Alfresco were experiencing rapid growth and the task of recruitment had fallen into Patti Rain-Wiffin’s lap who was solely responsible for sourcing candidates, organising interviews, and juggling the many specialist recruitment agencies that had been brought in to handle the diverse requirements of the business. It was a challenge to manage that level of growth alongside her other global HR responsibilities.
Provide was one of the agencies recruiting for Alfresco and quickly realised that Patti needed support. The more they learnt about the business, the more they understood its growth plans and challenges. The conversation evolved very quickly and Provide recommended a short-term solution to increase headcount.
Agency collaboration
Provide put their specialist consultants on the case to focus on specific areas of the business (tech, engineering, sales and marketing), and worked alongside the other recruiters, building relationships with the agencies to work towards a common goal.
By managing the roster of agencies, Provide instantly removed a great deal of pressure from Patti but this created an internal obstacle that needed resolving.
Managers from within the company were concerned that a single agency would dominate and skim the cream off recruitment but Provide quickly demonstrated its honesty in all dealings with the company and it’s fellow agencies.
Invaluable on-site support
By placing a senior consultant on site within the company, Provide absorbed the culture as an employee would, and became an integral part of the business. They had a deep understanding of the business and where it was in the cycle, which helped them and the other agencies recruit people with the right mix of personalities.
It was that on-site commitment that really made the difference. For a small growing company, having someone in the office available to speak to managers and build rapport internally was invaluable. Provide became a partner in every true sense of the word.
As a result, the company successfully recruited 260 people with very specific skills, within a very ambitious timeframe.
“We already had a recruitment agency in place but our growth level in the business had started to increase rapidly and I had no additional resources to deal with that. Whilst I liked to keep out PSL petty tight, I knew I needed the extra support to help me expand whilst I dealt with the many other internal HR requirements of the business.
We had 11 countries to support and recruit for so recruitment was taking up more and more of my time each day. I discussed this with Provide and instantly got the feeling they would do the right thing for our company. I needed someone to take the pain from me and manage the coordination, liaisons with hiring managers, and needs of the business.
We took Provide on but I was keen to keep our existing suppliers too. Our Line Managers have a great deal of autonomy and had built their own relationships with agencies, so I wanted to maintain and balance that.
Provide were extremely accommodating of that and even helped us negotiate better rates, which was very good of them. They were so obliging to work with other recruiters and even helped them to help us better – they didn’t restrain us at all.
Provide gave us a dedicated consultant who worked for two days per week, on the ground. Tom took the time to understand our culture and represent Alfresco as if he had worked for us for years. He quickly absorbed our business and did an excellent job of promoting our brand to candidates, adding real value and expertise across the board.
Whilst I remained ultimately responsible for new hires, Provide screened initial CVs, coordinated interviews internally and joined is in the interview process. It was a huge benefit to me personally.
Provide has always really understood what we do as a business. They get the environment we work in and have helped us convey the right message to the outside world. We’ve generated some great PR because of it.
They’ve positioned us really well in the marketplace and have helped us tell a compelling story. Knowing what to expect from our business has made a big difference to the candidates. As a result, we hired just over 75% of our total workforce at that time and we have had very few leavers since. Our attrition rate is very low. It was a real success.”
Patti Rain-Wiffin
Director, Global Human Resources
Alfresco Software Ltd