How Avanade built a culture of hiring and inclusion with SocialTalent
After upskilling its recruiters, Avanade extended SocialTalent's e-learning platform to everyone involved in interviews — embedding a culture of hiring excellence across every corner of the organization and strengthening its drive for a more inclusive workforce.
After leveraging SocialTalent to upskill recruiters, Avanade wanted to expand the scope of learning to anyone involved in interviews.
Avanade and SocialTalent's journey began with the establishment of the TA Advance program. After identifying a gap in recruiter training, Avanade sought a learning solution that would equip their TA team with the most up-to-date insights and knowledge, ensuring that this function had the opportunity to grow, develop, and expand its influence.
In April 2020, 110 TA Advance Licenses were created with SocialTalent's expert-led content, and the training was rolled out to recruiters. It proved to be an instant success story. Feedback and engagement around the e-learning platform was overwhelmingly positive, particularly pointing out how universally applicable the content was. But this posed another question — was there any way this learning could be expanded, to allow not only recruiters to benefit, but anyone involved in conducting interviews?
Inspired by what had been achieved with TA Advance, the company looked to expand its goals: embed a culture of hiring where everyone recruits, not just TA; improve the pace and quality of hiring; broaden the talent pool and champion inclusion; create a best-in-class candidate experience; and ensure interviewers are consistent and asking great questions — all through a scalable solution.
With these aims in mind, it was a natural progression to engage further with SocialTalent. Twelve months after the initial contract, Avanade expanded to SocialTalent's Enterprise Solution, giving access to the entire library of content and the opportunity to roll out training to every corner of the business.
SocialTalent has been an outstanding partner. From the outset the SocialTalent team have exceeded expectations — from their listening and understanding of our requirements to the platinum-plated content, responsiveness and agility. As relationships go, it's been exceptional. — Annabel Nichols, Global Recruiting Transformation and Diversity Lead, Avanade
SocialTalent has been an outstanding partner. From the outset the SocialTalent Team have exceeded expectations from their listening and understanding of our requirements to the platinum plated content, responsiveness and agility. As relationships go, it's been exceptional.
Employees loved the bite-size, modular approach that let them take courses on the go.
Industry experts and thought leaders delivered the specific skills Avanade's people needed.
Curated Avanade content could be interspersed within the training to keep it hyper-relevant.
SSO made access almost instantaneous across an intuitive, flexible platform.
Launching this initiative in small pilot groups was a huge part to the adoption success, and our leadership did not disappoint. They embraced the importance of leading from the front and holding their teams accountable to this important change for Avanade.
A structured, top-down approach helped build awareness of SocialTalent learning and boosted user adoption.
- Through the TA Transformation team, Annabel Nichols and Lisa Kochert spearheaded the initiative, creating the License to Hire program with SocialTalent.
- At its apex, it would involve any employee at Avanade above consultant level, giving them strategic training on how to conduct interviews in a manner that reduced unconscious bias, created a great experience for candidates, and ensured that quality hires were made quickly.
- Avanade sees hiring as key to business success, so stakeholders were engaged immediately.
- Paul Phillips, the Global Head of Talent Acquisition, championed the team to focus its time and resources on making the program a success — it was not an add-on or a nice-to-have.
- The Executive Committee was the first to pilot the License to Hire learning path, followed by a phased launch to HR leadership, then by region — North America first, followed by Europe and growth markets.
- The program became a mandate: recruiters could only use hiring managers and interview panelists who were fully certified through SocialTalent.
- Reports tracked progress, with leaderboards and competitions driving participation. Soon, there were thousands of fully certified interviewers at Avanade.
Launching this initiative in small pilot groups was a huge part of the adoption success, and our leadership did not disappoint. They embraced the importance of leading from the front and holding their teams accountable to this important change for Avanade. — Lisa Kochert, Global TA Academy Lead, Avanade
User feedback was astronomical, thousands became Licensed to Hire, and overall hiring metrics improved.
Since launch, over 7,600 employees have been certified. 88% of licenses have been activated, and 75% have completed the training. User feedback has been overwhelming: 98% agree that the SocialTalent content will have a positive impact on their hiring, 96% see it improving candidate experience, and 95% believe the skills learned will help promote a more inclusive environment.
Since adopting SocialTalent training, numerous success metrics have improved:
- 100% of all interviewers are Licensed to Hire
- Candidate satisfaction scores rose across all areas
- Two external awards won from The Talent Board, a non-profit that recognizes a quality candidate experience
- Delivery of 40% female hiring globally
- Interviewer pool increased by over 400%
The most important factor in the success of License to Hire was the determination of Annabel, Lisa, and the rest of the team, whose dedication ensured that SocialTalent learning reached as many users as possible. And they're not stopping there — with the launch of SocialTalent's Onboarding and Internal Mobility solutions, talks are already underway to bring this to even more teams.
Great training — it should be REQUIRED for all managers or people that conduct interviews. — Avanade user
We realized the need to make sure that we professionalize how we interview candidates and provide a stellar experience, while also making sure we remove as much unconscious bias as possible. The feedback has been phenomenal. License to Hire is a tremendous success. — Paul Phillips, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Avanade
We realized the need to make sure that we professionalize how we interview candidates and provide a stellar experience, while also making sure we remove as much unconscious bias as possible. The feedback has been phenomenal. License to Hire is a tremendous success.
Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital, cloud and advisory services, industry solutions and design-led experiences across the Microsoft ecosystem. Every day, our 60,000 professionals in 26 countries do what matters to make a genuine human impact for our clients, their employees and their customers. At Avanade, our vision is to advance the world through the power of people and Microsoft.
Great training — it should be REQUIRED for all managers or people that conduct interviews.