OpenText knows where talent goes next

OpenText partnered with Korn Ferry to use the analytical power Intelligence Cloud to win in tech job markets, inspire new career paths for its people and guide talent strategy.

Using technology for good

OpenText is The Information Company™ with 14,000 employees in 60+ offices worldwide—experts in information management and cloud solutions. It’s grown rapidly since 1991 and today 89 of the top Fortune100 companies use OpenText solutions. Committed to using ‘technology for good’, its work ranges from cancer detection to ethical supply chains.

Strategic challenges: Workforce and workplace

OpenText was already growing when the global pandemic hit in 2020. As the world quickly shifted to home and hybrid working, the company saw increasing demand for information management and cloud solutions. As well as enabling customers to adapt to the ‘new normal’, OpenText itself needed to transform workplace strategy. And with its workforce now dispersed, it also needed to revisit the purpose of its locations—physical and virtual.

Unprecedented times also create opportunity.

For OpenText, this was encapsulated in its ‘talent first, location second’ approach to targeting untapped tech talent. By comprehensively mapping labor markets, it could analyze how best to attract and retain talent and skills. And how it could evolve employee experience to address wellbeing, inclusion, and purpose.

“It’s the people at OpenText that make the difference. It’s fun to work with high-performing teams that operate with high integrity.” - Staci Coddington, Senior Director Talent Acquisition at OpenText

What we did: Mapping and understanding tech talent hot spots

OpenText worked with Korn Ferry on creating a talent-driven location strategy. As a starting point, we fed Intelligence Cloud with data—our proprietary data plus OpenText’s internal HRIS data and multiple sources of external labor market data.

This contributed to a Talent Availability Analysis that pinpointed the target job markets. We focused on in-demand skills—engineering and sales roles—and compared locations. These included (but weren’t limited to) areas near to current OpenText sites and completely new places.

“As we pursue our future of work strategy, “how we work”—not just “where we work”—is critically important to achieving our purpose. Putting talent first, regardless of location, is allowing us the flexibility to hire the talent needed to drive innovation and deliver value to our customers.” - Susan Hailey, VP, Global Talent Acquisition & Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at OpenText.

Results: delivering ‘talent first, location second’

By analyzing labor pools and mapping job markets, we ranked each location and scored its potential. Further detailed analysis identified the top priority markets by analyzing talent migration patterns, proximity to universities, talent turnover/churn, plus ‘livability’ variables like weather, local regulations, political climate and stability, and technology infrastructure.

This gave OpenText a comprehensive map of the size, diversity, and availability of talent—and how that might change. We identified three types of markets: elite, ready now, and up and coming. Together, these give the company the reach and availability it needs.

“The number of factors that play a role in determining whether a location is your next tech talent hub is astounding. Is a city growing, flat or declining? How fluid is the talent pool? What is local traffic like? Does it provide an attractive lifestyle? Are you mainly looking to attract early career talent or seasoned professionals? Is local regulation friendly to foreign companies opening up locations?” - Birke Bakker, Principal Consultant at Korn Ferry.

With a comprehensive, clearer picture of talent and skills, OpenText is now adapting its workplace strategy and revising its investment in locations. This is a combination of fast-tracking and developing the careers of its existing top talent, and better targeting its talent acquisition campaigns.

That’s where insights and guidance from Intelligence Cloud are proving invaluable for winning the talent war—especially in key battlegrounds where job markets are fiercely competitive.

“Armed with the insights from the Talent Availability Analysis Korn Ferry provided, we’ve successfully increased hiring and onboarding of new and diverse talent across the locations we’ve prioritized. With a refreshed global workforce strategy and EVP, we’re focused on achieving a “Great Attraction” of talent to OpenText.” - Susan Hailey, VP, Global Talent Acquisition & Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at OpenText

Get ready for the future of work with HR technology that delivers at the speed of now and find more details about the Intelligence Cloud here.