HRTech Interview with Victoria Myers, Global Head of Talent Attraction at Amdocs

HR Tech Featured Story

Hi, Victoria. Welcome to the HR Technology Interview Series. Please tell us about your journey in the technology industry. What inspired you to begin at Amdocs?

“My journey began more than 20 years ago when I first started recruiting. I worked on the agency side at that time, handling both sales and recruiting. This was before the dot-com bubble burst and in the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) area the focus was heavy on telecommunications. I enjoyed the recruiting side more than sales, so continued to pursue this aspect in my career as well as focus on telecom and tech recruiting. Prior to working at Amdocs, I worked for a competitor and often would recruit from Amdocs.

Now, I have come full circle in working for this great company.”

How have talent acquisition benchmarks changed in the post-pandemic era?

What do candidates really look out for in an employer before starting their career with them?

“In this post-pandemic era, we see candidates want more than just a job. They are seeking opportunities to continuously grow and want employers that offer not only training but talent mobility as well.

Growth and talent mobility go hand-in-hand, as highlighted by our recent survey which found these are priorities for 85% of respondents.

Could you please highlight the difference between talent mobility and talent development from an organization’s perspective?

“Talent development is the process of providing an opportunity for employees to learn new skills and grow. These can be technical skills, behavioral or soft skills, management skills, etc.  All of these are areas of development so one can grow in their career. Depending on the employee’s current skills and aspirations, it can include re-skilling or up-skilling. Talent mobility is how the employees of an organization are able to change roles within a company.

At Amdocs, we support both development and mobility, and we currently have a 40% internal mobility rate globally.”

Do employees perceive mobility differently from what HR philosophers have actually defined it to be?

Any highlights from your recent works that could clearly explain the differences?

“When contemplating the concept of internal mobility, it’s likely that individuals primarily envision the ability to advance within their existing team structure. This often entails receiving a promotion accompanied by a new job title and increased responsibilities. Nevertheless, within larger organizations like Amdocs, there exists an entirely distinct dimension of opportunity, one that permits employees to transition horizontally into novel roles, thereby broadening their experience in alignment with their desired career trajectory. Frequently, individuals underestimate the potential for their skills to seamlessly transfer across different domains, inadvertently restricting their professional growth by fixating solely on a particular team.”

Talent mobility is one of the biggest barriers in organizational development. What are the major pain points that employers face when dealing with talent mobility?

“There are numerous challenges that must be discussed and managed for an organization to have a successful talent mobility program. First, is having a clearly-defined policy and process to support mobility. This needs to define when an employee is eligible to move roles, notification to the current manager, established timelines for the transition, etc. Such a clearly defined policy and process ensures the managers cannot stop the employee’s mobility, which is the other main challenge to overcome. At Amdocs, we empower our employees to move roles after 12 months in their current role and the transition period cannot be longer than 45 days.”

How does talent mobility impact talent retention goals?

“We see the more you provide mobility and development opportunities, the better overall retention. This is a focus for Amdocs to continue to provide a better employee experience with our training platforms and internal career hub.  In fact, we recently launched an AI-driven platform to enable the matching of employee skills to open positions.”

What should HR leaders do to retain Gen Z and Millennials in their organizations? How can talent mobility initiatives improve employee retention?

“Get proactive about internal mobility.

From our research internally, we see that when an employee applies to a role but is not selected, they have a higher chance of leaving the company. We don’t want that so are implementing a proactive internal sourcing model to enable the Talent Acquisition teams to engage with these employees.”

What is the most fascinating aspect of working with HR technologies such as AI and automation tools? Do you have an AI roadmap in place for Amdocs that takes care of talent mobility in your organization?

“The most fascinating aspect is how fast these tools are becoming available and the high-speed progression of each tool.

ChatGPT, as an example, can provide shortcuts for your daily work for writing emails, social media posts, etc.  We implemented Eightfold.ai this year to enable our Talent Acquisition team in matching capabilities, and as a candidate relationship management (CRM) system for our Talent Attraction team which focuses on proactive candidate sourcing and engagement. We are planning additional features to roll out later this year to enable a full Talent Marketplace for our employees to incorporate career planning, training, etc.”

Lighter notes:

Burn the midnight candle or soak in the sun?

“I used to stay up late and get my second wind after sundown, but lately that has changed.”

Coffee, or Tea?

“Coffee”

Your favorite Amdocs talent development initiative that you want everyone to know about?

“Amdocs U is our internal site that incorporates Onboarding, Upskilling, and Reskilling to provide employees and their managers the ability to design training programs based on both skills that need to be developed as well as skills the employee wants to learn.”

First memorable experience in your career as a technology leader?

“One of my most recent memorable experiences is being a part of our current Harmony program which has been inspiring.  We have developed something new in Amdocs to have a team fully focused on proactive sourcing and candidate engagement. We’ve implemented an AI tool to enable employees and candidates faster and more accurate matching to jobs and will implement more features this year to provide a full Talent Marketplace. We’re becoming a skills-based organization with our overall goal to harmonize employee’s aspirations with business opportunities and I’m excited about our future.”

One thing you remember about your employee (s):

“Employees should feel cared for and know that you are there to support them. This requires open dialogue, honesty, and transparency.  I show my team that I am a human too and will share my challenges and even ask them to help me solve some.  They need to know I trust them just as much as they can trust me.”

Most useful app that you currently use:

“Tik Tok! I get recipes, news, and loads of laughs off this app.”