Global Recruitment Marketing from Munich: Caro Guillen, Transformation Consultant at Intel
Caro Guillen
Transformation Consultant, Talent Acquisition at Intel
Caro Guillen is a Transformation Consultant for Talent Acquisition at Intel. She’s originally from Costa Rica, and she recently moved to Munich, Germany. We’re pleased to have her as one of the roundtable facilitators at the Talent Brand Summit in London this October. Her topic is creativity on a budget, a challenge we have all faced. Each table will be given a unique dollar/euro/pound amount and a specific audience to reach and engage within that budget. Prepare to get creative!
In addition to learning about her start in talent branding, we got her input about tools and tactics and some of her advice for those who are new in the HR marketing and branding field.
How did you find your way to a career in talent branding?
In a nutshell, since I started my professional career, I’ve been working in the field.
I joined the Intel Staffing team during my second year of university as a student worker. Since then I have been working in multiple areas of the discipline—from creating marketing collateral to developing global frameworks for our peers around the globe on how to implement talent brand strategies. My client focus also shifted over time. It now covers more countries and brings a diverse set of solutions to a diverse set of clients.
What projects are you currently working on?
We are constantly working on new ways to generate value in the talent acquisition space.
“Delivering top talent experience means you are delivering solutions that are focused on both your internal and external clients and stakeholders. Think candidates, hiring managers, and your employees. One cannot succeed while another one is disregarded. This is our playing field. ”
Our day to day combines a lot of external and internal work. Externally, we are understanding what’s new in the industry and defining the best ways to adapt it to our internal reality; internally, we work with our Talent organization on how to adopt changes, bring in new capabilities, frameworks, etc., that enable them to succeed.
A very simplistic example is when we implemented a Candidate Relationship Management system. My focus externally was to understand the capabilities and potential use cases and how they would impact—both positively and negatively—the candidate and recruiter experience. Internally, my focus was to help the teams learn how to work between the CRM and Applicant Tracking System, delivering those new-and-improved experiences to the candidate that the CRM would enable.
A current project example that I’m working on is designing how we accelerate our sourcing capability leveraging artificial intelligence. Although we don’t envision this technology replacing our team, it presents a new way to do the work. I’m working with a team who is designing what that new way of work will look like, ensuring that automation enhances rather than detracts from the experience of all involved and considering how best to deploy the new capability.
Are there any tactics or strategies that work better (or worse) in Germany than in other parts of Europe?
Because I'm new to Germany (I moved only 5 months ago) and would probably point to my German peers to answer this question, from an external perspective I believe every talent market brings its own set of cultural nuances that can’t be ignored. We like to apply the “Think Globally, Act Locally” mantra. While co-creating a solution with peers around the globe, we have realized that they face some of the same challenges no matter where they are based. However, there are local nuances and differences that need to be taken into consideration and adapted on the solution you are presenting.
Now that I’m physically located in the European Region, I’d say there are three main differences between working with the United States and Latin American countries. First, there’s the differences in the tendencies and purposes of channels of communication—engagement rules, as we call them. Second, is social interactions. And third, is language usage. Using local languages helps the brand feel more authentic.
What creative tools do you find indispensable for accomplishing your strategy and running your program?
Aside from the ATS, the CRM, and other technologies the Talent team needs to succeed, on a daily basis I have to say I’m a bit of a creative geek and also a very visual learner so I like to use visuals that help me do better storytelling when bringing people along on projects. I can achieve this better with the help of the Adobe Creative Suite package and my licenses to stock material. Also, because we’re a very globally dispersed team, we find it critical to have the right tools for communication. Our teams use softphones, video conference rooms, and phone bundles with access to everything while on the go; we couldn’t do it any other way.
What advice would you give someone who wants to jump into the employer branding/recruitment marketing field?
The Talent space is changing quite rapidly and transforming into new ways of providing true value to organizations. By working in the Recruitment Marketing space, you will be at the forefront of those new skills companies will demand in the future and therefore generating a unique value for the organization.
“For us, our tech recruitment marketing experts work every day on attracting top talent that works on products that will be out in the market 5 to 10 years from now. How exciting is that?”
Our field combines the best of two worlds: the human factor of HR with the creativeness of marketing. But the glaze on top is being able to fully understand the industry your company is in and the UVP (Unique Value Proposition) your company provides. It’s this capacity that will help you deliver more attractive, creative, and valuable tactics that resonate better with your audiences. After all, the end goal for us in recruitment marketing is that we’re attracting and engaging the talent that our companies require to generate revenue.
Although I may not be that engineer in the lab who designs the really cool technology, I’m on the forefront of what that technology will be by helping to hire the right engineer who will create it.
Where is the best place you’ve traveled to and why?
Every place I’ve traveled to has a very special place in my memory for various reasons. However, now that I live abroad, going home to Costa Rica brings a lot of very unique sensations. It's my green gem; it’s family, lush tropical rain forests, beaches, volcanoes, animals, waterfalls, and a lot of delicious food.
Want to meet Caro and learn from your other employer branding peers in London? Request your ticket to the next Talent Brand Summit today.
