If you’re on the lookout for niche developer roles, finding the right fit can lead to a drawn out hiring process. That is the problem the web hosting company xneelo faced as they started to scale their team by hiring for hard to find skills. By signing up for an OfferZen subscription, they were able to tap into quality talent in South Africa. Here’s how they made 26 hires to date using the platform, while significantly saving on hiring costs.
Check out the full case study here!
Helping to address xneelo’s hiring needs
xneelo is a web hosting company of approximately 300 people, with teams in Cape Town, Johannesburg, as well as Canada, Ukraine and India. Since 2022, they faced two challenges when they reached a high growth phase of their business.
They required niche technical skills such as Ruby developers, which were hard to find and often caused lengthy times to hire. In addition, they were up against stiff international competition for these skills in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here’s how xneelo were able to find quality local developers that fit their budgets on OfferZen, which helped them meet their growth goals:
Finding quality South African developers for niche roles
Using OfferZen, xneelo were automatically matched with candidates that fit their job descriptions, and could browse new available candidates every week. This resulted in them finding developers with the niche skills they were looking for:
“On OfferZen, we have found top-quality software engineers with values and attitudes that align strongly with ours,” says Rob Fowler, Software Engineering Manager at xneelo. “Over the last year, the bulk of our team growth has been through OfferZen.”
In turn, the developers they’ve hired have also found the right fit by joining xneelo:
“xneelo fosters open communication channels among team members. The teams feel comfortable and connected and therefore collaborate effectively,” says Jan Britz, software engineer at xneelo. “xneelo’s sense of camaraderie especially excites me, it creates a positive work atmosphere and in turn boosts productivity levels."
In fact, xneelo has achieved a 100% offer acceptance rate from developers in their pipeline. In part, the team chalks this up to their attractive employee value proposition and employer branding efforts, which they’ve been able to showcase to great effect through their OfferZen profile.
Access to job-seeking developers for a speedy hiring process
For the xneelo team, harnessing the talent, passion and capability of their people is critical to their purpose. This collective energy defines their culture – it’s why they want their team members to find meaning and purpose in what they do every day.
xneelo prioritises a timeous hiring process, and have a three-step approach for hiring software engineers:
“We understand that time is not always on our side, especially in this ever demanding industry. We therefore strive towards a hiring process that enables quick and efficient decision-making,” says Chrissie Blom, Technical Talent Specialist at xneelo.
They found a few features on OfferZen helpful to move at the speed they needed:
On OfferZen, all developers are actively looking for a job, leading to quick response rates from every candidate. This played a key role in helping ramp up xneelo’s hiring process:
“I am always guaranteed a quick response from developers on OfferZen. That shared commitment to the hiring process exists on both ends, which eliminates longer turnaround times and ensures a quality experience for our stakeholders,” says Chrissie.
Something else that has greatly helped speed up their process include the summary of each developer’s ideal next job on OfferZen, which helps Chrissie make quick decisions about whether they’re a good fit for a role and a culture add for xneelo.
Jan Britz, a software engineer that xneelo hired through OfferZen, saw the speedy hiring process first-hand:
“The interview experience was honestly the best I've ever had. The process was quick, efficient and Chrissie was always there along the way and kept me in the loop,” he says.
Saving on hiring costs with a subscription
Given their ambitious growth goals, Chrissie and her team were looking for a sustainable model of hiring fees. In the past, they relied on pay-per-hire models.
When they needed to make several developer hires, they switched to using a subscription through OfferZen. They saw 52% savings over a year’s time on this model:
“xneelo was growing fast, we were looking for passionate engineers to join our purpose. Looking at what we would have paid per hire versus the subscription, it made financial sense.”
Dedicated support in the South African market
Without fresh data in a local market, it can be difficult to make good decisions in the hiring process — such as setting competitive salaries. In this, xneelo were supported by their account manager, Gert Barnard, who could provide them with up-to-date salary reports and on the ground feedback:
“Our account manager at OfferZen supports us in many areas which includes considering industry trends, assistance with salary benchmarking and many more,” says Chrissie.
What’s more, Gert provided hands-on support with each candidate that xneelo was interviewing and could also supply data and analytics about xneelo’s time on the platform that helped them make good hiring decisions:
“Feedback from our account manager helps us ensure we stay on track with our hiring goals as well as to ensure a quality experience for our candidates. It’s also important to base some of our decision-making on data, and we appreciate the insights that the monthly reports and analytics data provide us.”
The results
Ultimately, xneelo has succeeded in scaling a team of quality developers with niche skills using OfferZen — hiring 26 team members to date, and becoming one of their top solutions for developer hiring. OfferZen is also just very easy to use for the team:
“At xneelo, we’re all about simplicity, yet providing any candidate or new hire with a quality and welcoming hiring experience. OfferZen shares the same values which has lead to building a powerful partnership over the years. It has certainly enhanced the overall candidate experience on OfferZen,” says Chrissie.
“xneelo has grown its software engineering staff significantly using the OfferZen platform,” adds Rob Fowler, Software Engineering Manager at xneelo. “As the market changes, we have focused our local hiring strategy on the OfferZen platform and we’re impressed with the results. OfferZen has become our preferred channel to hire in this area of our business.”
Are you hiring software developers? OfferZen is a curated developer hiring marketplace that connects job-seeking developers with exciting opportunities at over 2000 companies in South Africa and beyond.
Hiring teams can make unlimited hires across all the roles on OfferZen, saving up to 50% compared to traditional recruitment costs.