Host Polina: Hello, dear listeners of our podcast. My name is Polina, and we continue our series of podcasts HR at Heart. Today we have as our guest the Head of Talent Development and Attraction, Aleksandra Vandysheva. Aleksandra, hello.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Hello.
Host Polina: Please tell us a little about yourself, your company, and your position.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: I have been working for a large international pharmaceutical company for 12 years now, and I’ve had a long and diverse career path. I started as the Head of the Events Department, managing a large team under my supervision. Later, I worked in the Transformation Department, where I was responsible for building the corporate culture within the company, which, according to engagement surveys, is currently considered the strongest corporate culture in our company worldwide.
And for the past two years, I have been heading the Talent Attraction and Development Department.
Host Polina: Please tell us, how do you identify talented employees in your company? What criteria do you have?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Well, I was lucky, and we are lucky, to work in an international company — we have many approaches and frameworks that we follow. In fact, there are certain methods used to identify talented employees. And when we talk about identifying talent, it’s important to understand exactly what we are identifying. Because one situation is when a person simply performs their job well — that’s one story. Another situation is when we look at a person’s potential — whether they can grow quickly, develop, and bring added value to the organization — that’s a different story.
Adaptability — that’s another aspect. If we speak specifically about my area, talent management, we focus on assessing talent in terms of potential. There is a specific methodology for evaluating employees’ potential. In our company, we use three categories: Grow, Advance, and Accelerate.
A Grow employee is someone who develops within their current role and, in the next year or two, does not plan to move from their position. They are ready to improve and refine their skills within this role. An Advance employee is already an expert and is ready to move one or even two levels higher, but still within their area of expertise. Accelerate employees, on the other hand, are those who can change their position within a year or a year and a half — even move beyond their current functional area — and perform well there, quickly delivering results. However, such employees make up only about 10% of the organization; this is a specific KPI — there cannot be more than 10%.
Every year, we conduct a talent assessment cycle. We start in April by talking with all employees about their career aspirations. Managers hold career dialogues, and we also train the managers on how to conduct these conversations. After that, calibration meetings take place, where managers come together to evaluate their employees according to the categories: Grow, Advance, and Accelerate. Around October, the list is finalized — we understand which pool of talents we will continue working with in the next year. Depending on the category, each employee is provided with specific development paths — because for Accelerate it’s one type, for Advance it’s another, and so on.
Host Polina: So is this also connected with career growth? With employees’ career advancement?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Yes, when we talk about career advancement, we primarily focus on the Accelerate group, because these are the employees who are expected to make a certain career move within a year. And if, as a company, we fail to provide them with such an opportunity, then most likely they will leave.
Host Polina: I see.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: They’ll lose motivation. They won’t perform as well as they would have if they’d had that career move.
Host Polina: Please tell us, how do you attract employees from outside to your company?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: That’s a good question, thank you very much. It’s especially interesting to answer it now because I represent an international pharmaceutical company, and we have a large number of restrictions. For quite a long time — for example, over the past two years — our recruitment was completely frozen, and we couldn’t attract any potential external employees at all.
In fact, this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we focused on our internal employees, which resulted in many cross-moves within the organization — and that, in fact, has a very positive impact on the company’s image. Employees inside the company want to grow and develop, and so on.
On the other hand, we didn’t have any “fresh blood” coming in. And now, finally, we have the opportunity to hire externally again. What do we do? Well, first of all, we naturally use HeadHunter. It’s probably the key, the most important, and main platform currently on the market — absolutely all companies use it.
It’s very important to have a high-quality employer page, through which we can attract potential candidates — where we clearly describe our company’s benefits, who we are, how we work, our culture, and so on. This is one of the open tools that helps us attract future employees.
When it comes to the younger generation, our company has a very well-developed internship program. We genuinely believe in young people. We really want to help them grow. We hire them, train them, develop them, and provide a huge number of opportunities. These include networking both at the local and global levels, interactions across different departments, and various training sessions. I would say that if I were an intern joining our company, I would be extremely happy with the opportunities provided.
If we talk about two more tools that I would like to mention — first, it’s the importance of working with internal managers, who are also a powerful tool for attracting potential employees. It’s necessary that these managers have certain networks outside the company, maintain relationships with former employees, or with people from their previous companies, and so on — because they can also recommend and bring in great candidates they know personally.
And another tool, which from my past experience worked extremely well and which I now want to integrate into our company, is the alumni community, if you’re familiar with it. Alumni refers to the situation where employees used to work in the company but later left for another one — yet you maintain contact with them, hold occasional sessions or meetings, stay connected. Then, when you have an interesting position available, you remember each other and can invite them to apply — at least to have an interview and try out for an interesting role.
Host Polina: Please tell us, based on your experience, how does the headhunting process usually go — and how is it happening now?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: The headhunting process is actually very interesting and exciting. Every time you have a role that needs to be filled by a truly special person, that’s when creativity comes into play. Because standard approaches — such as simply reaching out to a partner or a recruiting agency to find someone from their database — don’t always work. Headhunting often takes a long time; it’s rare to close a position within just a month. Senior-level positions, especially top-level ones, can take up to nine months to fill. And there’s also an extensive interview process. When you work in a global company, the process looks like this: first, the recruiter screens the candidate, then a potential local manager interviews them, then a global manager, and after that, various assessment centers are conducted to check how well the person actually fits. These assessment centers are very revealing — sometimes you think a person is absolutely brilliant, but during the assessment you realize they don’t quite meet the level you need.
Speaking specifically about how we search — as I mentioned earlier — it’s largely based on the relationships our internal employees have with the outside world. They know where to look, who to ask, and often personally know potential candidates, connecting us with them. There are also specialized recruitment agencies that focus precisely on finding top-level or highly specific roles. The professionals working there are true market experts who maintain active relationships with pools of potential candidates.
One more thing I’d like to add about headhunting — there’s a very effective and strategic tool that companies use: mapping. This is essentially a form of strategic thinking. You anticipate that certain roles might open up in the future, and you start preparing in advance.
There are two types of mapping — internal and external.
• Internal mapping means analyzing your current employees and identifying who could potentially fill that role in the future.
• External mapping means analyzing the market — ideally 6 to 9 months in advance — to see what candidates are out there and whether they meet the criteria you’re looking for.
So when the position finally opens after those 9 months, you’re much more prepared and avoid the intense stress you’d experience if someone suddenly said, “We urgently need to fill this top position tomorrow!”
Host Polina: Better to overprepare than to be caught off guard.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Absolutely right.
And I’ll tell you this — strategic thinking rules. It’s something you really need to train and develop.
Host Polina: Let’s move a little away from the topic of attracting and developing talents. Tell us, what are your personal interests?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: You know, I’m a very active person — and probably that’s one of the keys to my success and career growth. I’m constantly learning, constantly getting interested in something new. Speaking about my hobbies — I absolutely love traveling. I have only two continents left to visit: Antarctica and Australia. I also study languages. I speak English fluently, and for the last year and a half, I’ve been studying French. In that time, I’ve reached level A2 — and I’m proud of it!
In addition, I’m always learning something new. Last year, I advanced my qualifications in HR management, and now I’m taking a six-month coaching course. By the way, I truly believe that coaching is one of those skills every manager — and especially every HR professional — must have. It’s a must. Because the ability to ask open-ended questions to employees is an amazing skill. It can truly do wonders for people. There’s real magic when you ask someone the right question — they start thinking and come to incredible insights on their own.
So yes, I’m constantly learning, I travel a lot, and I also run. I hope to run my third half-marathon in April.
Host Polina: Tell us, what strategies do you use to retain valuable employees?
Aleksandra Vandysheva: There can be many strategies, and I’ll share a few of them now.
The first and most important strategy for retaining employees is the interaction between a manager and their team. That’s why any HR function should invest a lot of time in training people managers — helping them to understand how important it is to truly engage with their employees, to talk to them, to hold career dialogues, and to understand what motivates them — because managers have the closest contact with their team.
And honestly, about 80% of employee retention depends on how effectively a manager works with their people. A good manager understands what each employee needs and can make adjustments — offer them certain projects, involve them in new activities, or simply give them time off when needed. The second strategy is, of course, development programs. But it’s important to understand that development programs come in different forms.
There are numerous online universities within companies, full of online courses — just like in our company. But to actually get employees to engage in online learning and watch video lessons is very difficult. Only very self-motivated employees do it regularly; others — from time to time. Still, it’s a very effective tool. We have thousands of courses in our internal university, and employees can find answers to virtually any development-related question they have.
There are also custom development programs that we create ourselves. For example, in our company, this is a specific benefit — I personally design development programs for our high-potential employees and train them myself.
But it’s very important for HR and talent management professionals to develop this skill — not just to “give” training because something seems trendy. For example, right now it’s fashionable to develop strategic thinking, so everyone starts running workshops on that.
However, it’s crucial to start from the company’s strategy — to understand where the company is heading, what it needs, what kind of employees it requires — and only then design a development program that aligns with those goals. There are many layers to that — we could even have a separate conversation just about development programs — but in short, it’s also a very important benefit.
And finally, one of the fundamental tools for retaining employees is corporate culture.
Many companies still don’t give this area the attention it deserves. But as someone who personally helped build a corporate culture — one that originally was so weak that people didn’t want to join us, and now has become so strong that employees don’t want to leave, and even come back — I truly understand the value of this tool. It’s such a pleasure when you come to the office, or even join a Zoom call, and people smile at you, turn on their cameras, communicate respectfully and openly.
You feel that you always have the right to speak up, that your voice matters. And if you happen to make a mistake, no one scolds you for it — instead, they have an open, constructive conversation with you through thoughtful, open-ended questions.
Host Polina: The feeling of importance appears in the company where you work.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Absolutely right. I regret that I didn’t put corporate culture in the first place, but of course, I would put it right at the top — along with how important a manager is in managing and retaining employees.
There are also such invisible benefits that help retain talent. These are, of course, insurance programs, an office kitchen, free coffee, and so on.
And in fact — I don’t know if you know this — we’re now living in a talent-driven market, a candidate’s market. It’s when candidates themselves dictate what they want, and all companies are actually competing to attract the best talents.
Many companies try to compete by constantly raising salaries. But as we know, a salary increase only works for the first two months — after that, it stops being a motivator and becomes just a habit.
That’s why when a company builds a really strong system of such “invisible” benefits — even if they seem small — but the company emphasizes what it provides: what kind of insurance employees have, what compensations they receive, and so on — and when you show this full package of what an employee actually gets here, you really begin to understand what you’d be giving up if you looked elsewhere.
Personally, I recently asked myself what keeps me in my company. And since I’m a mother and a wife, insurance for my child is very important to me. And my company provides insurance for my child, for my husband, and for me. If you think about it and calculate what these costs could be, you realize that this is an enormous bonus — one that truly makes me want to stay with the company.
Host Polina: I actually looked at some surveys and read that if earlier the main motivation for employees was salary, now it’s not like that at all. Now, relationships with colleagues matter more. Corporate culture, as you said, is in the first place.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: Salary is still important — everyone needs money, that’s clear — but believe me, when an employee leaves a great company for another and sees the difference, they really understand what they’ve lost or gained.
Host Polina: Please tell us about a case you’ve handled that was connected with retaining a valuable employee.
Aleksandra Vandysheva: To answer this question, I’ll tell the opposite story — one where we couldn’t retain a high-potential employee. The person really wanted to grow, and at some point received an offer from a competitor — with a much higher salary and an interesting position. Naturally, we couldn’t retain him, because we also have certain limits. You can’t always give in to an employee who brings you a counteroffer — we can’t raise a salary by 100%. So, the employee left.
After about seven months, we had a new vacancy, and we reached out to this person and said: “We have a position — roughly the same level as before, about the same salary, but with a broader range of responsibilities. You’ll find it interesting — it’s exactly the area where you wanted to develop.” He thought about it — and gladly accepted the offer, leaving the company with the higher salary and the more “impressive” job title, and came back to us.
Moreover, this employee actually came back twice. First, he went to the global office, worked there, realized that he felt better in the Russian branch, then left for another external company — and returned again. When we asked him: “What made you come back, even on the same salary?” — his answer was: “Corporate culture. The comfort I feel in this company, the people who work here, the tasks and approaches.”
He realized that financial motivation isn’t the most important thing. So the employee came back, is now growing and developing wonderfully — and we’re very happy.
Sometimes it’s really important for people to “go see the market.” It’s normal when employees leave to check what’s “out there.” They compare, they see where it’s better — and we’re okay with that. Maybe in some places they’ll feel better. But still, this is not the only case — there have been several situations where employees have returned to us.
To be continued…