What a dead cat and talent recruitment have in common
Recruiting fifty high potentials annually – how do you start and what should your selection process look like? Known for exceptional quality, and high emotional and intellectual intelligence, how does the company manage to source so much top talent from the market year after year? We spoke with Catherine Brems, Head of HR at Ormit Talent. She immerses you in the internal kitchen of this distinct selection and recruitment process.
“Every year we recruit fifty ambitious talents. Yet that’s only 4% of the total number of applicants each year.”
A tight labor market requires a unique approach
“Ormit Talent’s selection process was rather classic,” Catherine explains. “Candidates sent in their resumes and cover letters, after which we selected profiles based on hard skills and invited them for an interview. During the corona pandemic, like other companies, we organized our application processes completely digitally. Many people accepted, because a digital interview is more accessible than one at the office. However, in the digital process, more candidates dropped out after the interview. Because appointments were cancelled last-minute, fewer strong profiles moved on to the assessment.”
Catherine continues: “We were missing out on top talent too often. But this is not only due to the digitalization of our procedure. There is an enormous war for talent raging on the labor market and due to the great competition, candidates today have many options. We therefore started talking to our target group and discovered that a new approach to select and recruit young potentials was urgently needed at Ormit Talent.”
The move to flexibility and commitment
As it turned out, the focus was too much on hard skills. Moreover, the lead time was too long, and Ormit Talent’s twinkle and fun were unclear. “Our selection process could be faster, more efficient and, above all, more human,” Catherine said.
Ormit Talent wouldn’t be Ormit Talent if the team stayed put. We came up with an atypical case where we brought ambitious talents together to solve a fictional detective game.
Solve a mystery in the selection process? Yes please!
An Ormit Talent is curious, a good listener and also grasps new challenges. “We turned the pre-selection phase into an online, collaborative detective game,” Catherine says proudly. “We now give a group of candidates the task of solving a mystery. Only together can they unravel the mystery. There are two assessors present each time during the game, who evaluate all candidates individually.”
This way, each candidate experiences what it is like to work at Ormit Talent. They sample a community feel among young professionals and are asked to look at themselves. Does it turn out to be a match? Then candidates move on to an innovative assessment at our office.
“Regardless of whether a candidate is selected or not after the preselection phase, everyone gets a personal phone call with concrete feedback.”
Higher contract acceptance and hire rate
This new approach is proving to be a hit for Ormit Talent. The contract acceptance rate increased from 62% to 75%, the hire rate from 1% to 4%. More than 70% of respondents are satisfied with our selection process (compared to 56% in the past). Among the dropouts in the pre-selection phase, 53% of respondents were found to be positive about our approach, compared to only 40% in the past. But the greatest strength of our unique procedure? That remains the assessment. Because as many as 86% are satisfied to very satisfied with our approach.