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Recruiting Why Candidate Experience Is Critical For Zynga

Aaron Steinberger – Director, Talent Acquisition

Ashleigh Anderson – Manager, Research Recruiting

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The History of Our Recruiting

The Fastest Growing Technology Company In Silicon Valley

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• Summer of 2009: 7 Recruiters and 1 Coordinator

• Recruiters acted as account managers and aligned with Studios – worked with hiring managers to fill all functions for each team

• Studio teams interviewed only for their team’s open positions

A Small Team With Big Goals

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• Winter 2010: Recruiting needed to pivot with the company to align with the overall priorities of Zynga

• Restructuring our efforts allowed us to hire faster than our competitors with a smaller recruiting organization - without compromising the talent bar or candidate experience

A Shift In Paradigm Identifying An Opportunity

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• Recruiters moved into specialized pods becoming SMEs on disciplines.

• Studio roles moved to a Universal Hiring model: hiring committees not hiring managers

• Universal Hiring allowed us to grow from 130 to 3000 people in just three years – in a highly competitive market

Scaling Without Compromising

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What happens behind the scenes

Internal Strategy

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• Interviewers are selected by senior staff – it’s seen as an honor to be involved in interview panels

• All interviewers go through an in-depth training built by our Learning and Development Team

• Training is focused on the technical and human aspects of a successful interview

Interviewer Training

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• Interview panels are personalized based on the candidate

• Interviewers are prepped on every candidate – interview location & time, background on the candidate, and focus of the interview

• Skype channels are created so the panel can be in constant contact during the day

• In-person wrap up sessions with the panel to determine the outcome of the interviews

Interview Day Preparation

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What our candidates see

External Strategy

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• Zynga’s success is reflected in the products we engineer, our work environment and the candidate experience we provide

• Even if a candidate is a “no-hire”, there is a good chance that he/she plays our games or someone he/she knows is a customer

• Our #1 priority is to ensure that everyone walks away with a positive impression of Zynga – regardless of whether they get an offer

Candidates Are Our Customers

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• Utilize ATS social capabilities & features• LinkedIn, Facebook, Groups/Forums, etc.• We don’t just post externally …the usual

suspects might not always be the best bet. Let the marketing team help you track…and if not, there’s always Bit.Ly

Social +Viral = Success

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• Twitter – @Zynga (250K), @ZyngaUniversity (38K), Mark Pincus (34K), Brian Reynolds (8K), @ZyngaEngineers (900)

• Code.Zynga.Com• Employee Involvement

Sample of Our Social

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• Website - easy to navigate • Job descriptions - clear and easy to find • Employee Referral Program - lives up to

employee expectations

Barrier To Entry Is Low

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• Response times - Recruiters have SLA throughout the process

• Set expectations early – map out the entire process in the first conversation

• Be accessible and check in even if there is no update on status

• Follow the candidate’s lead on timing but don’t let them run the process

• Get senior leadership involved

Communication Is Key

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Why it’s important to pay attention!

Social Media

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Experience Goes Viral Instantly

“The interview process was well managed, recruiter was great to work with. Only gripe I have is they ask you brain teaser question which has nothing to do with doing the job, and they spend a lot of time grilling you in areas you have told them you have little to no experience.”

“Every interviewer was on-time and showed evidence of having read my resume and thought it through. That level of preparation warmed my heart, since I had been the "tech interview guy" for years at a previous employer, and finally got a little karmic reward.”

Twitter, Facebook, GlassDoor, Quora

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It’s more than just the

acceptance rate

Measuring Success

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• Internal focus groups – talk to people hired from every channel (active, referral, passive)

• Employee surveys – set up a new hire survey

• New hire lunches – postmortem chat

Measuring Success

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QUESTIONS?