Stephen Wells
Head of Talent Acquisition
Myriad Genetics, Inc.
The Direct Recruiter
After working for highly recognized Silicon Valley giants such as Twitter and StubHub, Stephen Wells decided to bring his tech experience to the field of healthcare when he joined Myriad Genetics in 2017. Why the switch? In Steve’s words, “We’re actually saving lives here.”
Steve also thought he could make a bigger impact at a leading health and technology organization the size of Myriad—especially since the company was ready to make a change in their hiring processes. Steve recognized the opportunity to transform recruiting to a more strategic function, introducing direct sourcing and pursuing more talent outreach. Very rarely do they hire people who have applied for their jobs. Instead, Steve’s team identifies people with the skill sets and experience required via LinkedIn profiles. This has resulted in an impressive 97% overall offer acceptance rate on target recruitment.
During his initial conversation with a candidate, Steve finds out what their connection is to the company, mission, and role. He quickly eliminates candidates that don’t have that connection. He has personally recruited numerous senior executives, and his team of eight professional recruiters and two recruiting coordinators added 700 new hires in 2020 to fill key positions across women’s health, oncology, and mental health.
Last year, the company formed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) group to demonstrate its commitment to attract diverse candidates. In the past year, 63% of tech hires have included females and minorities. This is nothing new for Steve. While head of talent acquisition at Twitter, he presented a “Hiring Hacks” webinar to discuss the strategies he put in place at the tech giant to achieve its diversity goals, how to work with executives to achieve diversity recruiting goals, and how to measure success.
Outside of work, Steve believes in giving back and serves as an advisor and volunteer at Upwardly Global, a nonprofit that supports immigrants and refugees who want to contribute vital skills to the professional U.S. workforce. As an immigrant from the UK, Steve has a special connection with this cause. Additionally, he advises BUZZHERO, an organization that stresses hiring skills, not labels, with a focus on autism.
