The Client

A global cutting-edge technology solutions organization, our Client’s 16,000+ employees assist travel industry stakeholders to succeed in 190+ markets.

The Situation

Our Client had an increased need for technology talent across all organizational levels and verticals. The organization faced hiring challenges—a lack of internal human resources (HR), an extremely competitive market situation, and high rates of offer declines and candidate early reneges—and needed to align with an outside recruiting partner to help discover talent and decrease their time-to-fill rate. The Client was referred to Acara to provide them with a dedicated team to fill constraint/niche technology positions.

The Challenge

• In the initial stages of this engagement, the Acara team encountered the following challenges:
• When sourcing and recruiting for SalesForceDotCom (SFDC) and Service Now roles, we faced a skills scarcity where the demand for workers exceeded the supply.
• The Client was headquartered in Bangalore and had implemented a hybrid work model requiring employees to work in the office some days, creating a location constraint. The Acara sourcing team was limited to the south Indian region and the recruiting team encountered reluctance from candidates that were accustomed to working remotely.
• Once a qualified candidate was identified, it was difficult to retain him/her in the candidate-driven market. The Acara team and the Client had to act quickly to ensure the candidate was not lost to a competitor.
• The Client’s pay rates for some roles were not competitive with the local market, hindering talent attraction success.

The Solution

To be successful, we needed to present quality candidates to the Client that aligned with their hiring expectations. Acara provided a dedicated backend sourcing team and account managers aligned to each project and its roles to accomplish this. To overcome the challenges, the Acara souring and recruiting team:

• Fostered a partnership mentality with the Client by stepping into their shoes and understanding their needs. Our team conducted daily review calls and onsite visits twice a week. Challenges were presented directly to the Hiring Managers and alternate solutions were immediately put in place.
• Targeted candidates living in Bangalore—and those who had previously worked in Bangalore—in addition to conducting multichannel sourcing.
• Responded to all job requisition requirements within 24 hours and improved timelines to increase the time-to-offer rate.
• Presented compensation analysis reports to the Client to validate that their pay rates were not competitive relative to market standards for specific roles. The Acara recruiter requested budget increases, when necessary, to ensure a candidate would accept the offer.

The Conclusion

Acara’s solution provided focused delivery and dedicated team support to drive exceptional performance improvements to the Client, including process efficiency, hiring effectiveness, and a strong candidate pipeline. The team at Acara successfully closed 120 positions with the Client to achieve the following results:

• 85% close rate (some positions were withdrawn due to a business plan change)
• Submission to joined: minimum 15 to 60 days
• Offer to joined: 7 to 60 days
• Interview-to-hire ratio: 6:1