INSPIRE: Uber and the next generation of mobility

As part of the UNLEASH and iCIMS’ INSPIRE European summit, Mark Eckert, director of talent mobility and immigration at Uber, discussed the layers of complexity that the company faces when hiring and promoting.

Eckert analyzed the company’s labor market outlook, what he calls the perfect storm, and Uber’s approach to hiring and furthering talent with technology in a fantastic presentation.

The labor market

In an attempt to get an insight into the labor market, the company references monthly data provided by iCIMS on key hiring indicators and this then informs the larger talent strategy.

Eckert explained some of the latest market activity and trends from the iCIMS platform: “The latest data shows us that, you know, job openings are surging. They’re up over 85% from the start of the year. But in contrast, job applications have experienced only single-digit growth. It’s about 8% over that same period.”

This information helps Uber succeed in a competitive market.

A perfect storm

Eckert recognized four factors that have caused issues in talent acquisition within Uber. These factors were the ‘Great Resignation’, accelerated global growth, increased demand and changing services, and the broad challenges of contemporary business.

Despite Uber having some staff poached, Eckert outlined how the business is adapting to current challenges: “We have to stay connected to our people. What are their career ambitions? What are their workplace preferences? Or are we risk losing them?

“In addition to backfilling [staff], we’re also aggressively growing. As the world continues to recover, we’ve been committed to helping our customers get back to work and support people who are ready to travel or go to events. And so, we have aggressive goals as a company just in general.”

To help keep employees, while growing as a business, Eckert noted that staff need access to resources and tools.

Uber and talent

Eckert added that Uber feels “like you have to engage your employee base in a low touch in a very convenient way or they’re not going to use it.”

However, when employees do engage, “that really enables employees to drive their own growth because once they’ve sort of created their profile or they put their interest in, you can have a recommendation engine or an AI tool start to show them dynamically dynamic career paths, or different program opportunities that we have at Uber.”

Additionally, “you can also show them the gaps that they have, [as well as] interests with other teams with other roles, or show them what they might overlap with that they might not have known before in the past, and then you start to value them.”

This investment in engagement technology and AI appears to have been a success for Uber.

Eckert stated: “At the moment, over 70% of our company actively check our open opportunities regularly, which I’m really happy about. It’s a big number.”

The presentation had plenty of great observations, and it is definitely worth a watch for those in the talent mobility and acquisition space.

To see the UNLEASH and iCIMS INSPIRE European summit now, or at a later date, register here.