The international talent acquisition process Case: F-Secure Corporation Aurelija Viluckyte Bachelor’s Thesis Degree Programme in International Business 2012 Abstract Date of presentation Degree programme Author or authors Group or year of Aurelija Viluckyte entry 2009 Title of report Number of The international talent acquisition process pages and ap- Case: F-Secure Corporation pendices 85 + 6 Teacher(s) or supervisor(s) Elizabeth San Miguel, Tanja Vesala-Varttala This thesis was conducted based on F-Secure’s needs and interests. F-Secure was inter- ested to find out how international employees view their talent acquisition processes and to review the success of the co-operation with two recruitment partners. The objective of this thesis was to give development suggestions to F-Secure on their international talent acquisition processes. Three different perspectives were researched in order to receive relevant data: F-Secure’s current international talent acquisition processes based on internal sources, the experiences of the recently employed interna- tional employees on F-Secure’s pre-selected recruitment and selection stages, and the current co-operation situation with Recruitment Partners A & B were studied. The thesis project started in November 2011 and ended in July 2012. The theoretical literature studied included talent acquisition through recruitment and selection, candi- date experience and recruitment service providers. The data was collected between January and June 2012. The data collection methods included company workshops, e- mails, interviews, a group discussion and a quantitative survey. The research tools aimed to pinpoint the experiences and opinions of the current and past situations in F- Secure’s international talent acquisition and to find any improvement ideas from the research participants. Some improvement ideas were based on theoretical evidence. It was found that F-Secure’s international talent acquisition process is already well- developed and a lot of attention is given to the end of the process – the pre- engagement process and Day One. Some ideas for improvement were given as well. For example, the use of social media for recruitment purposes, making a more person- alized recruitment and selection process, as well as improving the hiring manager’s and the recruitment service provider’s communication levels were the main improvement points suggested. Keywords Talent acquisition, recruitment and selection, candidate experience, recruitment part- nership, Social Media Table of contents 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Topic background ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 F-Secure ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Research problem setting ........................................................................................... 5 1.4 Key concepts ................................................................................................................ 7 1.5 Structure and conduct of the report ......................................................................... 8 2 Talent acquisition through recruitment and selection ..................................................... 9 2.1 Recruitment and selection process ........................................................................... 9 2.2 Candidate experience ................................................................................................ 12 2.2.1 Candidate experience as a concept and why it is important .................... 12 2.2.2 What is a positive candidate experience and how to develop it? ............ 14 2.3 Attracting talent ......................................................................................................... 16 2.3.1 Advertising ..................................................................................................... 17 2.3.2 Networking ..................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Selection methods ..................................................................................................... 21 2.4.1 Screening and shortlisting ............................................................................ 22 2.4.2 Interviews, assessment centres and work sampling .................................. 23 2.4.3 Selection decision and references ................................................................ 26 2.5 Recruitment service providers ................................................................................. 28 2.5.1 Types of recruitment service providers ...................................................... 28 2.5.2 Recruitment partnership management ....................................................... 30 2.6 Pre-engagement process ........................................................................................... 33 2.7 Day One ..................................................................................................................... 35 3 Research methods .............................................................................................................. 37 3.1 Research design and methods ................................................................................. 37 3.2 Data collection ........................................................................................................... 41 3.3 Research responsiveness .......................................................................................... 43 4 Results .................................................................................................................................. 44 4.1 F-Secure’s current talent acquisition process ........................................................ 44 4.2 The Focus Group ...................................................................................................... 51 4.2.1 Stage 1: Survey ............................................................................................... 51 4.2.2 Stage 2: Group discussion ............................................................................ 61 4.3 Recruitment Partners A & B .................................................................................... 65 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 72 5.1 Key findings ............................................................................................................... 72 5.1.1 Talent acquisition process at F-Secure ....................................................... 72 5.1.2 The Focus Group .......................................................................................... 73 5.1.3 Recruitment Partners A & B ........................................................................ 74 5.2 Improvement suggestions ........................................................................................ 75 5.2.1 Talent acquisition process at F-Secure ....................................................... 75 5.2.2 The Focus Group .......................................................................................... 75 5.2.3 Recruitment Partners A & B ........................................................................ 76 5.3 Suggestions for further research .............................................................................. 77 5.4 Methodological review of the research .................................................................. 78 5.4.1 Company workshop and e-mail data .......................................................... 78 5.4.2 Validity and reliability of the Focus Group results ................................... 79 5.4.3 Recruitment Partners A & B interviews data ............................................. 80 5.5 F-Secure’s comments and feedback ........................................................................ 80 5.6 Personal learning ....................................................................................................... 81 References ................................................................................................................................ 83 Attachments ............................................................................................................................. 86 Attachment 1. Overlay matrix .......................................................................................... 86 Attachment 2. Recruitment and selection process flowchart ....................................... 87 Attachment 3. Recruitment methods .............................................................................. 88 Attachment 4. Survey questions for the Focus Group ................................................. 89 Attachment 5. Discussion guide for the Focus Group ................................................. 94 Attachment 6. Interview guide for Recruitment Partners A & B ................................ 95 1 Introduction Introduction chapter gives reader an in-depth presentation of the thesis topic and the research problem setting. The case company F-Secure short presentation is also in- cluded in the introduction chapter. At the end, the key concepts and the structure of the report are explained. 1.1 Topic background Talent acquisition may provoke thinking that it is simply a synonym of the recruitment and selection concept. However, according to Rivera (2011), talent acquisition encom- passes more than recruitment and selection alone. Talent acquisition takes into account all the involved processes into attracting, selecting and hiring the new employees which reach beyond the recruitment and selection practices. Talent acquisition “includes ele- ments of employment branding, outreach, networking, and relationship building with potential candidate communities”. (Rivera 2011.) The thesis topic of international tal- ent acquisition is focusing on the relationship building with potential candidates, or otherwise networking and creating a positive candidate experience of employer brand and its practices of the recruitment and selection process; the research is also focused on talent sourcing via employing recruitment agencies. Theory on the positive candi- date experience (section 2.2) imposes that candidates (as favoured to customers) long for positive experience of the ‘product’ (in this case, recruitment and selection process and employer brand). Therefore, employers must understand the power of positive candidate experience: candidates are potentially a source of referral, good or bad, now and in the future. (Astringer 2009; Crisping & Mehler 2011, 11; Kaiser 2009, 1.) The same understanding applies to employers working with recruitment agencies. Recruit- ment agencies must also bring as positive as possible image of the employer by con- ducting appropriate recruitment and selection process. Recruitment partnership man- agement can also relate back to the candidate experience via partnership development. The thesis is commissioned by F-Secure Corporation headquarters located in Helsinki, Finland. In terms of the research scope, F-Secure is interested in improving the posi- tive candidate experience, enhancing their employer image and attracting more interna- 1 tional talent into the corporation. These are the main reasons for the conduct of this research. The concept of positive candidate experience will be studied through the pre-selected recruitment and selection process stages where improvement is sought for. The re- search design involves the participation of one focus group and two recruitment part- ners. The focus group consists of recently employed international employees, and the two recruitment partners consist of two representatives respectively. The aim of the research is to collect relevant data from the focus group about their opinions, feedback and perceptions of the pre-selected F-Secure’s recruitment and selection process stages, and from the recruitment partners about their partnership effectiveness and development of it with F-Secure. The research has a few of anticipated benefits to the case company F-Secure. The re- search findings will give F-Secure an opportunity to look at their recruitment process stages from the foreign employees’ point of view, and at the partnership quality from the recruitment partners’ point of view. This should create more awareness of which steps of the processes could be improved. F-Secure will be able to improve their proc- ess according to their needs. The research will greatly benefit the Human Resources department and the Hiring Managers. The research may also influence the start of the induction process program. The research will additionally include suggestions how F- secure could take more advantage of social media in recruitment and employer brand- ing. Academic benefits to the Human Resources Management field may be identified. Little research has been done on the concepts ‘pre-engagement’ and ‘positive candidate ex- perience’. This research will help to prove that candidate experience indeed has an in- fluence on the employer appeal. Last but not least, there are a few of benefits to the author personally and profession- ally. The topic is in author’s field of strong interest, as well as widely beneficial for the future professional life. The author will have an opportunity to network with HR- 2 specialists in practical situations. Finally, the author will benefit from learning how to conduct a thesis research. 1.2 F-Secure The commissioning company for this thesis is F-Secure Corporation, more specifically F-Secure’s Corporate Head Office located in Helsinki, Finland. F-Secure is “the global leader of software as a service through operators”. The main purpose of F-Secure’s software is to protect the digital contents of individual and company clients. F-Secure is an international corporation, operating mainly in Europe, but has offices also in Latin America, USA, and Asian Pacific. Current global personnel size is around 900, whereas the Head Office is home to around 400 professionals. (F-Secure 2011.). The main thesis beneficiaries in the company are the HR department and the Hiring Managers. HR department and the Hiring Managers are highlighted in orange colour on the organizational chart below. Each orange line between the department and the CEO shows a Hiring Manager. F-Secure has, in total, 10 departments operating under the CEO and the President of F-Secure Corporation. 3 Figure 1. F-Secure’s organisational structure (The chart was modified from the internal F-Secure document, shared during a personal company workshop. 2012) The HR department team is directed by the HR director. HR director has 9 subordi- nates in the Head Office in Finland and a few of other subordinates in international offices from Bordeaux in France, Latin America, NA in the USA and Malaysia in Asia Pacific. The functions of each Finland’s subordinates are shown in the figure below. The boxes containing green colour titles are the ones indicating the HR specialist roles. Some HR specialists have double job roles at F-Secure. 4 Figure 2. Human resources team structure (The chart was modified from the internal F-Secure document, shared during a personal company workshop. 2012) 1.3 Research problem setting Thesis topic is international talent acquisition process within specific stages in F-Secure Corporation. The aim of the research is to analyse current international talent acquisi- tion process and to provide improvement suggestions to the HR department in F- Secure. The main Research Problem (RP) and Investigative Questions (IQs) are for- mulated as follows: RP: How could F-Secure’s international talent acquisition process be improved? 1) What is F-Secure’s current recruitment and selection process in selected stages? The aim of this IQ was to describe the current recruitment and selection process in four pre-selected stages:  Application stage,  Interviewing and selection stage,  Pre-engagement stage,  and the Day One stage to have an overview of the case company current practices. 5 2) How F-Secure’s selected recruitment and selection process stages were experienced by the recently employed international employees? With this IQ F-Secure intended to get feedback and improvement ideas from recently (up to 2 years) employed international employees on the pre-selected recruitment and selection process stages. The international employees compiled a focus group. 3) What is current co-operation situation with Recruitment Partners A & B? With this IQ F-Secure aimed to get feedback, improvement ideas and evaluation of the partnership. Suggestions how F-Secure’s recruitment and selection process could be improved from recruitment partner’s point of view were also welcome. 4) What improvement suggestions can be given to F-Secure? For this IQ the researcher expressed the suggestions for improvement based on the analysis of theory and the key research findings. The research problem setting from the thesis contents point of view is shown in the overlay matrix as an Attachment 1, p. 85. International talents in the research are both types of foreigners – the ones recruited from within Finland and from abroad. International talents in the research are specifi- cally recently employed foreign talents. The definition for “recent” in this case was de- fined to be employees that were employed 1-2 years ago. Such decision was made to select the employees which have recent enough experience of the process. The re- search limitations can be reviewed in the figure below. 6