CIO
Recruitment process outsourcing unlocks growth for Spinvox
How do you grow a company from 50 to 350 in 18 months? Part of the answer is to call in rectuitment process outsourcers.
Computerworld Staff (Computerworld UK)  25 June, 2008 12:24:16

Most IT managers would not think twice about employing recruitment consultants to get the staff they want, but how far should they take the process?

Similarly, human resources is one of the earliest and easiest parts of an organisation to outsource, but how deep does that go?

Should, for example, an organisation effectively outsource its recruitment?

Jeff Wellstead, HR Director of SpinVox, a UK-based company whose products convert voice automatically into text and deliver it as a SMS text, email, blog or to a social network wall or space, did just that.

SpinVox has grown rapidly since its launch in 2003 and Wellstead said traditional recruitment methods just would not have given him the staff, with the skills he needed, in the right timeframe.

"SpinVox was undergoing a huge transformation in growing from 50 UK-based employees to 350 employees over the course of 18 months," he said. "As much as I enjoy recruitment, there was no way I could recruit this many people in 8 countries in that short amount of time."

Staff were recruited across the whole business - operations, IT development, finance, marketing HR and quality control.

Wellstead had experience of outsourced recruitment, but outsourcing on this scale was "a mix of both shear panic and a considered decision," he said. After evaluating several organisations Spinvox called in recruitment process outsourcing specialists Project IT to do the job.

"Using traditional methods of recruitment would require my very small HR team to drop their day jobs, and be on-line and on the phone all day long managing candidates, recruiters and job interview schedules," said Wellstead.

It was not just the volume of work that made the traditional approach impossible; it was the image Spinvox wanted to convey. In normal circumstances, "Even if candidates don't get the job offer, you want them to walk away thinking, 'Wow, what a great company to work for, and I'll definitely tell my friends about the experience'," Wellstead said.

"My team just don't have the cycles to run a full-blown recruitment operation whilst managing their other remits," he added.

Spinvox took steps to ensure it did not loose vital recruitment skills or loose control of the recruitment process by bringing in Project IT.

With Project IT, Wellstead laid out the critical issues for the recruitment process. These included ensuring that Project IT knew how to articulate the "employee experience" and how to support the value proposition of joining SpinVox,

Wellstead was also carful to ensure that Project IT knew how SpinVox wanted to be represented in the marketplace. "Mass recruitment often is the most powerful one-on-one marketing tool available to a young company" he said.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Enter the fully qualified URL, eg. http://www.example.com/
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Newsletters
Sign up for our CIO newsletters!
Syndicate content

URL
www.kyoceramita.com.au

Call us on
Australia: 1800 339 003
New Zealand: 0508 596 2732

Email us
marketing@kyoceramita.com.au

Did you realise that the cost or running a laser printer over its lifetime is likely to exceed the original purchase price by several times? To compare your current printer's running costwith a Kyocera printer, select the TCO Calculator

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Kyocera Saves... Try our Saving Estimator now
Calculate Now

Testimonials

 

Wondering how to improve your business with UC on an IP Network?

Join Computerworld's Live Webinar where we will address the move many companies are making towards IP based voice services (SIP trunking, VoIP) and look at how they are using a single connection for data and voice rather than separate lines. Learn about the latest in IP networks and how it can help your organisation.

Wednesday 25th November 2009, Time 10.30 am EST (Sydney, Australia) Screening at your desk

Register now

  • +

    Facebook users targeted in massive spam run 19 March, 2010 06:50:00

    The messages try to get users to dowload a malicious attachment
    Facebook's 400 million users have been targeted by a spam run that could infect their computers with malicious software designed to steals passwords and other data, according to security researchers at McAfee.
  • +

    Using Biometric Access Systems: Dos and Don'ts 18 March, 2010 06:41:00

    For biometric access systems, the devil is in the details. Here are implementation strategies from users and analysts.
    Considering a biometric access system? Experts offer practical advice in these dos and don'ts.
  • +

    Seven Firefox Plug-ins That Improve Online Privacy 18 March, 2010 06:18:00

    It does help the more nerdy among us ascertain what's going on under the hood of a website
    As strange as it might sound, there are times when I wish for the old days of the Internet circa the early 1990's. The days of Mosaic and Lynx, where there was no Flash, no Javascript and no Java. A simpler time where protecting your privacy and security wasn't as essential as it is today.
  • +

    Law enforcement push for stricter domain name rules 18 March, 2010 05:04:00

    The changes would make it more difficult for criminals to register under false details for domain names
    Law enforcement officials in the U.K. and U.S. are pushing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to put in place measures that would help reduce abuse of the domain name system.
  • +

    Indian security startup offers free software 17 March, 2010 06:01:00

    The company hopes to make money by selling services to small companies
    Wep Solutions, an Indian security software and services startup, is offering its unified threat management appliance software free to small businesses around the world.

Zones
SAS Resource Centre

This Resource Centre hosts a wealth of thought leadership articles, whitepapers, and success videos, to help you make the most out of your corporate information in order to swiftly make sound business decisions to survive and thrive in the current economic climate.

Oracle Resource Centre

News, Features and the latest whitepapers on SOA, Application Grid, Enterprise Management and Database

Upcoming Industry Events
Whitepaper

IT Budget Strategy in a Down Economy: Stop Buying Storage!

The silver lining to a poor economy it is that IT organisations have an opportunity to consolidate existing projects without pressure to begin new ones. Immediate focus should be on optimising existing systems and extending their useful life. Read on.

CIO Industry Insight Podcast #9 Scott Dawes, VP of Applications Business Unit, Oracle ANZ
Listen to the latest edition of CIO Live which is now available for download.
Listen to the podcast
Sign up to the CIO Live email
Whitepaper
Securing People and Information: How to Protect Against Today’s Web-based Threats

This white paper explores the benefits of an Application Delivery Network, highlighting the ability to protect your users and applications and still deliver outstanding application performance with confidence, consistency and cost-effectiveness across your distributed network.

Read Whitepaper

Brought to you by