Level Up, not lay off: How ServiceNow’s Sarah Tilley revamps recruiting in a down market

Take a look back at Compa’s latest webinar “Level up, not layoff,” and hear what Sarah Tilley of ServiceNow is opting for over the dreaded layoffs. Read the main highlights below or revisit the full transcript (below) and video recording.

In this session, we share how:

• Talent pools are emerging after layoffs and hiring freezes;
• Hybrid workplaces have impacted the labor market;
• Companies need to adjust how they attract, assess, and hire top talent; 
• To leverage new tools and technology, especially real-time market data;
• Workplace equity is a new benchmark for talent acquisition teams; and  
• Success requires new ways to turn market seasonality into actionable insights to win top candidates.

On market volatility

While there’s still a temporary influx of available talent across the market, Tilley notes, by contrast, there’s still a global shortage of experienced talent — especially in tech. This talent gap could cost companies worldwide an estimated $6.5 trillion by 2025, which means talent leaders will need to better accommodate these labor pools and overhaul their talent assessment practices. At the same time, companies will need to focus more on workplace equity to make sure they’re consistent with talent acquisition and compensation practices for both new and existing employees.

On the shift from quantity to quality

In today’s market, C-suites care more about hiring the best than hiring the most. The big question, then, is how to distinguish the good from the great talent, and how to use that approach to scale. According to Tilley, ServiceNow believes that talent risk is business risk and talent advantage is business advantage. So to reach the best, ServiceNow started assessing candidates as a whole while also communicating to leadership the value in a holistic approach. ServiceNow specifically assesses candidates’ “wholeness” across three major factors: skills, capabilities, and values.

On the talent supply shock

It’s great to have more talent knocking at your door, but it’s even better to make sure each touchpoint with a candidate is meaningful. Candidate touchpoints give companies an opportunity to tell their stories and turn prospects into advocates. This requires the right technology and tools to ensure a memorable candidate experience. Talent leaders and their teams need to recognize the need for intentionality and factor it into more of their daily tasks.

On leveraging AI to access skills

Companies have long sought ways to take a more skills-first approach to finding and developing talent. Now, talent leaders are looking to AI to help build a skills intelligence strategy around key domain personas. It’s clear that manual processes are time consuming and won’t cut it anymore. ServiceNow is currently deploying AI to assess skills taxonomy of every job and role and break them down in a way that AI can match candidates in- or outside an organization. The SaaS leader also uses AI to create faster, simpler, and more equitable paths to meaningful roles with the hopes of bringing more people into careers they may not have had access to.

On pay equity

The key to reaching pay equity is data. With the right metrics, companies can gain confidence that their equity efforts are working, whether it’s in hiring, retention, pay promotion, or succession planning. Many companies are using new tools like Compa’s real-time compensation data to keep up with industry and market changes. ServiceNow launched global hiring playbooks for each domain, which helps leaders step into more structured and equitable hiring practices designed to systemize pay equity. Tilley says ServiceNow eliminated blind spots by leveraging third parties to conduct regular analyses and assessments, thus maintaining overall equity.

On the evolving social contract between employees and employers

With candidates and employees expecting increasing levels of compensation transparency, it’s never been more important to build and maintain data metrics in a way that meaningfully reflects candidates’ concerns. Without this data, companies risk falling behind the compensation values and equity philosophies present in the market.

On skills gaps

To identify gaps, companies need to break down each role into a skills taxonomy, which is then fed to an AI tool to quantify what a company has, what it needs, and what’s out there in the market. After that, the information needs to be delivered to every recruiter and put into action. It’s crucial for talent development leaders to bring insights from the outside in and influence the way leadership thinks. Real-time data like what’s available with Compa is one way to make that happen.

On succession planning

Too many companies only pay lip service to succession planning, only later to realize the cost of not doing so effectively. Optimally, organizations will have an initiative that incorporates both internal and external succession planning.

On data insights that had the most impact

Where does your talent come from? What companies are you losing to? What industries are up (or down)? These insights all help paint a clearer picture of who succeeds in your organization. Specifically, data that reveals the whole ecosystem of talent for a specific role can improve a company’s diversity initiatives, among other compelling benefits.

About Sarah Tilley

Sarah Tilley is the SVP of Global Talent Acquisition and Development at ServiceNow. She is responsible for leading a newly integrated talent organization, which includes all external recruitment and internal mobility, learning and development (inclusive of leadership development), and talent and succession planning efforts. Prior to ServiceNow, Tilley spent 16 years at the Walt Disney Company.

Revisit these highlights and more in the full video recording and webinar transcript (below), and share with your colleagues who are also excited about the power of offers-based market data.