We were looking for someone who had in-depth knowledge of multiple geographies. We’ve been hiring in the Nordics, DACH countries, Benelux region, UK, amongst others. And it’s not easy to find a partner who has a genuine track record and experience of all those markets. Many claim to have, but the reality is somewhat different.”
Duncan Adamson, VP EMEA at WorkSoft

Worksoft provides a leading automation platform for test automation, business process discovery, and documentation supporting enterprise applications, including packaged and web apps. Worksoft has been on a growth trajectory over the past few years and has been working with Launch Global to overcome business-critical hiring challenges. We have successfully filled over 40 roles across multiple business functions and geographies.

What were Worksoft’s challenges?

Worksoft had engaged other recruitment outsourcing providers before working with Launch Global and were having difficulties locating and attracting high-quality, senior directors and technical consultants across Europe, more specifically the Nordics, DACH and Benelux regions of Europe.

Here are some of the challenges:

• Identifying high-quality candidates with niche technology experience
• Failing to attract highly-passive, in-demand, senior candidates not considering a move. These candidates are in multiple geographies with massive cultural differences.
• Managing complex country-specific legal, payroll and hiring requirements across Europe.

Helping to expand the European Worksoft team

As with any new role and client, we aim to embed our team to develop a deep understanding. We not only aim to understand the high-level role requirements, but we also look deeper into what each stakeholder desires and how the company operates.

We spoke to multiple stakeholders at Worksoft to understand desired candidate motivations, personality, soft skills and used this information to align with traits and skillset of the current top-performing employees. Our research helped us develop an ideal candidate profile which we then use as a benchmark.

We also embedded into Worksoft’s culture, sales and delivery style, management, hierarchy and financials, to help us deliver a thorough and accurate pre-screening process which was transparent, and highly informative for our candidates.

How we found the candidates?

Locating the candidates is not a one-size-fits-all task. We have been charged, over the years, with recruiting a variety of roles, from Senior Sales Directors to Senior Technical Consultants across multiple geographies. These varied requirements mean that the locations of the candidates, virtually and physically, change depending on the job type and location, which makes finding the candidates (away from the traditional route of LinkedIn) much more difficult. For the senior sales roles, some of our German candidates are approached 10-12 times per week for Software Sales roles. These numbers show us the importance of standing out and trying to reach out to these candidates with a unique and hyper-personalised approach.

We used a variety of tools from our Candidate Searching, Sourcing and Attraction Engine. This engine enables our team to pinpoint hard-to-find candidates and ensure an exact fit for each position specified and also allows us to discover where the ideal candidates are online. We found portals, forums, communities and social sites, popular with the type of candidates we were trying to locate. Some of those include Test Automation Forums, Sales Communities and Geography specific professional networks such as Xing (German LinkedIn).

We then used a mix of personality profiling, bespoke one-to-one video approaches and targeted animation to grab the attention of these candidates. Once we had sent these unique communications, it enabled us to have conversations with a large number of passive candidates who would have usually rejected and ignored recruiter messages.

We stand out and earn the attention of candidates which, in turn, allows us to start pre-screening and scheduling interviews. These interviews are managed by our internal interview team who run rigorous, hour-long pre-screens to determine whether the candidate is ideal for the role, all based on the briefing and benchmarking completed initially.

What were the outcomes?

We have had a 4-year, successful relationship with Worksoft. We continue to be the European recruitment partner of choice and have built strong relationships with multiple stakeholders across various business functions.

Since the inception of our partnership, we have completed over 30 hires in EMEA and North America, hiring candidates for a variety of Sales, Pre-Sales & Technical Consulting roles. We continue to deliver ongoing support and consultation regarding the onboarding, employment contracts and payroll solutions in each geography we hire into.