Helping Sunly scale in the Baltics with 17 hires

Sunly is an independent energy producer who develops renewable energy projects in the Baltics and Poland. Sunly also manages a renewable energy and electrification portfolio of start-ups in Estonia.

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Candidates hired

Greentech

 Industry

Project overview

Challenges:

➜ Finding a long-term recruitment partner that understand the company’s needs and culture.

➜ Hiring multiple “Head of” talents across the Baltics.

➜ Keeping up with the rapid growth after raising a funding round. At times, Sunly had more than 10 open roles available. 

Solutions:

➜ A tailored in-house recruitment partnership.

➜ Efficient, thought-out recruitment process focused on Sunly’s values.

➜ Thorough talent mapping and headhunting across the Baltics.

Results:

➜ Head of Retail and IT Lead hires to build new functions.

➜ Cultural fits that share Sunly’s values (synergy, curiosity, courage).

➜ 17 hires in less than a year.

The Challenge:

 

In 2022, following a successful €200M funding round, Sunly entered a rapid growth phase, focused on expanding its renewable energy portfolio across the Baltics and Poland.

According to Sunly’s recruiter, Triin, this meant that the internal hiring team needed additional support to keep up with the recruitment demands, especially for Estonian-based roles, but also to expand to other Baltic regions.

For Sunly, it was important to find a long-term hiring partner that would understand their company needs and culture. 

What led Sunly to eventually partner with TalentHub was the recruitment agency’s extensive experience in start-up hiring, including greentech.

The partnership kicked off in early 2023.

The Solution:

Among Sunly’s main priorities have been finding the right talent with matching values, even if that translates to a longer hiring process.
 
Here’s how Sunly’s recruiter Triin describes the company’s culture:
TalentHub’s co-founder Reet says that the team’s recruiters matched with Sunly’s values, which made the collaboration much easier.  

To gain a deeper understanding of Sunly’s office environment and work culture, TalentHub recruiters made several visits to Sunly’s headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia.

Since the recruitment process was guided by Sunly’s core values, TalentHub’s recruiters identified and excluded candidates whose previous employers did not align with Sunly’s vision.

To enhance Sunly’s visibility, TalentHub also designed and launched recruitment landing pages for each role. 

Below is an example landing page, which supported the headhunting process and helped TalentHub’s recruiters share additional information to candidates about working at Sunly. 

The Results:

The partnership has resulted in 16 hires across a six-month span, with the last hire made in less than a year as well. Below are the list of hires:

  • Sales Engineer (2x)
  • Recruiter
  • Communication Lead
  • SCADA Engineer
  • Office Manager
  • Content Creator
  • IT Specialist
  • Head of Marketing and Communications
  • Legal Counsel
  • Project Manager (Wind)
  • IT Lead
  • Internal Communications Lead
  • Head of Retail (Sunly City)
  • Learning and Development Specialist
  • Events Lead

New functions and teams: Sunly City and IT.

Triin emphasizes the value that TalentHub’s hires have brought to Sunly, stating several key hires have helped build completely new functions and teams at Sunly, including its subsidiary, Sunly City.

The Sunly City team started with three team members and has since grown to a substantial team of 10+ people.

Today, it is part of several notable solar projects. For instance, in 2023, the subsidiary signed an agreement with Telia to power the telecom’s cell towers by building one hundred solar stations.  

Another key hire of the recruitment project was hiring an IT lead for Sunly. According to Triin, the person has since then built up a completely new IT function at Sunly.

Example hiring process

1. Candidate profile refining

Before initiating intensive talent sourcing, we collaborated with Sunly to refine the ideal candidate profile, aligning with their core values of Synergy, Curiosity, and Courage. We conducted talent mapping across the Baltics and Poland, and created tailored job descriptions.

2. Sourcing candidates

With clear criteria in place, we executed a thorough headhunting strategy across both local and regional markets. Leveraging our extensive network and multiple touchpoints (LinkedIn, landing pages and email), we efficiently identified top talent for roles including key leadership positions.

3. Screening call

The screening process was designed to assess cultural fit and core competencies using candidate scorecards. Out of the pool of sourced candidates, a significant number moved forward to the interview stage based on their potential to contribute to the company’s vision.

4. Interview with hiring manager

Shortlisted candidates then proceeded from the interview stage to in-depth, skill-based assessments. 

5. Case study

For key roles, particularly leadership positions, candidates underwent further evaluations, including task-based assessments, to test their problem-solving abilities and fit within Sunly’s forward-thinking environment.

6. Offer stage

The final step involved presenting offers to the selected candidates who aligned with Sunly’s vision and long-term goals.

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Reet

Reet Kaurit

Co-Founder at TalentHub reet@talenthub.ee