This time, we have a chance to get to know Grace Woods, the Talent Acquisition Lead at Oneflow, an all-in-one digital contract platform that automates contract creation, digital signature, electronic signature and contract management.
- Founded in 2012, Oneflow has 200 employees working in 6 locations.
Grace and her team successfully scaled the company from 70 to 200 employees and achieved a cNPS of +69 when the industry average is around +30. Wow!
Thank you, Grace, for letting us learn about your approach to recruiting, and we completely agree that thinking strategically will help HR professionals continue on this path of success in the future.
How did you get started in recruitment/talent management? Was working in talent management something you always wanted to do?
I started in recruitment after finishing university. It was something I decided to do while I figured out what I wanted to do as a career.
And then I realised I was good at speaking to people and cared about how they were treated in the recruitment process. I moved from a recruitment agency to an in-house position to be more connected to company culture.
What would you say is a common misconception about the work of a recruiter/TA manager?
One common misconception is the idea that TA is an admin role with little impact on the organisation – in fact, it has a massive impact and can change the whole organisation. TA is a strategic role and should be treated as such.
What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve managed to overcome or improve on during your career so far? How did you do it?
A main challenge has been to ensure a quality, end-to-end recruitment process when scaling a company of 70-200. It was difficult to keep on top of everything, but we managed to do so and ended up with a cNPS score of +69, which is incredible.
What are some of the most rewarding experiences or achievements you’ve had in your recruiting career so far?
- +69 NPS score was a huge win for us, as our industry’s average is around +30
- Scaling the company from 70 to 200 successfully, with minimal ‘bad hires’
- Hiring and training my own team
- Rebuilding the talent function/strategy in a growing company
- Developing a team to become more strategic
What kind of experiences have you had as a candidate yourself? Any experiences that have stood out?
Things that will definitely affect the candidate negatively:
- Being interrogated, little conversational skills from interviewers
- Being ghosted from senior(!!) people in talent teams
- The interviewer not being present
Things that can help provide a positive candidate experience:
- Talking about personal/fun things in interviews, e.g. what star signs we are
- Meeting multiple levels of the organisation
- Fast responses
What recruitment and talent management trends are you most excited and/or worried about? Why?
I am the most excited about TA teams being more strategic, focusing on aligning internal teams and training hiring managers. I am worried about the market slowing down and then accelerating too fast.
What do you feel is special about your current place of work? Why should people apply?
We have a culture that fosters innovation, new ideas and personal growth. People should apply if they want to work in a place where everyone lifts and supports new ideas, where we focus on common goals and share a drive to be the best we can be.
What tools that you use in your day-to-day work are the most valuable to you?
An ATS is a must for me.
In your opinion, what are the most critical skills and qualities a recruiter should possess to be successful in this field?
- Genuine care for other people;
- Communication – the ability to match the conversation and build on it;
- Authenticity – bringing your true self to an interview;
- Empathy – putting yourself in their shoes;
How do you approach diversity and inclusion in the hiring process and ensure fair and unbiased recruitment?
Training our HMs on hiring biases has the biggest effect – call them out on their unconscious bias, but not judge it. This is important to know – it’s how we’re taught in society. Reflect on it without judgement.
Do you track any metrics/KPIs in your day-to-day work? If you’ve managed to improve any of them recently, what did you do to achieve better results?
We constantly improve our metrics and reflect on them weekly. If we have slipped in the metrics, we discuss how and why they happened and then decide how to improve them as a team.
The key metrics our team tracks:
- cNPS
- Time to hire
- Time to fill
- Pipeline speed
- Pipeline conversion
How would you define a good candidate experience? What strategies do you use to offer one?
Too big a question for this interview! A good candidate experience has many touch points.
- Clear, fast communication is one of them.
- Alignment internally is another.
- Employer branding is key.
- Plus, how each person in the organisation shows up throughout the process.
This could be a huge discussion, but the TA team needs to drive this and ensure everyone is acting in a way that aligns with the company goals and culture, which allows more authenticity.
How do you know when it’s time to take some time off to avoid burnout? How do you recharge?
I don’t like the word ‘recharge’ really. I prefer to call it reconnecting or realigning – with yourself and with nature. Do things you like to do, spend time with people who don’t work in your company (so you can’t talk about work too much) and place yourself in the present. I have discovered that these help turn my mind off from work.
And lastly, what motivates you professionally?
Having things to work towards, big projects, having an impact.
Creating an environment in interviews that people love – authentic, fun, efficient.
Teamdash is a customisable ATS that helps recruiters save up to 70% of time per vacancy on tedious tasks by offering the best in market automation and interviewing tools and perfectly adapting to your existing processes.
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