Talent Q, the assessment specialist, is providing ability and personality assessments, and one-to-one facilitated feedback sessions for candidates, to help ICL recruit the right people for specialist senior roles. ICL is a global manufacturer of products based on specialty minerals that fulfil essential needs of the world’s growing population in the agriculture, food and engineered materials markets.
As part of its ‘Next Step Forward’ strategy, ICL is establishing a Global Procurement organisation as well as a regional Shared Service Centre for its IT, HR, finance and legal functions at its new European headquarters located in Amsterdam. The regional headquarters was created to strengthen ICL’s business activities as well as its long-standing relationships with the company’s European customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
“We used to operate separate procurement and support departments in each of the 33 countries in which ICL operates,” commented Andrew Bates, ICL’s European Talent Acquisition Manager. “While centralising these services will improve our operational excellence and provide us with economies of scale, it also presents a significant challenge to identify and select qualified candidates for highly specialised positions we must fill in our Amsterdam facility.”
ICL is currently conducting its recruitment in stages, beginning with its Global Procurement team. External candidates are being sourced worldwide, and following an initial telephone or Skype interview, they are invited to undergo Talent Q’s ability and personality assessments.
Following this stage, each candidate receives a one-hour facilitated feedback call from Talent Q, in which the candidate is provided with detailed feedback on their assessment results and responses. Talent Q’s consultants also question each candidate to check how their behavioural preferences align with the role’s requirements.
“We want candidates to feel engaged during the recruitment process and we want them to receive something as a result,” explained Bates. “Having an hour-long, one-to-one interview with a Talent Q consultant who provides objective and detailed feedback on your strengths and behaviour is highly valuable for any candidate, whether or not they progress to the next stage.”
Following these one-to-one telephone sessions, Talent Q provides ICL with details of each candidate’s assessment results, including their strengths and weaknesses, their suitability for the position and suggested interview questions to probe each candidate’s behaviour further at the final stage panel interview.
“Talent Q’s assessment data and feedback sessions ensure that all of our hiring managers use consistent and objective criteria when making final selection decisions,” added Bates. “With Talent Q, we can not only provide an engaging candidate experience, we also benefit from insights that will help us make evidence-based hiring decisions by pinpointing the most suitable individuals that will fit our corporate culture.”
Around 20 percent of the available roles in ICL’s Global Procurement organisation have been filled by internal candidates who have elected to relocate. To date, the remaining positions have attracted nearly nine hundred applicants. Following initial screenings, around 70 participated in Talent Q’s assessments and received one-to-one, facilitated feedback interviews, and approximately30 candidates were hired. 12 additional positions remain to be filled.
Talent Q will undertake the same assessment process to assist ICL in selecting candidates for IT, HR, finance and legal positions at its European Shared Service Centre.
“Due to the large number of positions that must be filled for our Global Procurement organisation and the Shared Service Centre, Talent Q is taking a hands-on role in helping us to select the right people,” concluded Bates. “However, they are also training us in how to conduct the assessments and manage the feedback so that we will be able to engage in this effective recruitment process on our own and further our strategic goal of creating ‘One ICL’, a global, unified company that conducts business efficiently and competitively in the global markets in which we are active.”