Introduction
John Deere is a world leader providing advanced products, technology, and services for customers revolutionizing agriculture and construction worldwide.
Initial Engagement & Business Challenges
- Alp Consulting started engagement in 2007 with 60 IT positions to showcase sourcing expertise.
- Initial assignments included IT Security, Product Design, Data Analytics, SAP, Hydraulics Design, Operator Station, and Simulation.
- Challenges:
- John Deere was not well-known for IT hiring, leading to low brand awareness.
- Business expectations were not aligned due to lack of market data.
Alp Consulting’s Approach
- Created detailed recruiter pitches to promote John Deere’s brand.
- Developed business presentations highlighting technology groups and their work in India.
- Conducted market intelligence mapping of IT security talent across India and Pune.
- Presented market insights to set realistic hiring expectations with global stakeholders.
- Successfully closed all 60 positions ahead of time, winning the end-to-end RPO engagement for IT business.
- Supported Digital Customer Experience (DCE) group setup in India with 2 group managers and 6 scrum teams.
- Helped transfer entire US work to India via an insourcing project.
Bangalore Centre Setup
- In 2019, Alp Consulting supported John Deere’s plan to grow outside Pune by analyzing location and talent availability.
- Bangalore was shortlisted based on multiple rounds of market intelligence and salary benchmarking.
- SAP Security was selected as the first skill group to build in Bangalore.
- Alp Consulting hosted interview drives and provided infrastructure for global teams during hiring.
- Facilitated continuous talent availability resulting in 3 scrum teams set up in Bangalore.
- Over the last 3 years, helped establish 7 engineering groups.
- Currently, Bangalore has a 100+ member team with 90–92% hiring done by Alp Consulting.
- Alp Consulting also hired the current Bangalore location leader and supports new business setup there.
Talent Acquisition Initiatives in Pune
- Implemented talent pooling across multiple business groups with similar skill requirements.
- Initiated video interviews and third-party technical panels during COVID-19.
- Managed common panel drives improving time to hire.
- Supported hacker rank tests and ensured candidates completed technical assignments.
- Supported various groups including Technology, Embedded Systems, Advanced Engineering, Product Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, ISG, Industrial IoT, Advanced Analytics, Shared Services, Sales & Support.
Business Metrics & Achievements
- Addressed 94% of additional roles in 2021 and 90% in 2022.
- Maintained a consistent 30% diversity hiring ratio.
- Reduced candidate decline ratio from 62% to 40% in 6 to 8 months.
Grade-wise Positions Closed and Major Skills
| Grade | Grade 5 & 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | Grade 9 & 10 |
| Positions Closed | 459 | 331 | 230 | 35 |
Major Skills Supported:
- Polyglot programmers: full stack (Java, AWS, ReactJS, NodeJS), mobile (iOS & Android)
- SAP solutions, machine learning, data analytics, data science, big data
- Cloud engineering, IT security, application security
- Embedded engineering, automotive, product architecture, systems design
- Agile roles, scrum masters, agile coaches, product owners, technical architects
Summary
- Over the past 35 months including the pandemic period, Alp Consulting adapted with virtual interviews and weekend drives.
- John Deere showed strong commitment to onboarding.
- Alp Consulting adopted multiple tools and technologies for hiring success.
- Due to the quality of work, Alp Consulting was shortlisted for leadership hiring at John Deere.