The Global Talent War: The recipe to attaining and retaining top tech talent

The war for talent affects all, but the impact it has is different for large enterprises and startups.

According to Fitbots co-founder Vidya Santhanam, any small misstep a startup makes in hiring could set the company back in its growth trajectory “by a few years” or even lead to the startup’s failure.

Vidya Santhanam, co-founder of Fitbots / Photo credit: Fitbots

In this episode of The Global Talent War, Globalization Partners’ Charles Ferguson and Tech in Asia’s Nathaniel Fetalvero talk to Santhanam about her experience with the worldwide battle for talent, the “Swiss Army knife” approach startups need to employ in hiring, and how the objectives and key results platform optimizes its talent acquisition and retention strategies.

Timecodes:

00:00 – Intro
00:28 – Introducing Vidya Santhanam, co-founder of Fitbots
00:39 – What is an OKR?
02:21 – The growing importance of OKRs
03:30 – Work-from-home culture versus remote working
05:01 – Seeing the war rage on for over 20 years
06:10 – The difference between hiring in a startup and hiring in a large enterprise
08:21 – Swiss knives: The weapon of choice for startups in the talent war
11:04 – Similarities between talent acquisition and customer acquisition
13:50 – No one is safe from the fallout of war
15:44 – Tech isn’t the answer to all your hiring problems
17:52 – Identify your gaps as a founder and fill them up with good team members

Download the full transcript here.

Hosts:

• Charles Ferguson, Singapore-based general manager for Globalization Partners’ Asia-Pacific operations
• Nathaniel Fetalvero, managing editor of Tech in Asia Studios and host of the Startup Snapshot podcast

Featured Interviewee:

• Vidya Santhanam, co-founder of Singapore-based objective and key results platform Fitbots

The Global Talent War is a podcast by Tech in Asia, produced in partnership with Globalization Partners. Visit Globalization Partners’ website to learn more about how you can gain an edge in the ever-evolving global talent war.