Talent Acquisition: building a system that can scale without compromising values around DEI

Challenge

When we first started working with Truss this remote-first digital services company employed approximately 60 people, and worked regularly with consultants and contractors. Nearly all of the “Trussels” engaged in hiring had other often more pressing duties, which is normal but not sustainable as you grow. Our challenge was to adapt the hiring system into one that could scale as Truss grows, while also committing to strong practices around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In addition to having goals around scalability, speed, and DEI, leadership also wanted a system that reduced burden for candidates, and employees participating in the process.

Approach

We started with a brief discovery, which included relevant hiring documentation and data reviews (desk research), and interviews with hiring managers across the organization whom we considered our customers. Discovery efforts provided insight into what was working well, what could be improved, and the demand / requisitions we could expect in the first six months.

This led us to the following goals for implementation: reduce the number of days it took to fill a position, increase talent pool diversity, introduce methods to reach passive candidates, create positive experiences for candidates and interviewers, and regularly measure and report on key performance indicators.

Here’s how we staffed the engagement, on a staggered basis:

One talent strategy & operations expert to act as the hiring lead and pair with the recruiting assistant already on board to design and refine hiring processes
One talent acquisition expert to focus on outbound recruiting and integrating relevant DEI practices into the hiring system
One senior recruiter to add additional recruiting and candidate management capacity

Results

Our partnership with Truss included many winning attributes: collaboration, experimentation, transparency, and tangible commitments within DEI. Leaders encouraged feedback from their teams if they weren’t living the standard they set, and all Trussels treated us like we were fully integrated employees. During our 2.5 years together we:

Collaborated to build hiring systems for leadership roles, volume roles (multiple hires for the same position), and newly conceived roles
More than doubled the company size
Reduced time-to-fill metrics by 20 days on average
Increased diversity across all practices
Mapped hiring process dependencies to compensation, finance, and staffing functions, and worked with leads to conceptualize and establish cross functional practices
Contributed to Truss being on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list 3 years in a row (2020, 2021, and 2022)

During our final months, we worked with leadership on a plan to replace ourselves in a smooth, sustainable way. At the end of our engagement, the in-house Talent Acquisition team included a Director, a Senior Manager, two recruiters (one contract), and one recruitment coordinator. In addition, the recruitment assistant we worked with from the beginning flourished and is now a Senior Culture and Experience Program Manager with the company.

In Spring 2022, CEO Everett Harper’s book Move to the Edge, Declare it Center was published by Wiley. We were honored to be featured in the chapter about DEI, Recruiting, and Hiring at Truss.

Quotes from the team.

See what more clients have to say.

If your employees are your most important part of your company then you need someone you can deeply trust to help you find them. Jen and Abdul repeatedly demonstrated they were worthy of that trust; they helped us more than double our company's size over the last two years while increasing racial diversity of our team across nearly all practices. They also became trusted advisors to me and other leaders at Truss due to their work ethic, skill, and candor. I've learned an enormous amount from them and I highly recommend them.

Mark Ferlatte, CTO, Founder
What I appreciated most about working with Jen and Abdul is their commitment to partnering every step of the way. They took the time to listen to and understand our team’s needs and helped design plans to speed our hiring process to meet demands. I was able to lean on their expertise and trusted them to represent Truss to candidates when we were overloaded because they embodied our values. I learned so much about how to coach my team on equitable interviewing practices and how to adapt to changing industry needs.

Carmen Bocanegra, Director of Research and Design
Jen and Abdul helped me to hire for an important role that we'd never had before in our organization. Their market research, knowledgeable insights, and strategic guidance were all instrumental in creating new hiring artifacts, and designing a process that led to a fantastic outcome. What's more, they did it within a very tight timeline, and without compromising any of our company values.

Hannah Kane, VP of Delivery

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