ruth penfold shazam- talent acquisition

Adding Value; the road to unearthing our Values @Shazam

Ruth Penfold

Director, Talent Acquisition

@ruthpenfold

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited

Connecting you to the media around you

MONTHLY ACTIVE GLOBAL

USERS

300+M600M

CUMULATIVE DOWNLOADS

30 BILLION SHAZAMS

AND COUNTING

20MSHAZAMS

EVERY DAY

NEW SHAZAM’ERS

EVERY MONTH

14M

Who is behind all of that? 220 humans across 7 locations around the world, 110 based in London, 100 based

in the US , 10 ROW

30 PEOPLE IN PRODUCT

75 PEOPLE IN SALES/MARKETING

65 PEOPLE IN ENGINEERING

50 PEOPLE IN OUR CORPORATE FUNCTIONS

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited

Me. Day 1. 2013.

Frosty welcome, limited amounts

of buy in.

Lots of open heads,

Engineering the worst.

Recruitment team inconsequential.

Maverick interview processes.

Little process within the

recruitment team.

With a hope and a dream.

Ruth PenfoldDirector, Talent Acquisition, Shazam

December 2013 to date

Day 2.

• Arrived with a plan.

• Met as many people as possible.

• Found what was causing the most pain. Made plans to fix it.

• Changed roadmap. Shelved grand plans around values.

• Focused instead on; recruitment process, recruitment training, developing our employer brand.

9 months. • Delivered some great hires.

• Made some friends.

• Created a better hiring experience for all.

• Started to work out who we were.

• Keep it real. REALLY real.

• Present the truest most authentic version of yourselves to the world.

In emphasizing our philosophy so persistently, we inevitably dissuaded some talented potential hires for whom it did not resonate. But we also attracted individuals who did connect with it, and thus ensured our ongoing cohesiveness even as we started to expand beyond our core team.

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited

Some of the words our people used to describe us

What did we discover?

Pride, passion and belief in the product, brand and our leadership

Not a 9-5, Shazamers work very hard to deliver outstanding work

People are very empowered and autonomous, huge global reach in roles, often first of its kind

Lack the structure of larger companies and some people find that difficult, falling down on internal communications

US/UK split can be challenging for people – in terms of time zone practicality and connectivity

Agile and innovative, collaborative and respectful, our best ideas come from our people

Fast paced and continually evolving, change is the only constant

We came up with the following.

Innovators - Inventing the new and reinventing the now, you’ll create the opportunities that can shape the brand’s direction and yours.

Growth - With ambitions to diversify and multiply further, you’ll find opportunities grow as we do.

Trust - Trusted for your skills and judgement, you’ll be trusting of your place within a company that knows your value.

Work hard/play hard - Immersed in a culture that rewards passion, what you give to the business, the business will give back to you.

Vision - Knowing who we are and where we’re going means you’ll see your future just as clearly.

Our team didn’t buy it.

18 months.

• Hired a ton of humans.

• Re-assessed what worked and what didn’t. Fixed stuff.

• Continued to build reputation.

• Create opportunities for collaboration, internally and externally.

• Developed employer brand.

• Ran workshops on personal branding, speaking at events, blogging.

Then. We lost some key humans.

2 years.

• Time for a call to action.

• Relationships now strong enough to allow for a greater influence.

• Set out manifesto with leadership team:

We need to renew a sense of purpose amongst our people. We are bad at holding onto the narrative about what we are doing and

why we are doing it. We need to communicate who we are and what we stand for. We need to invigorate and stimulate our teams. We need to give our people something to belong to again.

They listened. The time was right.

2.5 years.

• Leadership was inspired and started writing own values.

• Took a bit of workshop-ing to get the right vibe.

• Landed on ONE value: “Deliver Magic Together.”

• Created behaviours.

• Build on those ideas with something that worked for EVERYONE.

We are now in the process of rolling these out and integrating them. I love

the pin badges, I can lie.

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited

Badges.

• Honesty is the only policy.• Don’t be afraid to alter your road map.

• Learn from your business. • Build trust.

• Deliver your quick wins. • Support growth.

• Create collaboration. • Keep things human.

© Copyright 2015 Shazam Entertainment Limited