How EchoGlobal builds recruitment and HR processes in PeopleForce

About EchoGlobal

EchoGlobal operates in IT outsourcing and recruitment, providing talented specialists from Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Balkans, and Turkey to IT companies in North America and Western Europe. During the onset of the pandemic in 2019-2020, the company recognized the need to optimize its recruitment and HR processes, leading them to explore HRM systems that offer valuable features.

Since then, PeopleForce has been the company's chosen HR platform. We were curious to learn about the interaction between the two teams, how well EchoGlobal employees adapt to automation, and how work is organized in the context of remote work and relocation.

We spoke with HR specialist and COO of EchoGlobal, Zakhar Pikulytskyi, as well as lead recruiter and business partner of the company, Victoria Machko, to discuss the prerequisites for proactive dialogue between the client company and the HR platform and how to maximize the benefits of such collaboration.

How did you choose an HR platform and why, specifically PeopleForce?

The company's management began leaning towards streamlining processes around 2019, driven by the desire to automate recruitment, consuming a significant amount of time.

At that time, EchoGlobal was using another functionality that ultimately presented two problems to the team:

• More capability is needed to optimize a greater number of processes beyond recruitment, such as HR management, and unify them within a single system.
• The service provider's unwillingness to grow and develop their product.

The company conducted market research and concluded that PeopleForce could help solve these issues. The modularity and flexibility of the new HR platform played a significant role in its favour, as it allowed for integrating various processes into a unified ecosystem. As a result, EchoGlobal joined PeopleForce in 2019 and has since become one of its most active users.

How is the work structured with PeopleForce?

The transition to the PeopleForce platform occurred gradually. Initially, the company waited for the full release of the PeopleRecruit module, which allowed them to completely transfer their recruitment processes and fulfil all recruitment-related requirements within a single system. EchoGlobal is gradually exploring all available functionality and utilizing the most built-in features and modules, including PeopleHR, PeopleRecruit, PeoplePerform, and others.

Several individuals are responsible for configuring the platform based on their job tasks. For HR management processes, the efforts of one specialist are sufficient, and one person also handles recruitment monitoring. Subsequently, those responsible for their respective operations are granted access to the platform's functionality and engage in collaboration.

However, communication and proactivity play a significant role in working with PeopleForce:

"From my experience, in business, service is the winner. Not the product itself, not how perfect it is, because any product needs to be customized to fit the company's needs. One of the biggest and most significant advantages of PeopleForce is its service and willingness to engage in dialogue, especially at the highest level. I have had three conversations this year with the founder of PeopleForce, Andrew Cetinic, who is always genuinely interested in hearing about our experience and receiving feedback," says Zakhar Pikulytskyi, COO and HR specialist at EchoGlobal.

The utilization of the PeopleRecruit module

It is quite understandable that as a staffing company, EchoGlobal aimed for high-level recruitment automation. Victoria Machko, the lead recruiter at EchoGlobal and responsible for managing this process, identified the top 5 functions that are frequently used in their daily work:

• Hiring requests or requisitions: The company's account manager creates a hiring request when a specialist in a specific profile is needed. Victoria and her recruiters then take over this request, process it, and monitor its progress.

"I use dashboards to personally track the progress of the hiring process, identify any errors, and determine if recruiting managers need assistance," shares Victoria.

• Job functionality and hiring funnel: Due to the customizable nature of the hiring funnel, recruiters find it convenient to create their stages and individual funnels for job vacancies. They also utilize multi-select options when moving candidates.
• Candidate database: Companies appreciate that the platform helps gather a large unified database, allowing them to add candidates from various sources, assign them to different vacancies, and preserve the entire communication history from the initial contact.
• Integrations. The integration with Google Calendar has proven to be particularly convenient, allowing for scheduling interviews with candidates, creating events, and quickly transitioning to the meeting through a provided link.
• Parsing with PeopleProspector. EchoGlobal recruiters use the extension daily and update their candidate database through it.

"I like that adding a candidate to the database doesn't require much time, which can be costly considering recruiters may receive hundreds of responses for a vacancy," shares Victoria.

Monitoring the effectiveness of recruiters

By the way, regarding recruiters. Since the recruiting team is a significant resource for a staffing company like EchoGlobal, monitoring their effectiveness is necessary to understand how actively they are progressing in their search for specialists and how to improve this process.

At EchoGlobal, recruiters, like most employees, work remotely, so it is another factor to consider when practically applying PeopleForce to monitor their work results.

"In reality, we don't focus on strict control - everything is built on trusting relationships," shares Victoria Machko. "However, PeopleForce helps me stay informed about ongoing matters and serves as a tool that unites my team members in a single system. Here, I can see:

• The work history of each specialist. I can access a specific vacancy and see the dates and details of the person's work during a specific period.
• Statistics: the number of candidates found weekly, the number of conducted interviews, etc.
• Updates and comments. I can see how actively a candidate's profile is being updated, at which stages and when remarks and additional information are added.

PeopleForce provides the main functionality for this, allowing me to have a clear picture of the effectiveness of my team members. However, EchoGlobal also utilizes team meetings to monitor effectiveness."

Automation of 1:1 meetings in PeoplePerform

EchoGlobal has a well-established process of regular task-focused meetings. These meetings take place within the company every 2 months.

Zakhar Pikulitsky, as the HR Manager, shares his experience using the meeting functionality:

• Templates. The platform provides meeting templates that are convenient to use.
• Action points. Action points or future discussion items that need to be addressed by both meeting participants are easily saved and carried over to the next meeting if they still need to be marked as completed.
• Hidden and visible notes. Details of conversations with employees are recorded in notes, which can be helpful for HR purposes or planning. Hidden notes contain information the HR manager wants to preserve but keep hidden from the employee.

The process of goal setting in the EchoGlobal team

Since the implementation of the PeoplePerform module and OKR functions, which are relatively recent, the company has been engaged in setting and achieving OKR goals. The intricacies of the process were shared with us using the example of the recruiting team.

Stage 1: Strategic Session

Goals are initially developed during the company's strategic session, where directions and growth areas are defined. Each department then receives its OKRs.

Stage 2: Goal Setting in the Department

Transparency is key at EchoGlobal. All OKRs are discussed openly during a general call with the recruiters. At the beginning of 2022, goals were introduced into the system for recruiters to have a comprehensive view.

Stage 3: Check-ins

Goals are set for a specific period. For example, check-ins occur every two months for a six-month goal, and employees receive reminders. For check-ins, managers also utilize 1:1 meetings in PeopleForce. They review activity, performance, and system statistics if the goal involves quantitative metrics. Discussion outcomes during the meetings are documented in notes.

Stage 4: Transparency

The notes are also accessible to recruiters. They can personally fill them in and save important information for themselves. Goals are also open for modifications, and employees can independently update the progress percentage, with the system calculating the overall progress for that specific OKR.

Stage 5: Goal Achievement

"We see progress from a functionality perspective: now, in the PeopleForce platform, there's the ability to modify the order or dates of the goal and its sub-goals and key results while it's being executed. This is important if you're delving deeper into a problem and adding additional items for completion," noted Zakhar.

Conducting a satisfaction survey

EchoGlobal also utilizes pulse surveys, such as a large-scale satisfaction survey within the team.

This survey consists of over 30 questions, including a dedicated section for eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), which helps assess employee satisfaction and loyalty towards the employer.

"It was one of the most extensive communications with the team, as we successfully built a comprehensive survey process with over 90% participation. Based on the results and utilizing the analytics provided by the PeoplePulse module, we conducted a presentation for the team. As an HR manager, I obtained new key insights to guide my OKR objectives. For instance, improving the company's employee retention rate is aided by this survey, as it allows individuals to express their needs and concerns clearly," comments Zakhar Pikulitsky.

Using other features of the HR platform

EchoGlobal also utilizes PeopleForce for:

• Employee assessments: Conduct 180-degree and, in some cases, 360-degree evaluations after the probationary period and one year of employment in the company.

• Announcements and company news: Communicating changes in holiday schedules, important updates, and news. The announcements are duplicated on the platform and in Slack Messenger. Filters and exclusions can be applied to specific employees or categories if the news doesn't apply to them.

• Case management for technical issues and payment control: Handling technical problem cases and monitoring related payments.

"Additionally, all company employees use the platform daily for vacation requests and tracking their leave balances. It's the most convenient way, and I have something to compare it with—previously, I had to submit requests to the HR department to inquire about the number of days I had remaining or if I could take time off. Now, you simply log in and see everything for yourself," shares Victoria Machko.

Top 5 advantages of PeopleForce according to EchoGlobal:

• Continuous updates: Regular improvements and attention to detail make work easier and positively impact collaboration, indicating that the company is evolving.

• Platform unity: Everything needed for work is stored in one place and accessible to employees. It is appreciated that the platform has an integrated ATS system.

• Proper functional logic for building recruitment processes.

• Intuitive interface compared to more complex counterparts in Western platforms.

• Speed and availability of the support team, along with active communication, even at the level of interacting with management.

EchoGlobal review:

"You are very active, you communicate a lot, take feedback, and, most importantly, you make changes. The PeopleForce team listens to our requests and responds quickly, even if the question cannot be resolved objectively in a minute. They communicate with us and explain everything, and this sense of involvement in the process and caring is impressive. We discussed everything we wanted to change or see with the support team, and within 2 releases, significant changes were already implemented, especially regarding recruiting. Knowing that the company listens to what the user wants and meets their needs is gratifying".
– COO of EchoGlobal, Zakhar Pikulytskyi