Finding top of the class talent

  • Client
    Swinburne University
  • Industry
    Tertiary Education
  • Location
    Melbourne, Australia
  • Projects
    Contract Recruitment
  • Placed 130 roles over five years 

    As a partner on the University’s supplier panel since 2017, we have been their go-to supplier for top tech talent. 
  • 90-95% of roles filled through sourcing and networks

    The Talent team work together internally, sharing their networks to ensure the best professionals are sourced.
  • An industry-leading interview and vetting selection process

    This includes history checks, personality profile evaluations and value fit assessments.

Their story

Swinburne University of Technology is ranked in the top 1% of universities globally and is a world-class university creating social and economic impacts through science, technology and innovation. Founded in 1908, Swinburne continues to evolve gaining university status in 1992.

After a challenging time during COVID, the University experienced a growth phase as demand from international students returned to Melbourne.

Due to this current growth phase, Talent were contacted to fill 15 operational IT roles and some significant high-level positions for the University in under four months.

As a trusted partner on the University’s supplier panel since 2017, Talent has placed 150 roles with Swinburne over these six years and knew exactly how to get the job done when they were contacted again.

Their needs

In 2021-2022, there was an acute skills shortage in Australia for IT specialists, including those in executive leadership roles. This was exacerbated by an 18+ month period with no skilled migration to Australia, combined with an increased global demand for tech specialists as companies and governments uplifting online service delivery as a result of the pandemic. This left Swinburne seeking to recruit a new IT leadership team in an historically highly competitive labour market.

Compared to other industries, the remuneration offered by the University sector is not as competitive, and to compound this in the competitive post-Covid market, Swinburne faced market salary increases of up to 50% for appropriate IT leaders.

Moreover, Swinburne also has a strong drive for diverse candidates, especially in leadership roles. DE&I is a big focus of the University and this is something Talent is committed to helping them achieve by to tapping into our diverse candidate pool and presenting Swinburne with the crème of the crop.

Our solution

Over a third of the Talent Melbourne team has worked at the company for over seven years, which is very rare in recruitment. They work together and share their networks and relationships with candidates (both active and passive), to ensure the best professionals are sourced. When it came to filling these roles for Swinburne, the entire team were on the job, making that big difference. We also have the right sourcing tools and an extensive database, allowing this to come to life.

To enable Swinburne’s diversity goals, Talent ensured an unbiased recruitment process that included diverse shortlist submissions, inclusive job ads and blind pre-selection.

Talent also has industry-leading interview and vetting selection processes including history checks, personality profile evaluations and value fit assessments. The team assists with the design of the entire recruitment process and a have a focus on providing diverse shortlists.

Ultimately, only 5% of the roles filled came through standard advertising, which is another proof point of the brilliant relationships that Talent team members have with candidates and contractors. Moreover, Talent also successfully recruited the University’s IT Leadership Team including the CIO, EPMO Director, Director of Infrastructure, Director of Technical Digital Delivery, Director of Enterprise Architecture,  and the Director of Digital Workplace Experience (DWX).

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Finding Dynamics needles in nationwide haystacks

  • Client
    Innovia
  • Industry
    Microsoft Dynamics, Business Central
  • Location
    North America
  • Projects
    Recruitment
  • 20+ Specialist Dynamics Hires

    We have hired 20 and counting Dynamics professionals with Innovia which include Functional Consultants with specialist expertise in manufacturing, supply chain or finance, Business Central (BC) Developers and Support Consultants.
  • 50% of hires from under represented communities

    A key focus has been on balancing the landscape of female, Black, Hispanic and other marginalized talent.
  • $4k Average saving per hire

    Through our retained fee campaign solution we are able to demonstrate significant cost savings across all hires.

Our goal is to ensure Innovia always have the expertise they need to win and deliver on projects.

Innovia Consulting is a Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and NAV consulting firm based in the US. They deliver high-profile projects for clients in North America, with a prominent presence in manufacturing, distribution and finance.

Innovia’s main challenge is a product of their own success – they are winning high-profile projects but sourcing permanent MS Dynamics consultants to deliver them is like finding a needle in a haystack.

The projects require talent with strong skills in Dynamics 365 BC. They need experts who understand the intricacies of business processes and systems used in manufacturing, supply chain or finance, and they need to know their way around a broad ecosystem of ISVs that are purpose-built for specific industries like food/beverage and retail. Competition is fierce for tech consultancies – especially when it comes to attracting talent. This market has always been known to consistently have a high demand and short supply of candidates – enter the pandemic and this increased the competition even more!

Innovia needed a partner who could find the right talent and be their brand ambassador in a fast-paced, highly competitive skills market…

Trust

First of all we had to prove ourselves – it is the key to building trust and confidence after all! To do this, in September 2020, we started working on a few roles on a contingent basis to show Innovia that we had a strong network of skilled MS Dynamics candidates and knew how to properly identify & attract the right people for Innovia.

Expertise

With 6 years dedicated to the MS Dynamics market, Talent’s Dylan Cohen was the perfect person to take the helm. With his knowledge of this niche candidate market, he was able to quickly map out the who’s who of the industry through detailed competitor analysis, his own well-established network and regular engagement in the community through sources like the NAV User Group (for which he is a regular contributor) and membership with the IAMCP.

Brand Ambassador

Being Innovia’s brand ambassador is easy, they are an excellent company to work for. But we had to really dig into this in the beginning because it wasn’t so apparent in the market – they needed just a little help with their Employer Value Proposition. We worked with them in a consultative role to unearth some unique attributes that would really make them stand out, made some adjustments to our advertising and used this information to engage with and attract the talent they needed.

At the core of our candidate attraction methodology was the implantation of techniques that would attract a diverse selection of candidates. This included bias removal throughout the recruitment process, barrier-free advertisements, the use of specialist job boards aimed at typically under-represented communities and targeted campaigns.

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A pioneer for inclusive and equitable hiring

  • Client
    Ableton
  • Industry
    Media
  • Location
    Global
  • Projects
    Campaign, Scaleup, DEI
  • 5 senior hires within 6 months

    Talent has quickly sourced a leadership team in tune with brand’s values and ethos.
  • CVs within 48 hrs

    Top contract talent was presented within just 48 hours.
  • 75% Female Hires

    3/4 of the talent that we have placed with Ableton identify as female.

Helping Ableton deliver music to the world

Ableton make unique software and hardware for music creation and performance. Its products enable a community of users to create amazing things.

Ableton is one of those cool companies that most people in the industry can only dream of landing a job with, but that doesn’t make it any easier to find the diverse talent they are striving for. Most of their roles require a strong blend of technical expertise, industry understanding and music interface knowledge. In addition, the roles won’t appeal to all engineers as they will be working on a legacy product with little scope for learning new languages.

The music tech industry is still a long way from catching up when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. As an industry pioneer, Ableton is doing all it can to push for better opportunities for all and we are helping them with this mission…

Taking a Campaign based approach

Ableton needed a powerful campaign to attract the hard-to-find talent they were looking for. A retained fee project was the best route for each role, which ensured the team were able to dedicate their time solely to Ableton. The campaign was underpinned by a tailored strategy for each role to understand and engage with the candidate markets in ways that would attract diverse, experienced individuals who would be an excellent addition to the Ableton team.

Being a brand ambassador for Ableton in communities of talent that are typically under-represented in the industry is at the core of our DE&I strategy. To support this, we have consulted on inclusivity in their EVP and recruitment process, invested in specialist job boards for diverse talent, designed campaigns that put under-represented people at the forefront and introduced operational changes to remove unconscious bias during the hiring process.

  • I've been working with Talent on several hirings now and I can confirm: they aren't your typical recruiters! Attentive to detail and being a great listener, Talent builds a space for trust and positive collaboration.
    Thomas Debacker (They/Them)
    Internal Recruiter
    Ableton
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Partners from the beginning has helped this company grow

  • Client
    LIFELENZ
  • Industry
    Technology
  • Location
    Australia
  • Projects
    Recruitment
  • Four years & 500% company growth

    LIFELENZ is used by hundreds of thousands of people a day and scaling rapidly.
  • 20% of hires through Talent

    Since LIFELENZ began four years ago, 20% of the hires were through Talent.
  • DE&I is a main focus

    Great diversity and gender balance represented in candidates that were put forward.

Their story

With its head office in Adelaide, Australia, LIFELENZ uses machine learning to analyse and optimise workforce rostering and compliance.

Launched in 2017, this software uses artificial intelligence to forecast sales with less than a single-digit percentage error margin and ensures businesses are staffed appropriately and people are working in the right roles so that there are no scheduling conflicts.

LIFELENZ  has now signed up most of the big-name fast-food chains in the US as clients, and its software is used by hundreds of thousands of people a day and scaling rapidly.

 

Their needs

With a Series B round raising $US32 million ($45 million) in investment, LIFELENZ has been going through a period of massive growth and has required skilled tech talent to facilitate this.

In a small local market, exacerbated by slowed skilled migration due to COVID and increased global demand for good tech candidates, LIFELENZ called on Talent and their knowledge and relationships with candidates in the marketplace to fill these hard-to-place roles.

Our expertise was also needed when reworking recruitment processes with a focus on hiring quickly and adapting to increased premiums in this market. LIFELENZ had a great understanding of what skills it required but relied on Talent to make roles attractive in the market through job ads and marketing.  

With premium talent in demand, LIFELENZ needed to adapt and operate at pace. The knowledge supplied by Talent that often a candidate is holding or considering two or three other offers has helped LIFELENZ to respond and go after desired candidates more assertively to secure the best.

Our solution

Knowledge of and connections in the market, on top of Talent’s extensive candidate database and sourcing strategies enabled the best talent to be provided to LIFELENZ. Ken Leong, General Manager Australia, was employee number two at LIFELENZ after the founding group and had worked with Talent previously as a contractor himself, so when it came to finding a recruitment partner, he knew there was only one company for the job.

Candidates were presented based on career interests, location, career history, personality profiles and skills match. Above all, they had to align to the values of LIFELENZ. Although now in the SME phase, Talent has been working with LIFELENZ since it was a start-up when the brand was building a reputable name.

With a long history in the Adelaide market, the Talent team source candidates through leveraging relationships with past connections and actively headhunted candidates with the specific skills required.

  • The candidates coming through Talent have been extremely reflective of how our teams have been shaped. Talent knows the specific qualities we are looking for in our people, curiosity and ambition are valued and he always offers us a great variety of candidates with these qualities from all backgrounds; because of this we do have good diversity and a pretty good gender split in our organisation.
    Ken Leong
    General Manager
    LIFELENZ
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