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How Kohde saved time hiring 25 developers with OfferZen vs traditional hiring methods

29 November 2023, by Marcelle van Niekerk

Wasting too much time in the early stages of your hiring process can mean several months of delay in getting a great new developer on board. The Kohde team saved significant time hiring on OfferZen compared to traditional hiring methods, and quickly found the quality developers they needed. Here’s how they did it — hiring 25 developers to date.

How Kohde saved time hiring 25 developers with OfferZen vs traditional hiring methods

Time saved sourcing compared to traditional hiring methods

Kohde is a fully remote company based in South Africa that provides software solutions to elevate businesses to the next level.

Kohde's hiring success

Before using OfferZen to hire, they experienced frustrating delays in their process from traditional hiring methods in the following ways:

Too much effort to assess CVs

“We reached out to various recruitment agencies, and we posted our role on a job board. Of the 200 CVs we received, there were only 10 that were in line with what we were looking for. We didn’t make a hire from those efforts. It was extremely resource intensive, you get spammed with all those CVs,” says Grant Jubber, Director at Kohde.

He also finds it difficult to quickly assess each CV for key information, since each is usually formatted differently.

In comparison, standardised profiles on OfferZen reduces the time the team spends on the initial screening phase. They can find easily accessible details on each developer’s history, skills, experience and more, from the get go.

Delays in communication

Besides spending too much time sourcing, traditional hiring methods also brings long delays in communication, says Grant. For example, when using a recruitment agency, they have to confirm a time to interview through a third party. This leads to frustrating back-and-forth through a middleman that lengthens their hiring process.

“The flow of information always goes through a middleman, even if you just want to ask quick questions, you’re not in direct contact with the candidate. The time to hire is extended, and your good candidates are not that long in the market,” he adds.

Using OfferZen, they can instead directly get in touch with any developer that are a great fit for their open roles and set up an interview.

“OfferZen's communication tools have facilitated seamless interaction with candidates. The platform allows for efficient scheduling of interviews and quick sharing of project details, enhancing our ability to connect with potential hires,” says Richard Bailey, Software Architect at Kohde.

As their hiring needs change throughout a year, Grant also finds it straightforward to update their job roles on OfferZen and adjust the filters to find a fit for their team.

Finding quality developers with OfferZen matching

With access to a range of filters that include skills, experience, remote work options and salary, the team at Kohde are quickly able to identify a shortlist of developers to reach out to.

All developers are curated for quality before they can use OfferZen for their job search, which further helps the team find the quality developers they’re looking for:

“OfferZen has provided access to a diverse pool of highly skilled developers. The platform's curation process ensures that candidates have the technical expertise we require, leading to a higher quality of applicants,” says Richard.

Access to collaborative team notes also helps the team easily align on their top picks for outreach.

Budgeting problems solved with a subscription

On an Unlimited OfferZen hiring subscription, the team at Kohde can make as many hires as they need in a year at a fixed cost.

Compared to traditional pay-per-hire models, this solves common budgeting problems, says Grant:

“When you budget for hiring, you plan a certain number of hires which gives you your cost per year. The problem is things often change throughout a year — for example, suddenly, you need more seniors than intermediates. That exponentially blows your budget. It makes it hard to predict what your hiring will be like. With a fixed cost model, I know my recruitment is paid for. It solves all your recruitment budgeting problems.”

On an OfferZen subscription, you can make unlimited developer hires and avoid paying individual, varying hiring fees for every hire.

The results

Kohde has successfully hired 25 developers on OfferZen to date, helping them meet the ambitious growth goals of a rising startup. Grant highlights the benefit of being able to reach out to active job-seekers in helping them get there:

“OfferZen really helped us scale our business and find fresh candidates that are actively looking for work. It helped us scale at a much faster pace when we needed additional workforce.”

At the same time, developers they’ve hired speak of finding the opportunity to take on new challenges and grow their career:

“One of the reasons for moving to a different company was to build and grow my knowledge as a software developer and to find new and different challenges. Since day one, I can confidently say that my expectations have been exceeded,” says Rihan Louw, Intermediate Software Engineer. “They offer an environment that encourages fresh ideas and experimentation, and I have no doubt that it played a part in creating the company it is today.”

The Kohde team.png

The Kohde team


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.

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