On A Search

Ann Chambers, HR Director, Ecotone UK on going beyond the paperwork to find the person behind the CV. 

The CV is a necessary and valuable tool in the hiring process, allowing HR professionals to get through the first step of finding the right candidate. Yet the challenge remains on how we can find the person behind the CV, and ultimately making sure that their character and values are the right fit for our organization – and vice versa!

With the emergence of AI, the way hiring managers are working through this is changing. And it’s because of this that the human touch remains vital. There are a myriad of ways to ensure the talent we take on board holds the skills and personality for us, but that our values at Ecotone UK are the right fit for them.

We pride ourselves on how our dedicated team shares company-wide values at Ecotone. This means that we value both the core skills needed for specific roles alongside the potential and the personality traits of each candidate.

Purpose over profit

What I’m increasingly observing is that people are looking for roles to reflect their own values, in the same vein as career progression and other benefits. It’s become a big shift with people learning more about the values Ecotone stands for as a whole, having discovered our Food for Biodiversity mission which is the DNA across our portfolio of well-known market-leading brands Clipper Teas, Whole Earth, and Kallø.

Research consistently supports this, with Gen Z and millennial applicants seeking out companies which echo their own social values. Prospective employees often talk about our company culture as a motivation for joining us. It is our mission-led status and commitment to Food for Biodiversity that stand out as a purpose that people can be a part of and truly shape. It’s essential to get that alignment between personal values and company values to build an intelligent workplace culture that makes people feel fulfilled.

Identifying traits versus skills

With this intertwined in all we do, we need candidates who share our vision. Naturally, being able to reflect this in a CV isn’t clear cut. We make sure to ask candidates about their values and working styles to explore if they’re a good fit in this sense, and to help us understand if they would mesh with our wider team.

It’s key for us to make sure that we’re hiring talent beyond any academic qualifications, because we both recognise that not everyone will have had the same opportunities, and that each person has more to offer beyond paper certificates alone.

One of the ways we nourish this further down the career ladder is though our partnership with My Big Career. We work with underprivileged young people from local schools on a one-to-one mentoring basis to inspire them to work in the food industry. Unearthing the next generation of our business helps create a talented team for the future. This is what we stand for: protecting the future beyond the now..

Ecotone-wide, our ‘I’m in’ initiative encapsulates our goal of being a truly inclusive European food company by 2025. This applies to gender diversity, gender balance, and social background and is why we’ve implemented a governance structure to implement on a local level. The hiring environment must be inclusive, erasing unconscious bias from the interviewing process.

The Rise of AI

Larger corporations are using forms of AI such as Chat Bots that identify keywords in CVs as a screening process; a function that will continue to evolve as AI develops. For me, recruitment is so much more than spotting keywords linked to skillsets. I look at the flow of the roles the person’s had, and whether their experiences demonstrate flexibility, and a path towards their chosen career.

Resilience and adaptability are two key personality traits that stand out to me and will continue to be desirable in an increasingly digital and fast-paced world. The question is whether AI will become more sophisticated to also focus on personality – or whether systems could be tailored to fit with company culture.

I always look  at an applicant’s potential alongside their current skillset and experience, and identify commitment and flexibility based on their application. I also look at their journey leading to where they are now, and whether the next step into the role they are applying for is a good fit. There is always variety and challenge in recruitment.

Being adaptable and inclusive

As a purpose-driven company, it is part of our mission to redefine the food system and ensure we’re growing a movement that is going against the status quo, actively benefitting biodiversity. We’re also a B Corp – the world’s highest scoring global food company – which means we actively encourage our employees to give us detailed feedback on how we can improve.

You can conduct background checks, secure insights from past employers, and conduct assessments. But, ultimately, finding the right person is in part a tightrope of gut feeling.

Why it matters

Finding the person behind the CV is ultimately so important because it’s how we build a varied and talented team, in turn helping us reach our goals as a business. By investing in techniques to help reveal the key traits that fit into our team in a reciprocal way, we can make more informed decisions that lead to a more diverse workplace.

Essentially, the best candidate isn’t necessarily someone who fits the skills you’re initially searching for – it’s someone who  shares your business’s vision and key values.