The walk-ins would come in, we'd ask them a little bit about their background. If they qualified, we would welcome it. And if not, we had a gift to them and thanked him for the interest and off they went. So we tried to be as cordial and inviting, representing our culture as best we could.
Cindy: You know what was really interesting to me when we spoke a few weeks ago was how important having top talent and talent that's engaged to your clients. I understand that you actually get pulled into sales calls with sales peoples.
Adrianne: Yes, actually every perspective client we have here that comes onsite at Alkami, I meet every single one of our prospective clients, intently about our culture. For us, that's super important for our clients as contracts are five to seven years. So they're not just buying a technology, they're connecting with a partner for five to seven years. Culture in who they're going to be working with is actually one of the defining decision makers in their decision making process. So it's a big deal. Typically, Oh, I'm so sorry. Hang on one second.
Cindy: No worries.
Adrianne: You would be surprised by one of our top competitors in Austin. So many times clients will visit us and then go to a top competitor in Austin. Feedback is when they compare cultures. Ours is by far the best. And that's pretty fun and unique to say that I'm part of that. Close deals. Fun.
Cindy: That's right. That's right. Who says HR doesn't contribute to the top and bottom lines?
Adrianne: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Cindy: That's awesome. Well, you're certainly touching the top line with making sure your clients understand that you've got a great culture and you're retaining folks as well as the bottom line through the agency fee that you said you've saved. Now imagine that there are some high level searches that maybe you're not getting employee referrals from or even the agencies don't want to touch or just the fees are astronomical. What do you do about them? How do you go after the...
Adrianne: There's two approaches. Since I've joined, I've actually personally, I mean we're not in large companies so personally I do the networking and building the pipeline. Brought in several VP director level folks here over the last year. But also we do need, there's times when you should augment with a search firm when it makes sense and they just need to be really selective on who that partner is going to be, both from where their process and profile is. I would say the majority of them, I personally [inaudible 00:10:09] , which I think that's value add in my role at Alkami and I enjoy it.
Cindy: Right, right. Plus I think just getting it right at the top from a culture perspective is so important and you want to spray the market with 15 VP level people coming in and interview. What kind of tools do you use to do that?
Adrianne: Well, one the good old fashioned Linkedin and then just good old fashioned networking. Asking people in my network that I know, who I trust, "Who do you know, who can I connect with?" I actually go out to panel discussions and things just like many of us do in the front and I meet other professionals there and I'm not just there to just say hello. I'll grab cards and call them back and said, "Hey, did you know we got great things going on here at Alkami?"
Cindy: Are you sure you're not in sales and marketing?
Adrianne: Actually HR should, I mean that's really a cornerstone I think to a great HR person that you do have to help represent the brand and marketing engine. Even if you aren't involved in sales. I mean, part of your role is creating that brand of an employer brand for your organization.
Cindy: I would argue that at some point, especially for technology companies, the demand will outstrip the supply.
Adrianne: Yeah. Well, it's interesting because what we once thought technology or technology companies is really every company has become a technology company. Even the mom and pop restaurant, they have mobile, they have online. We're competing no longer just from technology companies, but we're competing with all great brands. Well beyond what you would've thought as traditional technology company.
Cindy: Right. Right. So what advice would you give to someone who wants to take their talent acquisition department from reactive to more proactive, knowing that 90% of HR has very limited resources and funds? Do this, right?
Adrianne: One of the things starting just from the total baseline is have a good applicant. It's the old fashioned term is applicant tracking tool. I really like to call this an applicant connection or connecting tool. Those are relatively, today, there's some great products. As I mentioned, there's Smart Recruiters. There's many others that are fairly reasonable. Then that way you can kind of manage the process, manage your connection with your pipeline, and most of these now offer tools where you can do touch points [inaudible 00:12:50].
Cindy: Nurture.
Adrianne: Six months ago it didn't make sense then, but here's an article about us just keeping in touch. So I think that in terms of just the fundamental piece is super important. The other thing is engaging your employees, your key leaders. Find a couple of key leaders that want to be champions in terms of doing it well. Don't feel you have to boil the entire ocean. Key partners with the organization, get some great case points and then, I'll tell you that will start to spread virally.
Cindy: Meaning once I see some of the success [inaudible 00:13:25].
Adrianne: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Cindy: One of the things that we used to do is to make sure that the hiring managers had lots of data as to what the activity was [inaudible 00:13:35]. Because sometimes the passive candidates can take a little bit longer. What are you doing to sort of when you were trying to get these folks on board? The hiring managing system, "Hey, we don't want to do the post and pray anymore. We're going to go out and proactively reach out, but it [inaudible 00:13:51]." How did you keep them at bay?
Adrianne: You know, it was really tough because they kind of got used to agencies just throwing all these resumes over the wall and they just felt like they had this immense pipeline. But yet, really it wasn't qualified and unless you found that one or two. So it was helping them change the mindset into, you don't need a thousand candidates, you prefer to have 10 that are qualified. Helping change that mindset. That part was a little bit of an adjustment. But it's now they kind of get it. I mean literally, I have hiring managers sending, we have two recruiters on staff ,myself. They're sending us TIF treats and Starbucks cards thanking us. Pretty cool. Yeah. It's pretty nice stuff.
Adrianne: The other thing that's super important is listening to the hiring manager. Sometimes we assume what they want and sometimes they assume what they want, but really listening. Then also it's sometimes negotiating a little bit because they're wishlist of the 10 items. Explaining why, can we give on some of these items? What are the most critical elements? Maybe [inaudible 00:15:08] a few candidates that maybe meet five of the 10, kind of build that that way.
Cindy: Then that way their pool of candidates broadens. Right? What the wish list is.
Adrianne: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Cindy: Plus sometimes hiring on that culture fit is more important that having all ten of the skills.
Adrianne: Exactly. Exactly.
Cindy: Yeah. Well, what's the future look like? You know, big wish lists for talent acquisition in the next year?
Adrianne: You know, I think just from a broader perspective is I'm looking to partner for particularly in the technology world, looking to partner with maybe those things that you wouldn't necessarily suspect would be great areas to tap into talent. So, for example, we're tapping into Per Scholas, which is a nonprofit organization that provides absolute free education to folks that might have been, I'm going to say marginalized or maybe had never had the opportunity to get an education in technology. [inaudible 00:16:15] free 15 week courses and they come out with certified network engineer. While they may not have the background, we want to start tapping into that type of talent. One to create our talent pool, but also to create more diversity and diversity in thought for us.
Cindy: So if you don't have enough women in technology, let's train them versus going after to the same pool, everybody else is.
Adrianne: Per Scholas is a nonprofit here in town, but then DevMountain, for example, is a for profit school that does a similar kind of thing. Within three months, they come out as coders or engineers. So they might have a bachelor's degree in marketing, but now they want to be in technology. So we kind of open our minds to thinking about where talent may come from.
Cindy: So find somebody who has attitude and aptitude and then put them through these schools. Well you have to send me those links. I'll post it in the show notes.
Adrianne: Yeah, I'll certainly do that.
Cindy: Yeah, that's awesome. So this is really impressive. Who was, did you have a mentor, somebody who really made you such an amazing talent acquisition expert?
Adrianne: I'm trying to think. I'm not sure, there's just gut things that occurred, like those light bulb moments in my career. Previously, I was with a company called Transplace and we were just fighting with the same talent back and forth. Same five companies fighting gets the same talent and me and the CEO and a couple of others said, we've got to stop this. Can we start growing our own talent? So that's one.
Adrianne: Then the same thing when Java Juice came to town, I don't know if you know, I've worked with them and help them build their talent here was, and because of where they were in their business they're going to hire 70, 80 people here within a very short period of time. Looking at the expense of partnering with an agency. We came up with a super cool model where we would bring professionals in transition. For example, maybe Cindy Lou's in transition [inaudible 00:18:27] to the fundamentals of recruiting. You would be able to say that you were actually currently retained by Java Juice so that helps you in your search for a job. Then you would maybe take on two or three searches and that would show you kind of the elements of that. And then you could say, "Hey, I'm only available 15 hours a week." Well that's two searches and pay you a base pay and then get a little kicker for placement. And that helped Java Juice create a great pipeline without some crazy expense.
Cindy: Yeah, that's smart. Right. That's interesting. That's actually the model we used to use, sort of a [inaudible 00:19:02] contract model.
Adrianne: Yeah. I would cycle in these folks. So as they'd get jobs, then I would, who do you know that might be in transition to just kind of cycle them through and help with the forming of the talent here for Java Juice.
Cindy: Right. That's really smart. So really just taking a look at the situation that the company's in and then tailoring.
Adrianne: Yeah. See what, yeah.
Cindy: Yeah. That's awesome. I love the creativity. So you're going to be a mentor this year at our big HR event.
Adrianne: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Cindy: You've been a mentor in the past. Tell me what your experience was like as a mentor.
Adrianne: Well one, it's a great way to just make professional connections and connect with both aspiring and very seasoned HR professionals. In fact, out of one of the last ones, I think I ended up hiring a couple people from [inaudible 00:19:53] and created some great longterm friendships. So that's what I love about that event and high energy, really professional community. So kudos to you to making that happen.
Cindy: Yeah. And thank you. Thank you so much for volunteering as a mentor. We couldn't do it without all the mentors. Look forward to seeing everybody on September 14th again this year.
Adrianne: Yeah, big fun.
Cindy: Well, any parting words of wisdom? And then I want to schedule some time later to do one on your culture because I think...
Adrianne: Oh, I'd love to do that. You know, I'd love it. Talk about our culture. Yeah.
Cindy: No matter how good your talent acquisition program is, if you don't have a good culture, you're not going to get be able to... Get them to listen, but they won't come.
Adrianne: It's true. I mean everybody and it's the word or the whatever the culture, culture, but I'm telling you, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, intentionality around culture. So critical and the talent today are so savvy. They see through that. I talk about it and they come in, they will see it. They'll know if you're actually walking the talk.
Cindy: Right, right. This has been awesome. Thank you so much. We will schedule a follow up vlog for the whole culture topic. If you guys want, we'll post the some notes on the bottom here and look forward to seeing everybody at the big HR event this year. Thanks so much, Adrianne.
Adrianne: Thanks.
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