Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for Penfold and Arbonics

Penfold

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Penfold is a UK-based company offering flexible pension set-up solutions. Launched in 2019, the company is a digital alternative to traditional pension companies, allowing users to set up, manage, and track their pensions online or on a smartphone.

Industry: Fintech

Website: https://getpenfold.com/

Roles hired:

Customer Support Associates (Tallinn/Hybrid) (x4)

Operations Associates (Tallinn/Hybrid) (x2)

Read more: Digital pensions platform Penfold raises $8.5M series A

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Arbonics

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Arbonics is an Estonian start-up pioneering nature tech. Established in 2022, Arbonics is building Europe’s highest quality, scalable forest carbon removal platform. Not only is the solution fighting against climate change, but it also aims to create extra income sources for landowners.

Industry: Greentech

Website: https://www.arbonics.com/

Roles hired:

Digital Marketing Manager (Tallinn/Hybrid)

UX/UI Designer (Tallinn/Hybrid)

Senior Full-Stack Engineer (Tallinn/Hybrid)

Finance Lead (Tallinn/Hybrid)

Read more: Arbonics raises €5.5m to scale its forest carbon removing platform

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What is RPO?

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Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a strategic approach to talent acquisition in which an organization partners with an external service provider to manage some or all aspects of its recruitment process.

TalentHub’s RPO service has a minimum commitment of 3 months and starts from at least 3 open roles.

Why RPO?

• You have a skilled recruiter working for you on a specified number of roles, which you can change anytime.
• You can scale RPO up or down based on your company’s hiring needs.
• RPO is a great choice if you have many qualified applicants and you don’t need headhunting. It gives your team the time to do everyday work while our recruiters handle all the candidate assessments and filtering.
  
  

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Hiring challenges

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for Penfold

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Lack of qualified talent for certain roles

Certain roles, such as the Operations Associate, and the Business Operations Specialist, attracted less qualified candidates than initially expected.

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Unknown employer brand in the Estonian market

Penfold opened its Estonian branch in 2023, which means they aren’t well-known in the job market yet. Competing for the best talent remains a challenge.

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Prioritizing mindset over experience

For a start-up like Penfold, finding talent with the right mindset is important: people ready to take ownership and grow within the team. This made it more challenging to validate inbound candidates.

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for Arbonics

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Attracting global talent

Arbonics is looking to hire the best people, even if that means recruiting talent outside of Estonia. This poses a challenge, considering Arbonics is an up-and-coming start-up from a smaller market like Estonia.  

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Competing over compensation

It’s challenging for a start-up like Arbonics to compete with global corporations purely on compensation. As a result, attracting talent with the mission is the main employer value proposition (EVP).

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A large influx of inbound candidates

Arbonics is an organized start-up with a strong employer brand in Estonia. There were a lot of inbound candidates for all open roles, which made it more difficult and time-consuming to filter candidates. It was also a challenge to remain responsive and deliver a great hiring experience to everyone.

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Hiring process

Instead of tracking down candidates, TalentHub recruiters have complete access to the applicant tracking system (ATS) and take full ownership of the inbound candidate assessment filtering and interview scheduling.
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1) Job description mapping and market adaption

The first step of the hiring process is to create a job description tailored to local job market preferences. Our goal here is to ensure all the roles are appealing and accurately represented the needs of Penfold and Arbonics.

2) Application screening and initial filtering

Our recruiters take the lead in reviewing inbound applications, sometimes with input from hiring managers. The initial screening aims to identify candidates who align with the role requirements and company culture.

3) Interview stage

TalentHub recruiters schedule interviews with successful candidates who proceed to a structured, multi-step process. This usually includes initial interviews with TalentHub recruiters, a technical assessment, and a final interview with hiring managers and team members.

4) Culture and values evaluation

TalentHub recruiters assess candidates' fit based on the values and working ways of Penfold and Arbonics. For both start-ups, it's crucial that hires not only match the required skills but also align with the culture and mission of the company.

5) Offer and candidate feedback

Our recruiters facilitate the offer process alongside the hiring managers at Penfold and Arbonics. Candidates who are part of the interview process but are NOT selected receive detailed feedback for a better hiring experience.

6) Hiring process optimization

Our recruiters continue to refine the recruitment process for both Penfold and Arbonics. This proactive approach manages expectations and ensures transparency throughout the hiring process.

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The results

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Significant time savings

TalentHub’s RPO service is a significant time-saver for internal teams because all the initial recruitment phases, including job description creation, job advert publishing, candidate screening, filtering, and interview scheduling are taken care of by our recruiters. This was especially valuable for Penfold who doesn’t have an internal recruiter to focus on these tasks.

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Efficient collaboration = success

Trust and communication are the main keywords that describe these projects. We used regular async updates via Slack and biweekly stand-ups to ensure we were all going in the right direction. The nature of the project (RPO) allowed us to also help with ad hoc tasks such as work permits for Arbonics. We didn’t just fulfill contractual obligations but were able to support in extra ways where needed.

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Exceptional candidate experience

We agreed on a mutual Service Level Agreement (SLA) and these were met. Candidates received updates in less than 3 working days and our process from application to final stage interview was 2 weeks (3 weeks including a home task). Since Arbonics uses Workable and Notion to manage their recruitment projects, it supported us in delivering exceptional experience to candidates

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