How do you find the right talent for an organization that is growing at lightning speed? So fast that in a few quarters you will need completely different talents than you do now. An organization that, moreover, is bringing something new to the market and therefore cannot rely on personnel who have done the exact same thing elsewhere. "Reckless recruiting" is the answer, according to Lennaert Buschman, who is responsible for recruiting in EMEA at HR software provider Workday.

In the first two years after taking office in March 2013, Buschman worked as a "full-cycle recruiter." "I looked for the candidates myself, guided them through the processes, hired them, and finally did the onboarding too," says Buschman. After a year and a half, the European recruitment team had grown so strongly that effective scaling became a challenge. "At the time, I made a proposal for a sourcing model," Buschman says.

Effective Talent Acquisition

The core of the proposal is based on "reckless recruiting," which Buschman summarises as "knowing which candidates you need before the vacancy actually arises." According to the recruiter, Workday knows the pace at which it will grow and in what form. "If you set that part up properly, you can make actual talent acquisition 2 to 3 times more effective," says Buschman. To optimize this setup, the recruiter's role at Workday has since been split. "The front end has shifted more toward the sourcer. Think of building talent pools and candidate acquisition. The recruiter has become more of a talent advisor to management. What talent is available now, and what does that picture look like as we grow? Those questions are important for our recruiters."

To ful fill this advisory role optimally, Buschman believes it is crucial to make it clear to the business that "the more they look ahead, the better they will be served." In addition to the advisory role, a good recruiter—in Buschman's eyes—always has a portfolio of excellent candidates who fit into the new organization. Within a fast-growing organization, the challenges for recruiters change rapidly. "Three years ago, I had to tell the Workday story to potential candidates. Due to the strengthening of the Workday brand and rapid developments, I hardly have to do that anymore," says the recruiter. "Now that our customer and staff base has grown so quickly, you not only have to identify talent, but also keep less suitable candidates out. That is not always pleasant. Sometimes these are people with whom we previously had positive contact. Due to the rapid development of the company, the skills we used to look for in them are now less relevant."

Recognising Weeds

Buschman compares the processes in a fast-growing organization to laying out a garden. "You plant all kinds of beautiful things in it, but then weeds pop up in between. You have to water the entire garden; after all, you cannot work around the weeds. That is why you must recognize inefficient processes as early as possible. That is the only way to achieve optimal service delivery toward internal and external customers," Buschman states. "As a team, you must maintain focus together and create a winning culture." According to the recruiter, the crux of a winning culture lies in selecting people with the right attitude.

But what is the right attitude? "In our case, people who want to do a lot for the job. People who do not like losing and want to be faster and better than competitors. Types who want to discover the question behind the question. In addition, daily work is more than just '9 to 5.' Anyone who wants the latter should not join a young enterprise with sky-high ambitions. We sometimes joke that we should be called Workday and Night," Buschman smiles. In addition to the right attitude, the recruiter also looked for certain skills. "Although we are a young company, we were mainly looking for experienced sales professionals. We want to create the market, and that is no child's play. You need to be able to lead complex sales cycles, manage virtual teams, establish a value proposition, and have an entrepreneurial spirit. I do not find these elements at competitors. To attract people with this profile, you need to interview well. And you can never compare a candidate one-on-one with a previous job. You have to solve a puzzle in a CV. It is a combination of experiences at the last three employers that you need to find in a position or career at Workday."

The recruiter sees the profile changing in the Dutch market. "On average, the candidates we look for are getting a bit younger. We started with a team whose members had experience launching an unknown service from an unknown brand. Now we recruit top talent that has already achieved success in the SaaS/subscription economy," says Buschman. He states that Workday is beginning to benefit from a labor market it created itself. "Now that we have been at it for ten years, it is easier to reel in people with the same experience. Competitors are adopting elements of our work. There are now even people on the job market who grew up entirely in 'our' world."

More Rules

Now that Workday is growing steadily, more rules are also being introduced. "That is not equally easy for everyone. Some sales professionals function best when they can break open a market in a company with few rules. Such salespeople now run into the fact that they have to justify pre-sales to a pre-sales manager. We need a different type of salesperson now," Buschman explains. According to the recruitment specialist, the increase in rules does not pose an obstacle to growth. "You have to keep believing that you can create the market." For this, a "strong, winning culture" is crucial, Buschman thinks. According to him, a winning culture goes hand in hand with team spirit in a fast-growing company. "When the market is growing so fast, sales professionals do not need to cannibalize each other's work. The belief that you can make the market prevents mutual competition."

HR Analytics

In the battle for the best talent, Workday frequently utilizes Workday HR analytics. "We look at our top-performing employees and examine which behavioral traits seem to lead to success. This allows you to better assess which skills to look out for when recruiting new candidates." Buschman also cannot imagine modern organizations not using HR analytics. "Suppose you have a sales force of ten people responsible for a turnover of €10 million. If you lose two of them, you lose €2 million in turnover. If you can use analytics to estimate when people are going to leave, you can anticipate this better. If the statistics show that after three years, people do not generate €1 million but €1.5 million in turnover, you also want to know why people stay or leave after three years. As HR, you can support the board enormously with this. Parties that fail to do so will lose out in the long run."