July 28, 2022
As the largest plant-based food producer in the world, Upfield is constantly striving to bring on talent that will move the company towards its vision of a “Better Plant-Based Future.” Like many of today’s TA teams, Upfield recognized the potential of passive sourcing, but wanted a way to streamline sourcing and outreach without breaking the bank, or overburdening its team.
Below, we take a look at the challenges Upfield overcame in switching up its sourcing strategies, while keeping a close eye on the budget.
When Alex Morse, Upfield’s Talent Acquisition Manager for North America, came across Fetcher, he was skeptical about giving up control over his sourcing processes. He and the rest of Upfield’s talent acquisition team had been using manual sourcing methods to find and reach out to candidates.
They were using LinkedIn Recruiter across their global team, but it was costly. Lowering the budget while investing in innovative solutions were priorities for the global plant-based food company, so Bianca Eder, Upfield’s Global Head of Talent Acquisition, reached out to schedule a demo of Fetcher’s recruiting tool.
Alex found that being able to see Fetcher’s platform on the demo helped him visualize how it could work for Upfield. Having candidates’ personal email addresses, the ability to schedule automated emails, and an easy-to-read dashboard ultimately sold him.
With the potential to ease the sourcing burden on its 12-person talent acquisition team, they were eager to get started. Now, each team member, as well as Upfield’s hiring managers, fully relies on Fetcher to source for roles across the globe, from brand managers and sales specialists to safety supervisors and quality analysts.
One of the aspects that had an immediate impact on Upfield’s outreach is Fetcher’s sourcing of personal email addresses.
Alex finds that candidates appreciate the time and effort this extra step takes – even though it’s all done automatically by Fetcher’s platform. “From a psychological standpoint, being able to email candidates directly makes people feel special,” says Alex.
The ability to automate follow-up sequences, which Upfield wasn’t able to do before Fetcher, has also been a game-changer for increasing interest.
“I can’t tell you how many times people have come back to me, saying that they are interested, after two or three messages.” - Alex Morse
Clear email analytics for each open position makes it easy for Alex to know how their messages are received. Easy-to-read open, response, and interested rates give him the information he needs to know which emails are working, and which ones need to be adjusted.
Upfield has also added its hiring managers to the platform, allowing them to provide feedback on candidates and send outreach sequences on their behalf. Alex notes that he also sits down with hiring managers to go through the criteria together when opening a new role. “It allows me to guide the conversation into what the hiring manager is looking for in terms of skills, titles they’d consider, etc.” Once batches of auto-sourced candidates start rolling in, he can quickly export a list of candidates for the hiring manager to review, if they prefer.
Alex says that the performance dashboard is one of his favorite parts of Fetcher. These visuals are another tool for guiding conversations with hiring managers about the overall health of the pipeline. They have clear visibility of how the role performs over time, and whether they’re contacting the quality and quantity of candidates needed to reach the final stages.
“Hiring managers love having Fetcher as a resource. And it makes it easier for me to craft my message to them and ultimately, get buy-in from them.” - Alex Morse
In the first six months with Fetcher, Upfield made 12 hires in key roles including a GTM Supply Chain Leader, Senior Marketing Manager, and a Production Supervisor. Alex says that the follow-up outreach sequences, and the fact that he doesn’t have to sift through unqualified candidates, save him a lot of time each week.
Fetcher has also been a win for Upfield’s budget, as they no longer pay for LinkedIn Recruiter seats due to the efficacy of the platform. In a short period, their TA team has adapted to a new way of sourcing through Fetcher and built quality talent pipelines for their roles across the globe.
“Fetcher provides relevant profiles that fit our criteria with a focus on higher quality, saving us a tremendous amount of time reviewing profiles that don’t fit our criteria. It’s not secret that hiring is difficult in this market and we would rather interview three or four people that are excellent and up to par with the job, and provide those to the hiring manager, as opposed to the latter of screening 40+ profiles that are off the mark,” Alex says.
Download the full Upfield case study to learn more.
How do you establish sourcing strategies that bring your closer to your hiring goals? Check out the tips below for finding talent and building a high-quality, highly engaged candidate pool.
Recruiters and hiring managers share the same goal: they want to find the best individuals for their open roles. Set up an initial meeting to outline the JD, collaborate on an interview schedule, and establish timelines together so that expectations are clear from the get-go. As Upfield found, tools like Fetcher make it easy for TA teams to show their work and easily communicate results to hiring managers.
Through your alumni groups, former and current work colleagues, and online connections, start to spread the word that you’re hiring. A great referral program takes a bit of the heavy lifting off of your shoulders, and leads to less turnover overall. Make sure to also re-engage past prospects who perhaps came close to landing a job with your company but were beat out by another candidate. They could be a perfect fit for a current open role!
Your initial outreach can answer big questions, like what makes your company unique, and why someone would want to work there. What’s going to get a candidate excited to hear from you? Including these details in your initial outreach will catch a candidate’s eye. Need to level up your employer branding? We’ve got you covered.
Learn how Fetcher’s sourcing tool can help you build a high-quality candidate pipeline by scheduling your demo with our team.
Check out our other blog posts for more talent acquisition tips and insights into recruiting trends.
At Fetcher, our mission is to introduce companies to the people who will help them change the world. Our full-service, recruiting automation platform automates those repetitive, top-of-funnel tasks, so you can focus more on candidate engagement & team collaboration. Simplify Sourcing. Optimize Outreach. Hire Top Talent. Learn more at fetcher.ai.
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