Case Study

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The Requirement

The client’s exact requirement was as below:

They needed these positions to be fulfilled for their newly set-up office in Bangalore.

The Challenge

Ghassan Aboud Group is a multinational conglomerate with operations in various key business sectors such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, logistics, automotive, FMCG, catering, pastoral, and digital platforms.

Here were the major challenges the client was facing.

• The client’s hiring manager in Bangalore had a mandate to fill the open positions within 3 months to start their IT back office operations.
• The hiring manager had already spent 45 days trying to fill the open positions. But they could hire only 1 resource in 45 days. They had unsuccessfully tried to hire, but the candidates would drop off during the hiring process, and the open positions remained open.
• The client had limited budgets for hiring as well as towards talent costs but needed skilled resources.
• The client wanted resources who would work from their office space in Bangalore and did not want remote resources.
• The office was located in Yelahanka on the outskirts of Bangalore, and many candidates were not willing to join due to long commutes.

The challenge for TaAp Exchange was to source experienced candidates from multiple technologies who were ready to work from the client’s Bangalore office. The second challenge was completing the hiring process quickly so that the client did not face delays in beginning operations.

The Solution

A Recruit-a-thon was proposed to the client to meet their requirement of talent from multiple technologies hired in a short time.  

A Recruit-a-thon is a virtual hiring event where several candidates participate and compete with each other in a tech evaluation. The best candidates are shortlisted for interviews and are eventually hired. The evaluation is in the form of a competition with cash rewards apart from the prospect of a job opportunity. This format attracts a high number of eligible candidates and also helps in faster evaluation.

For the multi-tech recruit-a-thon, we used the following evaluation framework.

1. Initial screening and verification 
2. MCQ-based aptitude tests designed by industry experts to assess reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities
3. Custom MCQ-based tests designed by MAANG experts to assess technical skills in multiple technologies as needed.
4. multiple technologies as needed. Coding simulation test to assess the coding skills as required for the different job profiles, designed in collaboration with MAANG experts
5. Soft-skills assessment to test communication skills and cultural fit
6. Technical interviews by the client’s tech team
7. Final interview with the client’s HR team

The Groundwork

Sourcing:

The goal was to get at least 130 candidates to participate in the recruit-a-thon. For this, TaAp Exchange needed to reach out to approximately 3000 candidates in multiple technologies. This was done by spreading the word about the recruit-a-thon(a virtual hiring event) through different channels such as social media, Slack communities, developer forums, job portals, freelance recruiters, etc. A team of 4 technical recruiters from TaAp Exchange worked on sourcing the participants for the recruit-a-thon.

Screening:

Since the client had very specific requirements around working from their office, virtual screening was arranged. During the screening process, the qualifications, certifications, and skills of all candidates were verified to be in line with the client’s requirements. It was also verified that they were comfortable working from the client’s Yelahanka office in Bangalore.

The Event 

The Recruit-a-thon was conducted over 3 days.

Day 1 Agenda

Time	Activity
9:00 – 9:30	Welcome note and agenda
9:30 – 10:00	Common MCQ-based aptitude tests for all candidates
10:00 – 10:15	Break
10:15 – 12:15	Custom MCQ-based tests – specific to the relevant tech stack
12:15 – 13:15	Break
13:15 – 14:45	Common MCQ-based assessments for soft skills administered to all candidates
14:45 – 15:30	Client presentation to give the company brief and talk about work culture
15:30 – 16:00	Q&A and interaction with client

The relevant tests could be taken by the candidates simultaneously, thanks to the platform that was specially developed for this purpose. The test results were also automatically collated for all candidates.

This saved the time and effort of evaluating a high number of candidates since they could take all tests on a single day. Candidates were shortlisted for Day 2 according to their performance on the tests and were accordingly intimated

Day 2 Agenda

The candidates from multiple technologies participated in the relevant coding assessment. All candidates were given scores based on their performance, and they were further shortlisted for the technical interviews.  

Day 3 Agenda

Day 3 was held 2 days after Day 2. This was the day technical interviews were conducted by the client’s hiring manager.

Post-event support

We collated the results of the recruit-a-thon and shortlisted the candidates into 4 groups as below.

Group A: 99 to 100 percentile (Top 1%) 

Group B: 95 to 99 percentile (Top 5%) 

Group C: 90 to 95 percentile (Top 10%) 

Group D: Above 90 percentile

SPOC from TaAp Exchange helped with scheduling interviews and provided support till the time onboarding was completed. 

Highlights of the event

105 candidates participated on Day 1, and 50 were shortlisted to attend Day 2 of the event.

48 candidates attended Day 2, and 31 were shortlisted for technical interviews on Day 3.

5 for Magento

3 for Android

3 for iOS 

6 for React Native

8 for MERN

3 for Team Lead

3 for DevOps

Out of 31 candidates interviewed, 18 were shortlisted for the HR round 

3 for Magento

2 for Android

1 for iOS

4 for React Native

4 for MERN

2 for Team Lead

2 for DevOps

The client was able to fill all 9 positions in spite of the challenges.

Pricing model offered to the client

The client was offered a simple pricing model where they paid a fee of $10,000 for the event and zero hiring success fees. The commitment from TaAp Exchange was to fill all 9 positions for the client, failing which a refund in proportion to the open positions would be issued. 

The Results

Client was provided with high-quality talent  

Due to the multi-layer evaluation, the client got access to top talent with demonstratable skills. An offer letter was issued to the 9 candidates selected by the client. The SPOC from TaAp Exchange provided support till onboarding.

Post-offer support was provided by TaAp Exchange  

Out of the 9 offer letters issued, 6 candidates were onboarded within the next 60 days. 3 candidates declined to join even after accepting the offer citing more flexibility and better pay elsewhere.

TaAp Exchange went back to the previously interviewed candidates and further picked out eligible candidates for HR interviews. 3 replacements were found for the candidates who had declined to join. Our SPOC provided support till onboarding.

Cost to hire was reduced by 65%

The average salaries of remote developers with 5+ years of experience in Bangalore are as below.

Agencies charge an average of 10% of the candidate’s salary for an experience level of 5+ years. Thus, in this case, the client would have ended up paying $29,300 for the successful hiring of 9 candidates.

With the flat pricing model proposed by TaAp Exchange, the client paid only $10,000, saving $19,300 in total. This helped them reduce their hiring costs by 65% compared to hiring via an external agency.

Hiring time was reduced by 44%

The average time to hire 9 developers from multiple tech stacks would have usually taken the client approximately 90 days. The recruit-a-thon helped the client select candidates for hiring in just 1 week. 6 candidates joined in the next 30 days. The 3 replacement candidates joined in another 20 days.

The client was able to onboard all 9 candidates in 50 days, reducing their hiring time by 44%.

Client satisfaction score of 9.2

The client was pleased with the quality of the candidates shortlisted for the interviews. They were also satisfied with the hassle-free process and the SPOC support till the point of onboarding. They rated the experience at 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Candidate satisfaction score of 9.0

The candidates enjoyed the coding competition and the fast-paced, fun format of the event. They rated the experience at 9.0 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Why Recruit-a-thon?

Taking into account the challenges in hiring tech talent for in-office jobs as opposed to remote positions, TaAp Exchange recommended a Recruit-a-thon for attracting the right talent through the virtual hiring event.  

Through solid groundwork, TaAp Exchange was able to source eligible candidates to participate in the event, which was a huge success. Due to the format of the recruitment activity, which was pitched as a competition, candidates were more interested and invested in the process.  

With the help of our dedicated team members and SPOCs, the entire technology recruiting event was successfully completed, even though there were many challenges on the way. This was possibly the most difficult recruit-a-thon due to the client’s budget constraints and rigid requirements.