Growing Start-UpWe helped a growing start-up recruit and build into new markets.
Our client, a venture backed internet company based in the Silicon Valley was looking to establish a presence in the Los Angeles area, which would support their expansion efforts into the Los Angeles marketplace. The company contacted us to assist them in specifically establishing and growing the new regional office.
As a new company, recruitment was a challenge despite having gone through several rounds of funding. The roles needed to build out their technical team were in high demand with a majority of candidates going to larger more established players in the market. In addition, our client who had 150 staff members, had only two staff members located in the region.
- Brand new location and office:
Being a new start-up with a small presence in Silicon Valley is a challenge – hiring for a new region in a brand new office was a challenge itself. - Managers who are great, but inexperienced at hiring:
Operational management who had solid technical and sales skills but have not hired in the past, or hired for the particular situation. - Competitive demand for talent:
Budgeting and funds for the positions were limited due to the region being brand new and the company wanted to scale as they acquired new clients. Most of the salaries were market rate, however, selling the intangibles was needed.
Our solution was to put together a two-person on-site team dedicated to scouting and recruiting; one who was experienced in technical recruiting and the other who had a strong background in technical sourcing. Both of our consultants worked previously at internet start-ups who have gone public or were acquired.
- Model-match candidates from similar companies:
Our sourcing/recruitment strategy was to develop a list of like companies in the space, in particular, we targeted companies who used the same technology platforms. With the help of current employees, we formed a list to pull candidates from, and aggressively recruiting from them. - Work with and train new managers in recruitment process:
We wanted our recruiters to go beyond just bringing in candidates and coordinating interviews, we made it a priority to have managers actively involved in every step of the process. - Developed Unique Selling Propositions (USP) for recruitment:
Working with Human Resources and internal corporate recruiters, we were able to develop and recommended a series of USPs that would be used for recruiting for the region.
We defined our objective and within the six-month time-frame, finished our contract with great results. Some key metrics of success:
- Los Angeles office build-out completed:
The team was fully built-out with 40 employees, we were responsible for hiring nearly all of the project managers, web developers, sysops and security architects. - 90% offer acceptance rate
Since the office was new, we worked with many of the current staff from the corporate location in assisting us in hiring. We had new candidates interview/talk with employees who were with the company early on, giving them exposure to the company culture and to have a feel for the roles. Despite having a brand new office with new staff, we were able to maintain a 90% candidate offer acceptance rate. - Creation of regional recruitment program/process:
With the help of HR, we were able to implement many company procedures and customize them to the needs of the regional office. We were also able to develop a process to streamline the recruitment process and coordinate the hiring process to the main corporate office
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Bristol and Bates worked with the organization on many fronts in helping us scale. It is refreshing having a partner that understands our culture and values.
