Hiring a production technologist and production workers for a fast-growing startup
5 weeks
Length of the recruitment project
Story
Woola is an Estonian startup that produces bubble wrap made from leftover sheep wool. About 90% of all sheep wool produced in Estonia goes to waste. That is around 153 tonnes of waste wool per year that gets burned or buried.
Woola’s mission is to reduce the amount of plastic waste that comes from e-commerce and therefore reduce its impact on the environment.
Recently, Woola won the annual newcomer prize at Estonian Startup Awards 2020.
Challenge of the recruitment project
Finding the right people for a fast-growing startup
The main challenge of the Woola hiring project was to find the right people for a small yet fast-growing startup. This meant that in addition to the right skills, the candidate had to fit into Woola´s culture. For this, we had to find out during the hiring process whether candidates were interested in sustainability and Woola´s mission to reduce the environmental impact of e-commerce.
Anna-Liisa Palatu
Founder and CEO
“Hiring the right people is fundamental to everything that follows. Because our team is quite small and we all wear multiple hats, we needed professional help with hiring. TalentHub has experience with fast-growing startups and therefore it was easy to develop a mutual connection.”
Hiring process
Hiring a production technologist
01
1. Mapping out the candidate profile: Our first priority was to define the role because Woola had never hired a production technologist before. For this, we had designated calls, during which our recruitment partner Jana put together a candidate profile with Woola. We decided to look for candidates who had good Estonian and English skills as well as relevant working experience and an academic degree. In addition to the right skills, the candidate had to be motivated to bring changes to the company.
2. Candidate searching: Because we were looking for a person with specific skills, Jana used headhunting to find candidates. Whilst headhunting, Jana chose candidates based on their impact on previous projects.
To find candidates, we also used our own network and references.
3. Validating the candidates: After headhunting, Jana conducted screenings with the chosen candidates. During the first part of the screening, Jana introduced Woola and the company mission to the candidates. The second part of the call involved Jana enquiring more about the candidate´s working experience, their previous projects, their motivation and expectations regarding the role. Based on this, we had to make decisions whether the candidate was a match for the production technologist role at Woola.
The next step involved sending our chosen candidates to Woola through Trello software for interviewing. Only the best candidates were selected for interviewing, but we also gave Woola the chance to see candidates who didn’t advance the screening.
4. Interviews and offer: The interviews were carried out by Woola. Quickly, we received positive feedback from them regarding the candidates. In total, the recruitment process took five weeks until the candidate accepted the offer.
Hiring two production workers
02
1. Mapping out the candidate profile: What made the recruitment process easier for us was that Woola already had a vision of the kind of person they would like to hire. We were looking for production workers who were content with routine work and didn’t shy away from smaller physical tasks.
Additionally, it was imperative for Woola that the candidate would actively participate in helping them do things better and would be interested in their mission to reduce the environmental impact of e-commerce.
2. Candidate searching: Considering the candidate profile for this role, we had to find an alternative to method to headhunting. Because this role was based in Paldiski, we decided to advertise the role in different Paldiski Facebook groups.
3. Validating the candidates: Our recruitment partner Jana conducted screenings with the candidates that applied through the job advert. The goal of the screenings was to understand the candidates’ motivation, work experience and salary expectations. Additionally, Jana asked the candidates’ whether they consider eco-friendliness an important trait in a company. Based on this, we decided if they could potentially be a match for Woola. After screenings, we sent the chosen candidates to Woola through Trello software.
4. Interviews and offers: Interviews with the candidates were carried out by Woola. We were in constant communication with each other throughout the interviewing process through a Slack channel and received positive feedback regarding the candidates. In total, the recruitment process took two weeks until two candidates accepted offers from Woola.
Results
1. Hired 3 new employees in a short period of time
We managed to hire three new employees for Woola within a short period of time. When usually a recruitment project takes 2-3 months, then this project took only 5 weeks. Taking into consideration that there was also a Christmas period in between the project, it could have gone even quicker.
The production technologist accepted the job offer within five weeks, whereas it took two weeks for the production workers to take the offers from Woola.
2. Found candidates that fit into Woola’s culture
Throughout the recruitment process we put emphasis on the cultural fit of the candidates. For this, our recruitment partner Jana conducted screenings during which she explored the motivation behind the candidates. Thanks to this, we were able to send Woola only candidates that were a great fit.
3. Saved the client’s resources, including time and money
Partnering with TalentHub enabled Woola to save resources, including time and money. Although Woola was in communication with us throughout the recruitment process, they were able to focus on their core activities.
Anna-Liisa Palatu
Founder and CEO
“Partnering with TalentHub allowed us to focus on our core activities without making sacrifices in the quality of our recruiting. What I liked the most was that the recruiters at TalentHub cooperated with us and understood their impact on our business.”