EP151: Stellantis – How to Transform Sourcing with Talent Intelligence

All-In Recruitment is a podcast by Manatal focusing on all things related to the recruitment industry’s missions and trends. Join us in our conversations with leaders in the recruitment space and learn their best practices to transform the way you hire.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

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Lydia: All-In Recruitment Podcast by Manatal, where we explore best practices, learnings, and trends with leaders in the recruitment space. If you like our content, please subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to stay tuned for our new episodes. I am your host, Lydia, and joining us today is Diana Mendes, Talent Sourcer and Talent Intelligence at Stellantis. Thank you for joining us, Diana. Nice to meet you.

Diana: Nice to meet you, too. It is a pleasure to be here, Lydia.

Trace the Path into Talent Acquisition

Lydia: So let us start at the beginning as usual. What really drew you to talent acquisition? Was this always the plan, or did you find your way into this field?

Diana: That is actually a very amazing question. I graduated in psychology, but when you go to universities in Brazil, they do not look with kind eyes initially toward talent positions. It is organizational psychology and all of that. I started to love it after spending time living in the United States. When I returned, I had the chance to work in an executive search company, and that is when I started to realize how amazing and complex the world of talent acquisition is.

I found myself drawn to this role every time I had a chance to learn about a new position, a new field, or a new industry, and how extraordinary it is that we can meet new people all the time and learn about new positions around the world. We are not only focused on, for example, the world of legal or oil and gas, but we can also learn how engineering works in the middle of the sea on a boat, or how the government system works to acquire new ways of trading, and so on. So that is what drew me into the talent world. How can I know the world through someone’s eyes, and it is extraordinary.

Build a Global Talent Community

Lydia: Very interesting. It is certainly not static. It keeps you wondering, and you are always discovering something. So, going back to talent sourcing, what might be some of the most pressing matters for you in your experience in talent sourcing specifically, and in what ways does talent intelligence fill those gaps?

Diana: That is a great question. When we look at the history of recruitment, we realize it worked pretty well, and when we started to become more specialized in talent acquisitions, we realized the necessity of separating and diving deeper into different points. Like a T section. They can have several opportunities, or a W-like structure. How do we do that?

So, right now, talent sourcing faces a shrinking talent pool. This is a reality. In 2030, we will be reducing the workforce in certain pools. Depending on what you are looking for, the pool is shrinking because skills are changing everywhere. So having the capacity to bring profiles by sourcing is extraordinary, but we are still working one by one.

You and I, Lydia, can talk all the time and have a great relationship, but how can I look at the market and see if I have another Lydia out there? That is where talent intelligence comes in. It helps us to guide sourcing. If you think about a compass, it gives us direction. With talent intelligence, we can oversee what is going on in the market, what the trends are, and what is happening.

Instead of sourcing being a reactive profile, such as “I am just looking for software engineers, and that is it,” we can ask: software engineers in this region have high salary competition, so why not switch to another region where we have amazing opportunities?

It transforms us into a more business-driven position instead of a reactive position and gives us the chance to provide our business and leaders’ profiles that match their needs today and for the next five years, because we are already seeing the world differently at this point.

Lydia: Now I also understand that you developed Stellantis’ global talent acquisition community. Tell us more about that and why creating that sense of community was important.

Diana: That is such a good question. When I joined Stellantis, let me go back a little bit. Stellantis is a fusion of several car brands, such as Jeep, Ram Trucks, and amazing American, German, Italian, and French brands. They are extraordinary.

When they made the fusion into Stellantis, the talent acquisition team was working in what we call silos. They were focusing on their own countries or regions. When Stellantis joined to be part of the global team, we realized they did not have the opportunity to talk with each other at the volume or speed that a global company needs.

Last year, when we received our new VP of talent acquisition, we started to design the community. Where we, as a global team, guide them in their own region to continue developing their employer branding, external hiring, and also have the chance to share information.

So, when we build the community, the idea was to bring three pillars:

First, to professionalize them. Some had been there for years without seeing how the market works. We needed to upskill them on talent sourcing, talent intelligence, AI in recruitment, and how to be a talent acquisition advisor and not only a recruiter.

Second, we had highly scalable profiles that could teach them.

Third, how do we standardize and streamline everyone? Everyone would have a playbook, but be able to adapt it to their countries. For example, the Middle East and Africa hire differently from Germany. Asia works differently. I only learned that through the community.

So we started with monthly meetings, then gave them chances to connect in smaller groups on specific topics, even teaching each other. We added articles and resources. One of the things we observed was that the sense of community made them love and appreciate the global environment. They could still work in their own regions, but now have the chance to discuss with someone from the other side of the world the same problems they face today. Because of the community, we now have several amazing new programs coming to us, which is fantastic.

Lydia: How long did it take, from concept to seeing these initiatives take place as a cohesive talent acquisition community?

Diana: It took us a year to meet everybody. From Japan to Mexico, we needed to go country by country, understanding how they hire, whether HR hires or they have dedicated recruiters. We mapped one by one until we identified ninety profiles.

Then we designed how it would work: globally, regionally, or hybrid. We realized we wanted a hybrid structure with regional leaders shaping the team and the global team supporting them in a directive way.

The design and first opening of the community took place from June to September last year. So four months to formalize everything. Then we started leadership calls, monthly community calls, and we evaluated their skills to identify who could support AI actions, ATS rollout, the playbook, and more.

We created work groups to accelerate global initiatives and bring them to the regions efficiently. We also supported early-career programs, because each country has different laws. For example, Brazil has labor laws requiring a specific number of interns or apprentices, or companies pay fines. This does not happen in other countries.

This gave us the chance to provide an overview of each country’s complexity and let them share programs with one another.

Build a Sourcing Toolkit

Lydia: Now, let us go to talent sourcing and day-to-day tactics. You use different platforms, LinkedIn, GitHub, ChatGPT, and various LLMs. How did you build this toolkit over time? What was your process for evaluating and adopting new sourcing tools?

Diana: This requires a lot of study. Initially, what we did at Stellantis was understand the whole process end-to-end, from awareness of us as an employer, through onboarding in the first year of the employee. We identified where the main gaps were, the challenges we were facing, and where team capacity issues could be solved.

When we identified those, we realized where we could increase efficiency and where we could utilize certain tools. Then we identified how to make that work.

We had more tech positions to hire, so we trained our team to use Stack Overflow, GitHub, and understand tech stacks and documentation. Not all countries use LinkedIn, so we looked at top platforms such as WeChat in China.

Today, the sourcing team learns how to use tools such as GEM on LinkedIn. We use ChatGPT to expand searches outside LinkedIn because certain profiles are scarce. The CRM gives us the chance to identify new profiles and create talent marketing.

All of this was built over time as we identified gaps and how each tool would impact the business. We needed to prove that each investment was important for the future. We also have a five-year roadmap. If a tool cannot support us for five years, we cannot adopt it.

We are also using AI internally, such as bots and Copilot, to accelerate processes with the tools we already have. For example, using AI to create prompts for LinkedIn Talent Insights to accelerate finding the best profiles in the market today.

Define a Sourcing Philosophy

Lydia: Talent sourcing, some people think it is merely searching databases. You approach it strategically. Walk us through your sourcing philosophy. How do you think about it?

Diana: Sourcing has always been about how I can support the business and how the business can see my area as strategic. This started when I worked in an executive search company. I had a book where I drew every position I worked with. Each page was a position. I learned the top companies for that position and started to understand each organization, its culture, values, and how it shaped people.

That is where my philosophy began: the detective side. I can never just find one person without understanding their story. How did this person shape themselves inside that company, and why does that make them important for us today?

I also bring highlights to the business. If we bring someone from, for example, Meta to Stellantis, it may be a clash of cultures. They are used to a specific style of speech and growth that is completely different here. Both have benefits, but we need to prepare and tailor the process.

Even though everyone goes through the same hiring process, the way we speak with them is different. This early part lets us see the art and science behind sourcing.

When we go to an executive search, we need to be strategic, proactive, know the business well, and understand the future. This is where talent intelligence works together. What is happening in the next five to ten years? Who are the people two levels below who could be ready?

We prepare lists, organize databases, and predict who will be ready. This is similar to succession planning. That is why, in the end, our philosophy as sourcers should never be only reactive, asking for a unicorn. We should ask why they want the unicorn and how it will help the business today and in the future.

Advise New Talent Professionals

Lydia: You have given so many great insights today, Diana. For a final question, what is one advice you would give someone starting out in the talent space today?

Diana: I have several, but if I had to give one, I do not think recruitment or talent positions are just about filling roles. Do not think your position is junior just because you are a sourcer or a recruiter coordinator.

Understand the people in the business. Make notes. Be curious. Love the idea of sitting in meetings and understanding why decisions are made.

This applies to candidates, too. Every person has a different story. Do not see them as part of your job, just to fill roles. If they give you advice in an interview, take it. If they tell you something extraordinary that can help you change the position you are working on, take it.

Be curious, learn from this, and love the opportunity.

Lydia: Thank you very much, Diana, for your time and insights today. I am sure listeners will want to connect with you. Where can they find you?

Diana: Thank you for having me today, Lydia. It was a pleasure to be with you and share these insights. You can look for me on LinkedIn, Diana Mendes. You can also find me on Instagram and other social platforms. I am more than happy to have a talk or share anything you would like to know more about talent sourcing.

Lydia: And we have been in conversation with Diana Mendes, Talent Sourcer and Talent Intelligence at Stellantis.