Scalyr founders have an impressive engineering background developing tools for giants like Google. They applied these skills when they created Scalyr, a cloud platform designed for operations teams. Scalyr saves them time since it provides a single interactive platform that integrates server monitoring, log management, visualization, and analysis tools.
We spoke with Michael Powell, Lead Recruiter at Scalyr, to find out how using Woo has affected their recruitment and hiring processes of specialized engineers.
How Scalyr Recruited Prior to Woo.io
“We were getting a lot of candidates that didn’t have the skills we were looking for, from third-party agencies representing us who told candidates they might be a good fit. These candidates were expecting a call from Scalyr based on what the recruiter told them, so we were spending a lot of time calling unqualified candidates to let them know we didn’t see them as a match.”
Main hiring challenges Scalyr experienced:
- Maintaining their reputation when contacting emotionally invested (but unqualified) applicants sourced by third-party recruiters
- Sourcing a larger volume of qualified candidates for specialized developer positions
- Maximizing resources as a small in-house recruitment team
- Decreasing their 4-6 week time to hire (TTH), particularly for more specialized engineering roles
“One of the problems we were looking to solve was determining whether there was a match between candidates’ strengths and our company before getting in touch with them.”
How Scalyr Uses Woo.io
“It was easy to start using Woo, since we could easily enter data we already had about our company and open positions that we had from our work with external recruiters. And Woo seamlessly integrates with our Greenhouse hiring platform.”
Scalyr decided they needed to make a change in their hiring approach. They reviewed results from all of the sourcing methods they were using, and brought on another in-house recruiter dedicated to sourcing qualified candidates.
“The success we’ve seen with Woo means we’re keeping Woo as part of our recruiting process. Woo is one of the few things we’re prioritizing as we reevaluate and de-prioritize other options. It’s part of our new approach.”
Another element of their new approach was cancelling subscriptions to hiring platforms other than Woo, since Scalyr wasn’t seeing the same value from these other platforms.
How can you tell if a candidate you see on Woo will be a good fit for Scalyr?
“When someone makes the effort to completely fill out their Woo profile, that’s a strong indication to us that they’re serious about their job search. These are the candidates we’ve gotten excited about, and have had success with during the hiring process.”
Scalyr’s Results with Woo.io
Scalyr signed up with Woo, and within a few weeks already had their first hire.
“The candidates that come in through Woo are of higher quality.”
They now have four successful hires (and counting!) sourced from the Woo platform:
- Backend Engineer
- DevOps Engineer
- Senior Frontend Engineer
- Senior Frontend Engineer
Powell described all of these hires as being great performers, and shared that all of them are still with Scalyr.
“We wouldn’t have reached at least 3 of our 4 Woo hires if it wasn’t for Woo. Connecting with them on Woo, rather than reaching out to them cold, was a clear advantage to both sides.”
How does Woo fit in with your new hiring approach?
“Woo delivers candidates in a low-key fashion — they are people I might be interested in, but they don’t require the same emotional commitment from me. If I reach out to them and it’s not a fit, I can communicate that without hurting our recruiting brand. I appreciate that as a recruiter.”
Having the ability to review interested candidates without an obligation to reach out to them has been an important departure from the way Scalyr recruiters were previously spending their time and energy.
We asked Powell: What else does Scalyr like about Woo? Would you recommend Woo to other companies?
