Joining the team at AppLift is not simply about ‘starting a new job’ and contributing to an organisation. Rather, it is the start of a learning and self-development journey for the employees.
AppLift doesn’t just stop at hiring the best talents, but also invests in each individual to help them achieve their professional goals and grow with us together as one united team. Which is why AppLift has its very own talent management and acquisition concept, TalentLift. This concept is tailor-made to meet the specific needs that come with the unique global structure of the company. It is a system that shapes our major HR processes — from our approach to talent acquisition, to the development of individuals and teams. It enables us to assess each individual based on a set of competencies and create individualized development paths for each AppLifter. Through this we aim to support our employees’ personal and professional growth by giving them personal attention and opportunities.
To give you a better insight into how exactly we help you perform and develop to your full potential and what TalentLift is, we interviewed one of the brains behind the concept, Deniz Basoglu. Deniz is AppLift’s Learning and Development Manager and has an educational background in Psychology, with a specialization in Work & Organizational Psychology.
Q. You have been at AppLift since the early startup days, and you have seen its journey to the company it is today. At which point did you recognize the need for a program like TalentLift?
A: We did a lot of research and found inspiration from successful HR practices in the beginning These basic practices and processes worked for us at the start, but we found that they became inadequate and did not meet the specific needs which emerged as AppLift evolved into a more global company. So we set off to create our own foundation for talent management and development. Our goal was to establish a method of identifying the right talent for AppLift, as well as creating a system for developing our people across all global offices and diverse teams.
Q. Developing a tailor-made talent acquisition and management concept from scratch for an environment that is constantly changing sounds like a challenge. Could you tell us more about how TalentLift was created?
A: The project was kicked off with a three-member team that consisted of the Director of HR, Corporate Development Manager and myself. We started off with some good, old-fashioned research methods. Long hours were spent reading up on the current trends in performance appraisal models and talent acquisition, investigating what is currently working in the HR field and other companies with talent management structures.
Using this knowledge, we moved on to investigate the internal needs and goals. To do so we reached out to those who knew our DNA the best: we held 11 brainstorming sessions with 30 people in management positions across all our office locations in Berlin, Bangalore, San Francisco and Seoul. We wanted to map our company competences on a global basis, which would apply to every single employee in each department, every office. All country-specific and cultural values also needed to be covered.
Based on our discussions, we derived a long list of qualities and behaviors, from which we compiled 9 competencies essential to becoming an AppLifter — a mix of performance as well as potential-based competences.
We also completely changed and restructured our talent acquisition method by aligning the process based on competences which resulted in a highly efficient recruitment process.
Q. What are the components of TalentLift?
A: TalentLift has four main components:
- Talent Acquisition – Assessment of the candidates on the same competency model used in the company, in order to assure hiring of best talent from the market
- Goal Setting and Review – Individual and team goal-setting process for SMART goals, based on company OKRs.
- Performance Feedback – Individual feedback session, based on three equally important steps: General performance (Assessment of the 5 performance competencies), Functional feedback (defined by the manager based on the job), 360° Feedback (feedback collected from peers)
- Personal Development Talk – Review of the current status of employees’ development and interests and setting the next steps in personal development plan
Q. How was TalentLift’s global roll out and why do you think such a program is necessary for companies such as AppLift?
A: We took a very hands-on approach to how the program would be rolled out globally. The HR Director and I, travelled to all major offices — SF, Seoul and Bangalore — in order to train the teams in person and implement the system. It was all rolled out in one quarter. TalentLift was created only as a foundation: we think it will develop even more in terms of talent management and corporate development. Its strength lies in its ability to be flexible and grow with the company.
TalentLift won the Best Innovative Talent Management Award at World HRD Congress 2017, and was Shortlisted nominee for St. Gallen Leadership Award 2016 and European HR Excellence Award 2017.
Check out this detailed infographic to learn all about TalentLift and click on the image for a larger downloadable view:
Check out our careers page to see what exciting opportunities there are for you!