Pioneering TA: FSS’s journey to recruitment excellence with RippleHire

FSS, a trailblazer in India's fintech space, has continually pushed the boundaries of innovation by being the first to implement switch systems in India and facilitating bilateral ATM sharing among major banks. With a global presence across Europe, the Middle East, and APAC, FSS stands as Asia's largest payment gateway, processing 1 billion transactions and driving digital payments in over 20 countries.

Facing an intense war for talent, niche technology hiring demands, and the need for efficient remote sourcing, FSS embarked on a transformative journey. Partnering with RippleHire, they streamlined their recruitment processes, enhancing governance, automation, and candidate experience. This collaboration resulted in improved efficiency, reduced manual tasks, and a robust talent pipeline. FSS’s strategy showcases the power of integrating advanced technology with strategic talent acquisition practices, setting a benchmark in the fintech industry.

Read on to uncover how FSS’s groundbreaking strategies and partnership with RippleHire revolutionized their talent acquisition, setting new standards and opening doors to the future of recruitment.

FSS drives 40% reduction in effort and achieves candidate experience of 4.8/5 through intelligent recruitment automation

Pioneering Talent Acquisition in Fintech

FSS made history as the first-ever switch implementation in India, enabling banks to launch ATMs without the need for global interchanges. This innovation marked the beginning of FSS’s journey in bilateral ATM sharing arrangements among major banks. Today, FSS boasts a strong presence not just in India’s major cities like Chennai and Mumbai, but also globally across Europe, the Middle East, and the APAC region. As Asia’s largest payment gateway, FSS processes a staggering 1 billion transactions, driving the adoption of digital payments in over 20 countries.

The Fintech Landscape

The fintech industry is characterized by its rapid and unpredictable changes. This constant evolution demands a workforce that can swiftly adapt to new technologies, regulations, and market dynamics. Balancing digital innovations with traditional personal interactions is crucial for success but challenging to achieve.

In this competitive landscape, establishing strong candidate relationships is essential for attracting, engaging, and retaining top professionals. Companies that prioritize candidate experience gain a significant advantage in building a talent pipeline and fostering long-term connections with potential hires.

FSS’s Hiring Challenges

FSS faces several hiring challenges in the fintech space: an intense war for talent, the need for remote location sourcing, high attrition rates, and a lack of access to passive talent pools. Additionally, niche technology hiring at FSS requires onboarding 35-40 candidates monthly across Mumbai and Chennai.

A Two-Fold Approach to Talent Acquisition

At FSS, the priority is to hire top-quality talent who can lead and grow with the company. Their approach is two-fold:

1. Rigorous Background Checks: FSS emphasizes finding the right people through thorough background checks to ensure candidates possess the necessary skills and align with the company’s values and culture.
2. Remarkable Hiring Experience: Attracting talented individuals is just the first step. FSS aims to deliver a "wow" factor throughout the hiring and onboarding process, making new employees feel valued, supported, and motivated from day one.

Streamlining the Recruitment Process

The FSS Talent Acquisition (TA) team studied their existing hiring process and identified core objectives to streamline and improve efficiency:

1. Governance: Ensuring proper governance in the hiring process, addressing challenges like duplicate resumes, interview feedback collection, and offer approvals.
2. Process Automation: Reducing manual tasks such as sourcing, screening, and feedback collection through automation.
3. Attracting Talent Through Multiple Channels: Exploring multiple channels for attracting candidates and building a strong hiring pipeline.
4. Faster Turnaround: Reducing time-to-fill to keep up with rapid technological changes in fintech.
5. Tracking Candidate Experience: Implementing a system to track and improve the candidate experience.

Challenges in the Current Recruitment Process

The TA team listed several challenges in their recruitment process:

• Tracking candidate flow and details was difficult due to multiple sources like excel sheets and scattered email communications.
• Lack of a centralized system led to manual work, increasing the chances of errors and impacting candidate experience.
• Manually checking for duplicate resumes was hard without a centralized database.
• Hiring managers lacked real-time updates on candidates and open positions, affecting resource planning.
• Inefficient document submission processes led to delays in hiring.

Partnering with RippleHire: A Game Changer

Recognizing the need for a complete overhaul, FSS partnered with RippleHire, an intelligent end-to-end High Performance ATS Solution. Both teams formed a center of excellence (CoE) to establish clear goals and implement a structured strategy:

• Centralized Platform:
  RippleHire provided a platform for managing the entire recruitment lifecycle, ensuring better governance and transparency.

• Process Automation:
  Automating tasks like candidate duplication checks, interview scheduling, and offer generation increased recruiter productivity.

• Sourcing and Talent Pooling:
  Leveraging multiple sourcing channels and internal database mining helped build a robust talent pipeline.

• Candidate Experience:
  A user-friendly platform with mobile-friendly applications and streamlined processes enhanced candidate experience.

• Interview and Feedback Management:
  Efficient interview scheduling and feedback submission reduced follow-ups and improved the overall experience.

• Offer Management and Compliance:
  Digital offer generation ensured regulatory compliance and provided a positive brand experience.

• Reporting and Analytics:
  Comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities allowed FSS to track key recruitment metrics and make informed decisions.

Effective Change Management

The success of this implementation hinged on stakeholder engagement and change management. The project team involved stakeholders early on, seeking their inputs to identify inefficiencies and aligning on new designs. Regular communication, training, and support from RippleHire’s marketing experts ensured smooth implementation and adoption.

Results and Future Outlook

With over 150 clients across 26 countries, FSS is a leader in digital payment solutions. Their priority is to enhance the end-user experience through advanced technology and a skilled team.

The implementation of RippleHire has led to significant improvements across the TA ecosystem, such as:

• Improved recruiter efficiency through reduced manual intervention.
• Enhanced visibility into the candidate funnel.
• Better governance and audit trails.
• Improved candidate experiences and reduced inefficiencies.
• Expanded reach to suitable candidates through social media job distribution.

Lessons Learned

• Embracing technology and automation in TA processes improves efficiency, consistency, and candidate experience.
• Providing a seamless and engaging candidate experience is essential for attracting and retaining top talent.
• Leveraging a robust Employee Referral program enhances recruitment efficiency and drives strong employee engagement.

Looking Ahead

FSS is now focused on further enhancing their TA experience by exploring additional features and integrations within the ATS, such as advanced analytics, AI-powered candidate matching, and video interviewing capabilities. Leveraging data and insights from the ATS will empower talent decisions, enhance employer branding, and develop targeted sourcing strategies.

Through their innovative approach and collaboration with RippleHire, FSS has set new standards in talent acquisition, paving the way for future advancements in the recruitment process.