HelloFresh: Solving a Global Talent Challenge with Upskilled Talent Engagement

HelloFresh is a global meal kit delivery company that operates in 18 countries. This gives them a unique challenge regarding talent acquisition: they need to find local talent with niche skills to support their complex distribution and logistics.

This article explores how HelloFresh has solved this challenge by upskilling its talent engagement team. We’ll also share five actionable tips from Carolina Guillen, Head of Global Talent Marketing and Engagement at HelloFresh, on engaging your talent team in employer branding.

The Talent Challenge of Global Logistics

HelloFresh is headquartered in Berlin and New York but operates in eighteen countries worldwide. The core business model of delivering meal kits differs from country to country. However, the logistical problem of storing, packaging, and shipping ingredients to arrive fresh at a customer’s door in all these different markets creates a unique hiring challenge for Guillen and her team.

Different countries have different regulations governing food safety, storage, shipping, etc. This means that HelloFresh needs to fill roles locally in the supply chain, fulfillment, and technical specialist areas to meet these requirements in each market.

“We often need to find local talent that comes with a specific skill or certification,” says Guillen.

In short, there’s a lot of work to be done in talent acquisition and talent engagement. And that got Guillen thinking: could we engage this team to activate our employer brand?

How HelloFresh Upskills Their Talent Engagement Team

The talent engagement team at HelloFresh comes from a background in traditional sourcing and recruiting. However, Guillen has started to upskill them with marketing and project management skillsets.

“Our main goal is for them to deliver 360 solutions for top-of-funnel needs,” she says. This means they’re responsible for developing events, talent community, and referral strategies. They’re also involved in developing strategies for reputation management and social media marketing.

This approach creates alignment between Guillen’s employer branding team and the people who implement it throughout the recruitment and hiring process. Talent acquisition has a say in what they’re being asked to do and also participates in developing strategies for employer branding.

Moreover, upskilling these employees into comb-shaped experts with new skill sets gives them more flexibility to grow into the career they want at HelloFresh.

In the episode, we asked Guillen for some actionable tips you can use to engage your recruitment team in employer branding work.

Here are her 5 Ideas for Recruitment Team Engagement:

Create a content strategy with talent acquisition in mind. Your talent acquisition team members can help you build pieces that are aligned with your employer brand.
Fall in love with your candidate, not your brand. Fall in love with your audience and build content that is made just for them.
Don’t be afraid to reuse content. Guillen recommends rehashing and recycling your campaigns and the content you create.
Every good story needs a hero. “When you can tell a story that is authentic and relatable, it really resonates with people,” says Guillen.
Build for scale by making “recipes.” This will help you document your processes and make it easier to replicate them in the future.

To follow Carolina Guillen’s work on employer brand, follow her on LinkedIn. For help creating data-driven, actionable strategies you can use to make real change in your company, talk to us.