For this Indian HR leader, Berlin-based Zalando has proven the perfect place for her to grow her skills, and the company.

Manjuri Sinha leads the technology talent acquisition team for Europe’s Leading e-commerce platform, Zalando SE. She possesses international experience in Tech business Partnering and Talent Acquisition for mid- to large-size organizations such as Accenture, and has worked and lived in India, the Czech Republic, and Germany. She also wears other hats, like speaker, mentor, and blogger. Before her session at Hiring Success 18 Europe, we asked her how her past has shaped her present and what’s on the horizon for the future.

How did you come to work at Zalando? Where were you before Berlin?

Before Zalando, I was working with Accenture, as a Lead Tech Business Partner in India. My team of BP’s managed employees across North America, Germany and Brazil. I was on sabbatical in the Czech Republic when I was approached by Zalando, and then moved to Berlin in 2014.

What attracted you to the company?

The strategy and the early success. Zalando is a fairly new business, yet has an exponential growth story.

What have been the biggest challenges since coming aboard?

Scaling the organization, and hiring a huge number of quality-tech-talent to continuously build the organization.

What are your next big goals?

As a Tech Talent Leader, my goals is to move towards more process automation, and take my team to the next step of being Talent Acquisition advisors.

What is something about your process you think needs to change?

To look at processes and pick out the repeatable tasks, and automate as much as possible.

How important is tech to the HR industry now vs when you started?

Very important, be it for assessment, attraction, and selection. Tech is everywhere, today technology helps us make better decisions, such as scheduling tools, CRMs, and video interviewing tools.

What will your job look like in a few years?

I would like to see it to be more strategic. Talent Acquisition is still considered an operational activity, and I would like to change this mindset.  

What would you tell your younger self before getting into the industry?

To have Patience, pick your battles, that you don’t need to tackle everything at once.

What would you have done differently?

Nothing much, actually. I am where I am because of my unique journey and would not have done it differently. Maybe on the personal side yes, I would have loved to give more time to family.

What does Hiring Success mean to you?

For me, success is not only closing numbers but bringing quality onboard, adding value, aligning talent strategy with business strategy, building an organization and keeping it sustainable.

Jerome Ternynck presented “Quality of Hire: Good to Great” at the SmartRecruiters headquarters on February 27 as part of our SmartUp Series to Elevate Innovation in Hiring. Jerome opened with a great story from his days as a headhunter. When he brought a startup company (you may have now heard of them? Cisco) a great candidate, a candidate they really liked, “The client asked, ‘Do you think we could find a better one?’ … Yeah, that’s what the best means. Best means there is no better one.” Jerome Ternynck‘s presentation details the science behind what companies need to do to source, engage and hire the best talent on the market. A must watch video for anyone who hires:

“Transparency in recruiting is the only way to prevent discrimination” @jerometernynck #SmartUp

— Arvind Thinagarajan (@arvindthinag) February 28, 2013

RT @safetybobsf: “Choice drives quality of hire” Aim for 50 great resumes within 2 weeks@jerometernynck #SmartUp
— Jim Ayson (@JimAyson) February 28, 2013

So true: “@mandogallegos: “If you get a great candidate in your pipeline, you have two weeks to close them.” @jerometernynck #smartup” — Jason Webster (@worldwidejweb) February 28, 2013

Take the time to personally respond to every candidate, regardless of rejection or job offer. #SmartUp #JeromeKnowsBest — Lexie Forman Ortiz (@LexieFO) February 28, 2013

@jerometernyck with a marketing strategy and conversion talk eloquently disguised as recruiting discussion #recruitingismarketing #smartup
— George LaRocque (@LAROCQUEINC) February 28, 2013

Your screening questions filter out the best candidates! Don’t leave anyone behind.@jerometernynck #SmartUp — Bob Lehto (@safetybobsf) February 28, 2013

“Every company needs to have an employer brand, and be aware of it” @jerometernynck #smartup — armando gallegos (@MandoGallegos) February 28, 2013

“Social brings transparency, transparency brings change, change fights discrimination.” – @jerometernynck #SmartUp #socialrecruiting

— SmartRecruiters (@SmartRecruiters) February 28, 2013

Loving the #hrtech people at #smartup
— SortBox (@Sortbox) February 28, 2013

Great #SmartUp as always! Very eloquent and informed panelists. Thank you @smartrecruiters
— Jobscience (@Jobscience) February 28, 2013

Quality of hire starts with understanding who you’re looking for and why #SmartUp — Jerome Ternynck (@jerometernynck) February 28, 2013

Also Check out the Full Slidedeck:

Occasionally, the difference between good and great can be small. But often times, “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great,” begins Jim Collins’ best selling book, “Good to Great.”

The fact of good versus great and bad versus average are somewhat subjective in determining an individual’s success, accomplishments and traits. Once you have defined those metrics of success, it becomes clear how truly valuable great hires are to your bottom line. So the question bares, what qualities and characteristics separate a good recruiter from a great recruiter?

• The Ask Questions and Anticipate Needs.  I’ve always been a proponent of being prepared.  Great recruiters are prepared before the job opening is available.  They have a relationship with the hiring manager, having their fingers on the pulse of their recruiting trends and responsibilities. Great recruiters don’t simply ask questions, they research, learn and absorb because they understand the company and its ecosystem through experience, learning and their dedication to the hiring managers they serve.

• They Take a Consultant Approach.   Great recruiters take notes and take a consultant and partner approach to filling a position.  They use a job requisition checklist in addition to meeting with the hiring manager to understand the role they are looking to fill. Consultants are training, developing and teaching other recruiters as well as their hiring managers.

• They Care About the Full Employee Life Cycle.  Great recruiters look beyond simply filling the position.  They continue relationships with their hires and placements long after they have finished employee orientation and onboarding.  Great recruiters understand that employees hold see their recruiters as brand ambassadors who serve as the first point of contact with their new company.

• They Share Their Secrets with the Team.  Recruiting is sometimes seen as a secret society and industry where good recruiters are often hesitant to share their sourcing or recruitment secrets because they believe doing so eliminates their competitive advantage. Great recruiters take the time to share best practices and secrets making the team stronger and improved performance for everyone.

• They Focus on the Candidate.  Great recruiters focus on relationships not only with the hiring manager and their hires but serve as a resource for job seekers who didn’t receive a job opportunity.  Great recruiters realize that staffing and building candidate pipelines is a long term strategy and that providing value lends in building a community and a network of candidate referrals that are invisible and intangible to the average or even good recruiter.

The differences between good recruiters and great recruiters is in their holistic approach to recruitment and hiring. Execution determines the success of your business‘ big picture vision. Great recruiters just make smart moves that create less risk and more success because they see recruitment – not as an individual placement – but as an entire body of work.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media.  She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent (including a recruiting agency management feature), communicate with candidates and make the right hire.