Life as a Talent Acquisition Partner

What’s a typical day like for you?

My role involves supporting the talent acquisition strategy and managing the end-to-end recruitment process on assigned roles. This means building and maintaining relationships with all employees, project leads, and external clients is an important part of my role. I also work across various ad-hoc people-related projects and I represent the organization at university career symposiums.

Since my role is so varied, no two days are ever the same. A typical day can often involve juggling many planned tasks and unanticipated challenges. Although it varies from day to day, my responsibilities can be broken down into three key sections—diversity and inclusion, recruitment, and employee engagement and wellbeing.

Why work for Avalere Health?

I was eager to join a field where I could utilize the skills and knowledge learned from my psychology degree. Talent acquisition fits this perfectly because you’re establishing a rapport and delving into a candidate’s personality, personal values, motivational drives, and cognitive abilities to align them to suitable opportunities. I also wanted to work in a people-oriented and proactive role, where I could focus on the candidate experience and deliver end-to-end solutions, all whilst making a lasting impact within a brand I was passionate about.

I have an exciting role in the future of the business by contributing to the development of a truly inclusive recruitment process.

How do you source new talent?

I work on the end-to-end recruitment process. It’s all about connecting with the market and expanding my network to attract talented candidates for immediate opportunities. For example, talent pipelining and social promotion through delivering content on LinkedIn or Glassdoor. I also conduct phone screenings and organize interviews.

How are you ensuring Avalere Health is a diverse and inclusive organization?

Although diversity and inclusion (D&I) is perceived to sit within the People team, to properly embed diversity and inclusivity within the organization, everyone needs to participate and own that responsibility together.

I’m in an invaluable position as a Black woman working within talent acquisition. I’m passionate about being an effective change agent and bringing attention to the barriers underrepresented groups face.

I have an exciting role in the future of the business by contributing to the development of a truly inclusive recruitment process. This involves developing and implementing simple effective approaches that can mitigate the impact of unconscious bias on our decision-making, and iterating existing processes that allow us to cope with a rapidly expanding headcount.

To make sure diversity and inclusion are deeply embedded in everything we do, we’ve forged partnerships with external D&I and talent specialists. We’ve also introduced inclusive recruitment processes such as blinding resumes, developing interview scorecards, and widening our talent pools to ensure we expand our outreach and exposure to underrepresented talent in the industry.

I also recently delivered a ‘Lunch & Learn’ session to the rest of the company, introducing unconscious bias and neurodiversity training. It explored the concept of bias and how this shows up in the workplace. The goal of the session was to enable employees to begin to understand their privileges and biases, rethink how biases can underpin the way we recruit and onboard people, and show how the Talent team is ensuring we’re building an inclusive workplace. Ensuring our processes are as unbiased as possible is vital.

What is one initiative you’re really proud of?

We have driven the first fully global employee support program for mental health and resilience, which kicked off during Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. This program, developed and delivered by the Hobbs Consultancy team, included several webinars and group and individual coaching sessions aimed at supporting individuals and teams with resilience, productivity, mental health, and education. Additionally, we’ve had access to seven D&I e-learning modules covering Gender, Ethnic Diversity, LGBTQ+, Disability, Neurodiversity, Masculinity in the workplace, and The Intergenerational workplace.

What skills are required for your role?

It’s important to be forward-thinking, people-centered, and fulfilled by creating positive change and constructive action. This position is also a great opportunity to engage with your creative side and influence people across the organization. I get to do this every day, whether developing best practices to attract and screen talent, creatively solving complex challenges, or shaping our policies and practices to have a meaningful impact on the well-being and personal/professional development of employees.

Ultimately, I believe to succeed in this role and organization, it’s imperative that you’re aligned with and live our values through the way you operate.

To cultivate and maintain an atmosphere where employees feel engaged, valued, and part of the collective, you need to be a team player. Success depends on teamwork. We’re stronger and able to drive greater positive change when we collectively support each other.

With all that work, is there time for play?

There’s a real buzz in the office on a Thursday afternoon when drinks o’clock rolls around. I enjoy welcoming the weekend in by unwinding with my colleagues and celebrating our wins for the week with a drink or two. You’ll always find an exciting activity or fun-filled event in the diary from our Social Committee to look forward to. Outside of work, I enjoy catching up with friends for a bottomless brunch or visiting museums and art galleries.