August 9, 2023
Streamlining Talent Acquisition
in Real Time
A Nourish & Sow Case Study
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Finding ways to save time and staff power, while still maintaining an exceptional standard of execution, are key to creating and maintaining a successful business, especially when it comes to hiring. At Nourish & Sow, we thrive on curating solutions for both hyper-specific and common company challenges. That’s what we do best.
Recruiting exceptional team members is no easy task, the first step to lessening the load is having a systematic talent acquisition approach designed specifically for your company. Our recruitment division, SowTalent, specializes in helping companies rethink their hiring process while also getting new talent acquisition practices up and running. We support, prepare, and uplift companies so they can spend less time spinning their wheels, and more time doing what they do best.
The Challenge
Addressing low hiring bandwidth while simultaneously accelerating company growth
NECS, Inc. is a long-standing software company located in the Northeast U.S that specializes in Food Distribution Software. For several years, they were faced with a common challenge in the modern business landscape – hiring and retaining talented professionals. When we began working with them, they were a 35-person company that wanted to increase staff in several key areas to ultimately grow their client base. NECS leadership was ready to increase delivery speed and volume of their software technology and support services, but they didn’t have the hiring bandwidth to reach that next level of growth.
After evaluating their current hiring protocol, Nourish & Sow identified where NECS needed consultation and how we could most effectively provide talent acquisition support. We recognized specific areas that needed improvement, and at the core of those areas was simply a lack of time and staff power needed to create sustainable forward motion.
“My life before working with Nourish & Sow has been very busy.
Crazy. We always had a bunch of questions about how to run the business. ‘Do we need to hire for this position, do we need to hire for that position?’ Just a lot of open ended questions and business type issues.”
Crazy. We always had a bunch of questions about how to run the business. ‘Do we need to hire for this position, do we need to hire for that position?’ Just a lot of open ended questions and business type issues.”
Nichole Zingarella
Director of Operations, NECS, Inc.
When you are so focused on completing each day’s to-do list, it is easy for necessary improvements to keep getting pushed to the bottom. That’s where Nourish & Sow can help companies make big picture changes more efficiently and effectively in real time. Not only do we help find long-term solutions, we spearhead new company initiatives while putting those new practices into place.
NECS was ready to grow but they didn’t have sufficient staff to perform hiring responsibilities, such as creating standardized job descriptions, posting jobs to relevant sites, screening applicants, and performing initial interviews. As a result, their hiring process was inconsistent and thus, produced inconsistent results.
Beyond these common challenges, Nourish & Sow also noticed that there were a few areas that required a little more nuance to navigate. The company’s potential growth was restricted because the managers were stuck in a cycle of hiring only for immediate needs, not necessarily planning and hiring for future needs. It was determined that in addition to simple lack of time and resources for effective, forward focused hiring, departments needed better outlets for expressing the specific positional needs for maximizing growth and job descriptions listings needed to be revised to better reflect the company vision and ethos.
Equipped with a comprehensive understanding of where NECS was and where they needed to go to grow, Nourish & Sow created a hiring strategy and protocol to fit their specific needs, while also assisting in the process to create more hiring bandwidth.
The Solution
Creating and implementing sustainable, higher-level hiring practices
At Nourish & Sow, we create comprehensive business strategies that often include covering immediate needs. With NECS we started by working with leadership to develop a new job description format that reflected company vision and ethos and to uncover positions that would meet both current and future company needs. We also expanded the breadth of job boards they utilized to determine the best platforms for posting NECS positions.
Throughout our engagement, SowTalent reviewed over 1,200 applications, performed initial screening, and completed first-round interviews. This was key to helping NECS increase hiring bandwidth immediately. Instead of continuing to stretch staff resources to fill needed positions, NECS leadership handed off the duties to SowTalent, and were presented with qualified finalists for review. Approximately 500 hours of NECS staff time was saved during this expansion and streamlining of the hiring process.
Over 15 months, Nourish & Sow helped NECS fill 10 positions, including several software engineers, technical support representatives, and an inside sales representative. This increased their staffing by 30%. We also created a standard operating procedure for a simplified hiring process to help ensure future access to exceptional new talent with maximum efficiency.
“Nourish & Sow helped us in so many different areas as far as hiring, helping us become more of a true real business by implementing certain things like company mission statements and company visions. So I definitely feel that Nourish & Sow has helped us in that regard and really has helped us grow up, even though we've been an established company.”
Nichole Zingarella
Director of Operations, NECS, Inc.
Explore Your Untapped Potential
The challenges facing NECS, Inc. before they began working with Nourish & Sow are not uncommon. Many companies, large, medium, or small, can become so focused on .
If you’re experiencing challenges in identifying and retaining top talent for your company, you can lean on the professionals of SowTalent to stabilize and enhance your process.
Book a call today to learn how Nourish & Sow can help you rapidly grow your team like we did for NECS, Inc.