Building confidence and trust in the talent pipeline

About Eikon Therapeutics

Eikon Therapeutics is a pioneering drug discovery and development company built on groundbreaking innovations from its founders (Nobel Prize, 2014). Eikon’s innovative tools and technologies are used for biological exploration in drug discovery and beyond. 

To find talent that is both passionate and qualified, Grant Weinberg, vice president of talent acquisition and HR operations, turned to Findem’s Talent Data Cloud. With Findem, the recruiting team discovered a technology to enable more strategic talent acquisition decisions through a combination of 3D data and AI-powered talent intelligence.

The endless candidate cycle

When Grant first joined Eikon, he had a vision for what talent acquisition could look like. He wanted to simplify the TA tech stack, and automate more of the research and marketing process. 

With multiple layers of tools that were difficult to integrate and expensive to renew, the talent team went to extraordinary effort to find and engage potential candidates.

Once a position was filled, identified candidates dropped out of Eikon’s talent lifecycle. As a result, every new req sent recruiters back to LinkedIn and other sources to start a fresh search. It was an endless candidate cycle.

“We spent too much time and money validating the same candidates for specialized skills with every search. I have really talented recruiters on my team. Their time is best spent with candidates, not online, switching between tools, searching for data,” said Grant.

To accomplish this, Eikon faced two basic challenges: improve the talent search with validation built in, and cultivate relationships with identified talent over time. That’s when Eikon discovered Findem and a way to consolidate their tech stack.

Identify talent with confidence

Eikon started using Findem at the top of the funnel to find candidates and validate the unusual combination of skills Eikon seeks. 

To advance scientific innovation, Eikon seeks scientists who understand technology, and software engineers who have life science degrees or experience with big pharma. Collaboration is key at Eikon and diverse perspectives are valued. Searching the same way for the same people left too many potential candidates out of the talent pool. 

“Attribute-based searching allows us to home in on specific skill sets more quickly and effectively. Being able to customize a search in ways that other platforms cannot has been a game changer,” said Tori Madonick, Associate Director of Talent Acquisition

Findem attributes, based on 3D data, can be added and removed from a search and applied across talent channels. According to Tori, she can start a search and begin reaching out to quality candidates as the job description is finalized. Instead of contacting passive talent 4 weeks into a search, she’s having exploratory conversations with validated candidates within the first week. 

“Company leaders and hiring managers at the company are amazed by Findem’s ability to accelerate the recruiting process," said Grant.

Building trust with 3D data

But it’s not just about finding people who look good on paper. As a high growth biotechnology startup, Eikon needs hires who can hit the ground running and bring diverse life experiences and perspectives to the team. In the past that meant hours of research across systems to validate skills discovered on a profile. 

Findem 3D data combines people and company data over time from hundreds of thousands of sources. A skill or expertise listed on a social profile is validated automatically across additional sources. For example, a candidate lists Python as a skill. They have Github code contributions for Python. They have experience at a preferred company during the startup stage. They become a preferred match to Eikon. 

“You cannot buy that data anywhere else. I feel much more confident about who it is that I’m targeting. And I have the contact data to reach them. Based on my experience to date, I trust the data," said Tori.

To request an employee referral or a warm introduction, recruiters use 3D data to uncover true connections. A recruiter sees that an employee and a candidate worked at the same company and that their paths crossed, because 3D data maps career and company journeys over time. 

“Findem searches can be saved and shared. We’re developing customizations to get more effective and more efficient. We’re able to create searches based on people who do well at Eikon, the underrepresented groups we like to include, and then use that learning to apply attributes to different positions," said Tori.

Bringing value to the hiring conversation

Every search generates a talent pool analytics view to drive a more strategic conversation with hiring managers. A talent map shows the distribution of the talent pool geographically and by timezone. A diversity chart shows the makeup of the talent pool in aggregate. 

“All of our stakeholders are motivated by data. For them to consider an alternative approach for the skills they’re seeking, they have to see the data that backs up the suggestion. We can calibrate the talent pool live," said Tori.

Segmenting by attributes with hiring managers gives them a better sense of the actual talent pool. They can see what companies people have worked for, the top schools they attended, and what products or services were launched when they were there. 

“We now have the ability to show a hiring manager, you are looking for 1 of nothing. If we adjust the search requirements, you can start to find 5, 10 candidates who are a match," said Grant.

Nurturing a ready talent pool

Once Eikon mastered the search process, they adopted Findem CRM and candidate rediscovery capabilities to expand their search. 

“We want all the candidates: ready, not ready, not on LinkedIn, so we can build relationships with them,” said Grant.

Instead of going back to LinkedIn to start a search from scratch, the team can begin with talent that has already expressed an interest in Eikon. 

As an intelligence layer on top of the ATS, Findem enriches and updates past candidate profiles. Attribute searches can target these internal channels as well as external to find top candidates in minutes. 

CRM capabilities allow the team to disposition “not-ready” candidates into talent communities for nurturing and future roles. 

They use automated, multi-touch campaigns that go to personal email addresses. Tori also uses the connections tool to find employees who have a career overlap with her targeted list to provide a natural, more grassroots connection.

“I can actually get a conversation started with these very high value, targeted individuals and get a response," said Tori.

As recruiters become more comfortable with sourcing projects in Findem, Eikon is able to shift away from single channel and single point solutions. Grant estimates that they will save up to 25% by consolidating. 

Upleveling teams with automation and GenAI

Grant sees recruiting as one of the most complicated jobs in the company. The responsibilities of a recruiter require skills in research, marketing, sales, customer care, and data analytics. Very few people possess all of those skills. That’s where he sees the value of automation and generative AI. 

“GenAI has given TA teams an adrenaline boost, but it has also brought us a reality check. The way we’ve done recruitment in the past is not how we will do it in the future. And Findem is the perfect disruption tool," said Grant.

Through responsible AI and configurable automations, recruiters will have more time to focus on sales and customer care. That’s what makes a great candidate experience, satisfied hiring managers, and a strong employer brand.

“Findem is accelerating the process to produce a job profile, match candidates to the profile, email them, and put hiring managers in conversation with qualified candidates within a week," said Grant.