How would you describe your job as an Interim Talent Acquisition Team Lead to others?
The job of my team is to hire people. We are honored to contribute to the company in this way as hiring is one of the most powerful tools we have as an organization to influence our company culture. With each person we bring onboard, we have the opportunity to add someone who will contribute to a culture where each employee feels like they belong and where they can do their best work. And hopefully our members and partners feel this positive and high-performing culture come through when they work with us and use our products.
My day-to-day tasks include leading and coaching a team of Talent Acquisition Partners, developing processes for smooth collaboration with our stakeholders, providing trainings to spread an inclusive hiring culture, and engaging with leaders of the business on hiring topics. I also recruit for some positions hands-on.
Why does Diversity & Inclusion at work matter and how does the Talent Acquisition Team contribute to fostering D&I at Urban Sports Club?
Aside from it simply being the right thing to do, inclusion allows us to build the strongest team possible, which in turn enables us to give the best service possible to our members and partners.
Our Talent Acquisition team ensures we use objective hiring criteria and weave inclusive hiring practices into all steps of the hiring process. To help our stakeholders with these topics, we recently developed a Hiring Manager training, which equips participants with knowledge and tools to help us hire more inclusively, from role design through to making the offer. We also make sure that the TA team is not hiring for too many roles concurrently, as we want to make sure we have the necessary time to partner with and advise our hiring managers on the aforementioned topics.
When was the last time you were extremely proud about yourself/something you have achieved and what was it?
I am proud of building a happy and healthy team culture. When I stepped into the Team Lead role a few months ago, it was a top priority to make sure (1) everyone had the best possible environment to succeed and (2) we were functioning as one unit. In order for us to reach these goals, we needed to build trust together as a team. We did this through a series of workshops during which we discovered we share a lot of the same values and learned to hold a lot of space for each other to be vulnerable.
In the end, each member of the team has contributed to building an environment from which we can pull a lot of strength in challenging times.
What are the things on your bucket list you would like to do within the next 5 years?
- Obtain my private pilot’s license – I’ve always been very interested in aviation thanks to my dad and before starting my career, I seriously considered becoming a commercial pilot 🙂
- Spectate the World Nomad Games
Which of the Urban Sports Club values has been helpful for you personally and/or your team, and which one is a bit more challenging?
It is especially helpful for us to put ourselves in the shoes of others. We as a Talent Acquisition team add the most value to Urban Sports by using our knowledge and empathy to help our hiring managers grow the best teams possible. At the same time, it is extremely important that we do our best to provide customer-centric service. We want hiring to be something all hiring managers look forward to doing. We want all candidates to have a better impression of Urban Sports after going through our hiring process.
Surfing on the wave of change has been challenging – our organization’s hiring needs have soared over the course of 2021 which has been a very exciting challenge to tackle. But so far the team has shown an amazing ability to adapt to the quickly changing business needs – I have no doubt we will continue to find our way through this new phase of growth!
