HelloFresh's Open-Book Approach to Talent Acquisition Tech

Resurfacing this old but gold post from Robbie Simpson, ex-HelloFresh Talent Acquisition team member, from his Medium page.

At TechRec Berlin 2021, some of the most common questions that I was asked was “What ATS are you using?” and “Are you using___ software? They said they were working with you”. In person we were more than happy to share this, after all, there is no silver bullet in Talent Acquisition (TA), but it got us thinking “Why do we have to wait to see people to ask these questions? Where’s the transparency?”, the simple answer was “Because nobody else is sharing outside of these conferences”.

Two of our HelloFresh TA principles are “Share your recipe” and “Candidate experience first”, these principles are not just followed internally but expand beyond the HelloFresh walls and shape how we interact with others in the industry.

That's why at HelloFresh decided to publish our own Tech-TA-Radar, which shows all the technology we use or are considering in the following categories: ADOPTED, TRIALING, ASSESSING, and HOLDING. By making this tool public we hope others can be inspired and learn from our mistakes. Overall it’s our small part to create a more welcoming tech recruitment community, where knowledge sharing isn't just for those who can afford a conference ticket.

What is HelloFresh’s Talent Acquisition Tech Radar?

Based on the original Thoughtworks Radar and inspired by Zalando’s Tech Radar,

Yasar Ahmad came up with the idea for The HelloFresh Tech Talent Acquisition Radar. The Tech-TA-Radar is a tool to support our HelloFresh Talent Acquisition Team globally; it provides a platform to share knowledge and experience in various technologies we use. By presenting it in this easy-to-read way, we increase the discoverability of tools and prevent the repetition of mistakes.

How does it work and how is it updated?

We use the quadrants and four rings approach created by Thoughtworks to show where in the adoption process we are in Talent Acquisition. Each quadrant represents a specific technology area that is relevant for our organization: Interviewing Tools, Talent Intelligence Tools, Automation Tools and CRM & Project Management tools. The rings divide the stage of each of the technologies as it follows:

• ADOPT — Technologies we have high confidence in to serve our purpose, also on a large scale. Typically technology that has a high adoption rate in the HelloFresh Talent Acquisition team.

• TRIAL — Technologies that we are assessing to solve an existing challenge; once the benefits are confirmed and limitations are understood we would move to ADOPT. TRIAL technologies require us to understand more the challenges the technology can solve. We typically move to TRIAL once we have ASSESSED.

• ASSESS — Technologies that are promising and have clear potential value-add for us; technologies worth investing some research and prototyping efforts in to see if it has an impact. ASSESS technologies are new to us. They are often brand new and highly unproven in our organisation.

• HOLD — Technologies not recommended to be used for the HelloFresh Talent Acquisition team. Technologies that we have decided not to renew contractually or are not (yet for us) solving our challenge or other reasons. HOLD technologies should not be used unless for specific TA projects.
  

Our TA Tech Radar is maintained by our Senior Talent Acquisition partners and Talent Intelligence Team on a monthly basis. The TA Tech radar is available for all talent acquisition team members to contribute to and make recommendations. More information can be found on the (internal only) HelloFresh Talent Acquisition website.

Why does Talent Acquisition at HelloFresh need a Technology Radar?

The HelloFreshTalent Acquisition Tech radar will enable the 140+ members of the TA organization, spread across 15 different countries, to be aware of the latest trends in TA Technology, as well as trialling the same tools at the same time