What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We went through a lot of candidates and they stuck with us through hitting the goal of getting six developers. We had=ve a good steady pipeline of candidates. We get great weekly summaries so I know the status of every candidate. We have some really good talent.
We picked up a guy who is a junior developer starting his freshman year of college and going to be working full-time with us. He’s already had three years of paid professional Rails development consulting experience. At no point in time, once the pipeline was full, did it ever dip down below six people. It was closer to 10-12 people in various stages.
How did CNA International IT perform from a project management standpoint?
The main account manager sends out a weekly summary of what’s going on. He also has great suggestions as to how we could tweak or improve the recruiting pipeline. It’s not my first time doing recruiting.
I’ve worked at a number of startups building out entire organizations. It’s nice to get feedback from them in terms of what works for candidates they’re seeing. They tell us if we need to tighten up and get them scheduled as quickly as possible.
They make suggestions like setting up a Skype channel so our admin and their people scheduling the candidates can talk directly if there’s a need for urgency to get a candidate scheduled. All that is handled very well. We do bi-weekly calls on Skype to make sure we’re dialed in on the goals and to discuss how the pipeline is looking.
The primary form of communication is email. One thing I really like is that we had an open line on Skype. In the middle of my day, if a candidate wasn’t getting scheduled or was having trouble connecting with my admin, they’d send me a message over Skype asking me to bump it along. The reason the Skype channel is so effective is that it makes the time difference much easier to manage. They’re very responsive.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Unlike your average recruiters, they really care about the fit. After they’ve done a placement, they’re still following up with the candidate and giving me feedback about our onboarding process. There have been some instances where they give us very good feedback about a person, they placed with us. I’ve gone back to my dev leads and managers below me and tell them they need to make adjustments in terms of onboarding new people.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there’s nothing they need to improve. They really do a good job.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Don’t engage with them and expect them to do all the work that the hiring managers are responsible for. They’re really good at logistics, being aggressive, getting feedback, and getting the candidate to show up at the interview.
What they can’t do is force your interview team to be on time or to get the interview scheduled. That’s on you. They work best when the hiring manager and the interview team are just as good. Ideally, you should know what your interview recruiting process looks like before going into the engagement.
The CNA International IT team provided a virtually ideal recruitment process, delivering all the candidates needed, keeping the interview pipeline full throughout the project, and helping expand beyond the existing scope. They were communicative and actively sought out feedback from their client.