In this webinar, listen to Loren Pofahl, Director of Global Recruitment at LanguageLine Solutions, lead by Moderator, Jeanne Achille, speak about supporting global diversity within the workplace and provide insights on the importance of workplace flexibility to attract and retain top talent. Below we’ve also summarized their conversation on how to turn a new leaf for global diversity, key factors in building out your entire end-to-end HR process team, and more.
Loren started his career in computer science working for an aerospace company in Chicago. There he programmed a payroll system and fell in love with HR through the technology and quickly learned he prefers working with humans over machines. However, those early technology days have helped him immensely when deploying enterprise software such as AllyO, Workday, UltiPro, and more. He also developed a deep understanding of technology, journey mapping, and process efficiency through Six Sigma certification.
When evaluating and implementing an HR system, Loren recommends companies:
On top of being an HR tech guru, Loren is focused on being a mentor for his global team and intentionally fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Loren recognizes that everyone brings their own luggage (not baggage) as they travel the journey of life, and it’s important for talent acquisition professionals to have a sensitivity to where people are coming from. This is important in both the initial hiring process and beyond. Those with different luggage may approach problems differently or adhere to different norms, so it’s important to be able to connect with people from different backgrounds and think through how everyone will fit within your organization.
LanguageLine recruits for more than 240 different languages, which means they naturally have the opportunity to recruit from many different cultures. The recruiting team is intentional about having conversations about cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness.
For example, nomadic cultures may not have the same workplace norms about keeping to schedules and timeliness. It’s important for us to be flexible and solve for being sensitive to these differences while adhering to the confines of what is expected of interpreting companies with set schedules.
It’s also worth noting that this work is never done. There is no magic solution and while LanguageLine is praised for enabling people to do their best work and is committed to cultural diversity, they never rest their laurels. Loren is always asking how they can improve the candidate experience and extend that great experience post-hire.
The candidate experience is crucial to LanguageLine, and is in part why they chose to deploy AllyO. Before AllyO, they had a 6-month backlog of Spanish-speaking candidates and were letting them go stale.
Now, AllyO’s multi-lingual chatbot pre-screens applicants and administers an English language proficiency test. Once a candidate is qualified through AllyO, they are automatically given open times to self-schedule an interview with one of their available recruiters. AllyO sends reminders and handles rescheduling, turning a 6-7 month process into 24 hours. It’s dramatically increased their flow of applicants while providing a tremendous candidate experience.
Want to recruit like LanguageLine? Schedule a demo of AllyO today.