Engineering Hiring to Build a New Engineering Center

Hired to help establish a new engineering center in Seattle, our team created an effective recruiting process that set OneLogin apart in terms of candidate experience, speed, agility, and employer branding.

About

OneLogin’s CEO tasked Senior Engineering Directors Ron Craswell and Blake Ramsdell with establishing the new engineering center in Seattle that would work on client and server applications. With many roles to fill quickly, Ron and Blake started with their applicant pool and local contingent/bounty agencies. For weeks, they spent many hours sifting through a high volume of unfiltered resumes – 99% of which weren’t a fit. They needed a more effective solution that would free up their time while meeting hiring goals.

Challenge

OneLogin’s CEO tasked Senior Engineering Directors Ron Craswell and Blake Ramsdell with establishing the new engineering center in Seattle that would work on client and server applications. With many roles to fill quickly, Ron and Blake started with their applicant pool and local contingent/bounty agencies. For weeks, they spent many hours sifting through a high volume of unfiltered resumes – 99% of which weren’t a fit. They needed a more effective solution that would free up their time while meeting hiring goals.

Solution

Ron Craswell, an industry veteran with stints at both Facebook and Google, knew about Bandwidth’s capabilities from previous engagements. “We love Bandwidth’s model because it’s effective both from a results and cost standpoint,” said Ron, “They always brought top candidates in the door. They have a very targeted, efficient approach. Their motivation is different from a bounty agency. They are motivated to find the right hire and keep us happy. Bounty agencies are commission focused, so if the role is hard, from our experience, they move on, and they don’t care as much whether the candidate is the best fit.”

Bandwidth partnered with OneLogin to better understand their business, unique value proposition, and the current and future state of engineering in Seattle to develop ideal candidate profiles and more strategic, targeted messages. We also shifted from a mostly passive strategy (receiving applicants) to 100% targeted-candidate outreach using those candidate profiles and a list of candidates that fit a range of criteria: work experience, technical specialty, location, etc.

Using OneLogin’s existing brand, email, and Applicant Tracking Systems, we took on the internal recruitment role for the Seattle operation, reaching out to candidates with personalized messages that articulated OneLogin’s value proposition. Our data-driven approach enabled us to measure the success of these efforts and optimize messaging, timing, and delivery.

Enabled by our in-depth knowledge of OneLogin’s business and hiring needs, we qualified interested candidates and moved them along the hiring process.

“The first level filtering and screening that Bandwidth does is very effective. Very few of the candidates they screen don’t make it past our first [coffee meeting]. We’ve developed trust such that when the team schedules that first coffee meeting with a candidate, we automatically say yes because we know it’s going to be a good candidate. The Bandwidth team knows what we want. It’s been a great working relationship,” remarked Ron Craswell, Senior Director, Engineering at OneLogin.

In addition to filling the pipeline with pre-qualified candidates, we helped streamline the interview process, improved the candidate experience, and managed the hiring lifecycle for both staff and candidates from the first discussion through the final offer. This streamlined and differentiated interview process not only saved time, but it also enabled OneLogin to make faster hiring decisions, often beating larger companies.

“The interview process has garnered great results and sets us apart from other companies. It’s not your typical recruiting process…our candidates love it,” said Blake Ramsdell, Senior Director, Engineering at OneLogin.

Outcomes

Our team created an effective recruiting process that set OneLogin apart in terms of candidate experience, speed, agility, and employer branding. Within weeks of launch, OneLogin made four key, senior-engineering hires in a highly-contested space.

Explains Blake Ramsdell, “Bandwidth has hired most of our Seattle team. The Seattle office is shaping up fantastically…They have effectively brought us top-quality candidates. Our pipeline is very different from what it was before. I’ve never had so many qualified candidates. We would recommend Bandwidth without hesitation.”

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