Wendy McIntosh, co-founder and Managing Director, James Temple, co-founderEmerald Talent, a tech recruiting firm specializing in RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) customized services, successfully addresses the hiring challenges of recruiters by providing them with on-demand recruitment support and comprehensive technology implementation assistance. Their recruiters are experts at delivering robust, diverse, and inclusive talent funnels and pipelines, managing hiring and interview processes, generating validated candidate assessments and screens, and tailoring hiring rubrics.
In this interview with Manage HR Magazine, Wendy McIntosh, co-founder and Managing Director of Emerald Talent, and James Temple, its co-founder, discusses at length the company's expertise in taking on tough requisitions, tight talent markets, and detailed requirements. Wendy is a talent acquisition executive who focuses on improving recruiting effectiveness for Emerald Talent customers while building a great company culture and place for recruiters. On the other hand, Temple is a leader in the talent industry with over 20 years of experience. He has collaborated with many global organizations, including Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital, T-Mobile, WeWork, Nordstrom, REI, Zillow, Microsoft, and Ycombinator, to accelerate their talent stream and provide them with the best the industry has to offer.
How does Emerald Talent address hiring challenges in a post-pandemic world?
The workplace disruption brought by the pandemic has translated into tremendous uncertainty in the technical talent market. However, now that global companies are moving into a period of stability, it is clear that some of the recruiting trends that have evolved recently will last for a long time. In this scenario, finding the right people for a company has never been more challenging or more important. Our mission is to help internal teams meet their hard-to-hit hiring goals by rising to the challenge.
We do not utilize a one-size-fits-all hiring model. Instead, while catering to a client's needs, we use a playbook to help them gain a fully holistic view of their situation. The playbook contains a unique methodology that helps our clients acquire top talents available in the market. For example, as companies seek to hire new employees, they find many candidates who aren’t interested in working from the office—most tech professionals want to work from anywhere. For that reason, Emerald Talent advises its clients to embrace a hybrid work environment and revamp the workplace to make it more efficient and productive. This will allow organizations to broaden their search and approach candidates with the issues that worry them most from the very beginning.
Candidates also face similar challenges while applying for a new vacancy. Often we hear about their fears and anxieties brought by the pandemic. Here, our role is to understand the candidates’ concerns and act as a catalyst to change their mindset.
How does Emerald deliver a personalized service to its clients?
We act as trusted business advisors and consultants at the same time to add value to our clients’ recruitment cycle. We customize each engagement and ensure that clients receive a personalized service through an embedded partnership model, enabling us to act as an extension of our client's team and bring faster results. We build great relationships with hiring managers, and this way, we understand the traits of our clients’ ideal candidate, their priorities, and more. This information helps us streamline our sourcing process and identify potential candidates who are a good fit for the role.
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We act as trusted business advisors and consultants at the same time to add value to our clients’ recruitment cycle
At Emerald, sourcing is the most strategic part of recruiting and the most intense. In fact, sourcing is a long-term project that requires consistent communication. We do not disappear suddenly after a few email exchanges or conversations. By consistently following up with sourcing leads, we turn sourcing discussions into meaningful conversations about what the hiring manager really needs. We go the extra mile to help hiring managers by providing them with the resources and tools required to perform their job better. Such efforts allow us to strengthen our sourcing relationship with hiring managers, and we position ourselves as a more valuable resource. Understanding the values and culture of an organization is critical to successful recruitment, and this allows us to transform the entire hiring process by eliminating unnecessary steps and optimizing the whole hiring pipeline.
Could you share with us an instance to highlight the benefits brought to one of your clients after collaborating with Emerald Talent?
In one instance, a small IT company that wanted to accelerate its tech hiring approached us. The client wanted to locate top technical talent, and we would never leave any stone unturned to fill the vacancy. Upon thoroughly studying the client’s requirements and challenges, we came up with a playbook that included a tried and true approach to transform their talent acquisition process. We deployed a suite of technology solutions required to streamline the entire hiring process and automated each step. The client wanted to hire candidates with deep technical knowledge and a passion for solving customer problems. More importantly, they wanted employees who could perfectly fit a customer-centric culture. Keeping in mind all those priorities, we captured all relevant candidates and brought down the hiring time from 38 days to 12 days.
How does Emerald Talent maintain a long-term relationship with recruiters?
At Emerald Talent, we employ a diverse team, and we always put our team first. This helps us become more agile when it comes to offering our services to clients. As we strive to align our values to our customers' values, our recruiters maintain a long-term relationship with us. We are a company built by the recruiters and for the recruiters. While many of our clients are expanding globally, many are going public, and we plan to keep up with our client's hiring requirements as they grow in the days to come.
