The 2021 #ExcellenceinTA Speakers

Excellence in TA Career Progression: What Went Right, What Went Wrong

I will be discussing Excellence in career progression, aspects of what has gone excellently in my first stint as a functional lead in a large function, what I’ve learned, and advice for aspiring future leaders on how to progress their careers – what to do, but also what hasn’t gone excellently – what not to do

Adam Pomerenke, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager @ Post Office

Developing the AstraZeneca ‘Women In Tech’ Series

In 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, I created the AstraZeneca Women in Tech Series – a video series where I (as the host) interview women in tech across our global business from all levels and seniority, across multiple disciplines and across all geographies – from Mexico to India, Canada to China. The interviews focus around educating the audience on the breadth of opportunities across the technology industry – in an effort to dispel the common myths and help change the narrative – whilst covering aspects of the guests early career aspirations, journey and challenges, in an effort to allow the audience (and specifically women) to connect on an emotional level and to instil belief that they can too emulate the careers of those showcased and breakdown invisible barriers to doing so.

The series has now been recognised internally at many local, global and senior levels and equally from an external perspective, I have since been invited to talk at many events (including a global women in tech event in November) around the topic of Women in Tech and D&I – something which quite honestly would have been completely out of my comfort zone and toolkit 18 months ago.

Ben Ventham, Talent Acquisition Global Team Lead @ AstraZeneca

Inclusivity, through my Disabled/Gay lens

In my final year at Uni in 2009 i had a car accident that left me disabled. I was in hospital for 3 months and broke (most notably) my neck, back, legs, pelvis, punctured both lungs (it was pretty gruesome!)  I was struggling. I was behind my peers in terms of completing my degree as i had to return to Uni and finish my final year, behind my peers in terms of career and life experience. I was struggling to find myself. Disabled and gay. I didn’t know, or understand where I fit in with regard to the professional world or society more widely. As I began to heal physically and mentally, I got back into work. Working for a recruitment agency and conforming to their expectations of me. I knew i wanted to work somewhere where i could be myself, but wasn’t sure on how to achieve this. I was aware of EY and the Big 4, but i thought these firms were too big for me. How can someone be valued and appreciated in a company soo big. Whilst in agency, I heard that EY were recruiting. I reached out to someone in EY recruitment team, who put me in touch with Amanda Rostan and Amy Ward. They asked me what I wanted, and I told them that D&I was important to me, for the above reasons. They immediately stated to tell me about the plans they had around D&I. Straight away, I knew i wanted to work for EY.   Fast forward to today, I am the D&I champ for Assurance, I am the Partnership lead for the relationship with the charity Whizz Kidz (where we have just made our first hire, I’m so proud of this). Being at EY has allowed me to be myself and get involved in the areas that matter to me. I’d love to be able to share this with others.

Hayley Vaughan, Talent Acquisition @ EY

Achieving a 100% Recruitment Fill Rate

Healthcare is one of the toughest markets for attracting candidates. For every 10 vacancies there are across the uk in Nursing, only 60 percent are filled. That means that the candidates have the power to choose where they go, and if / when they apply.

I have achieved a rarity in where all of my hospitals are staffed to the extent that the extra vacancies are due to growth opportunities. Within my talk / presentation, I can talk through all the concepts I use in my approach from ways of working, DE&I, candidate and hiring manager engagement….the list goes on. From this talk, there are many key takeaways that can be applied to other sectors, and it is delivered in the language of our internal recruiter population.

Daen Fox, Recruitment Business Partner @ Bupa

Focusing on Cognitive Ability: Putting the Job vs Career debate to bed once and for all…

With Talent Acquisition being driven by data, stats, reports, utilisation etc. I sought to re-introduce the ‘people’ element back into our resourcing journey.

We adopted a focus on Future Skills, Culture & Belonging, Leadership, and Digital Transformation. Rather than just role related knowledge we placed more attention on Cognitive Ability (problem solver, curious mind) during interviews. This helped candidate transition to the right side of the Job vs Career debate

Sanda Mpanza, Head of Talent Acquisition @ Rider Levett Bucknall

Bringing In-House Recruitment “In-House”

Bringing Inhouse recruitment “In House”
Learn all about our Hand Picked restructure, the reasons behind it and proposed benefits, what this involved/areas for focus and roll out including the challenges and the successes so far!

Katie Owlett, Group Resourcing Manager @ Hand Picked Hotels

Hiring Tech Talent into Non Tech Roles…

Bethany will be looking at hiring tech talent into non tech roles. How we have explored ex-forces recruitment and how we go about headhunting and selecting those candidates

Bethany Willcox, Senior Recruitment Partner @ Alcumus

Overcoming the Issues of Expansion in Talent Acquisition

My story will be about Voi’s expansion journey in Spain. I was responsible for building up the team from scratch with a focus on D&I. I will talk about the variety of challenges I encounter and how I had to overcome different issues along the way (e.g legal, brand awareness, partnerships, candidate experience, bureaucratic delays, onboarding issues, among others). It was a fun ride!

Patricia Yanez, Talent Acquisition Partner – UK & Expansion Markets @ Voi Technology

Opportunity Communicators: The role of a recruiter in modern TA functions…

Join Tom Davies (Global careers lead) and Emily Germon (Careers and academic outreach specialist), from AMICULUM and Ambit, in this interactive talk about what it means to be a recruiter in modern TA functions. In this talk we’ll cover (collectively) ‘falling’ into a career in recruitment, the challenges of our jobs, our biggest challenge, how we overcame it and what the future holds for our niche profession.

Tom Davies, Global Careers Lead @ AMICULUM