In Conversation With 

James O’Donnell, Head of Sales at Kandidate.com

JOD

Rene. For those people who don’t know – who are you, and what do you do? 

RFG

I work as a talent partner, as an internal partner, for Kandidate. I’m involved with helping different sorts of tech companies. Generally, with startups that are well funded or are going through series funding, we speed up their hiring processes. Effectively, we offer a full service. So it’s not just recruitment: we also have a team of sourcers to manage the overall operation and to oversee which specific processes have been done well and which haven’t. I call it the full type of recruitment. It’s fully embedded, and so the recruitment and sourcing – even the Employer Branding service – is fantastic. 

JOD

How long have you been with Kandidate?

RFG

It’ll be seven months by the end of next month. And I have to say, from all the experiences I’ve had with working with many different companies, Kandidate is really exciting – in the sense that it’s very forward-thinking with regard to culture. That’s a huge driver for me. I think what I like most about it is that it hasn’t been calculated. It’s been a very organic ride. 

JOD

That’s true. What made you join Kandidate in the first place? 

RFG

Exactly that. It was the culture. Definitely, it was my interactions with the leadership – with Alex and then later on with  Gio – but also the flexibility it offers me. You know, I have some other business interests. I need the flexibility, with regard to family situations and commitments – and it’s fully remote. So these are huge advantages for me. Also I can travel and work. So, you know, those are the main drivers. 

JOD

Do you think this is going to become more prevalent in the world of work? Do you think people need that kind of flexibility? 

RFG

Absolutely. I mean, think about the amount of time it takes just to travel to work, and then the agony of being in a packed metro, either on a very cold day or, even worse, on a really hot day? I think the big difference for me is that when I wake up in the morning, I’m way more positive than I was. For instance: when I went to the City, I think a part of me not wanting to get up was about getting onto the tube or bus or whatever – being involved in that whole rat race. So I do think remote is where the future’s at. At least, I think it’ll bounce between a hybrid and a fully remote workplace in the future.

JOD

What would you say to someone who’s working in talent, maybe working in recruitment somewhere, and looking to join someplace a bit more flexible? Would Kandidate be a good spot for them to join? 

RFG

I’ll start off with the cons – as in the pros and cons. One con is the fact we don’t work on a commission basis. It’s a very small percentage of recruits that work on a commission basis, I think. They get these exorbitant revenue streams based on the commission. But what you’ll get now, instead, is a sustained income. The culture here is flexible. It’s not boiler-style recruitment, as I call it – it’s not the conveyor belt kind of recruitment experience. This is very different. It’s closer to the true sense of being a recruitment consultant. This is really where we come from. We get to understand what the client’s needs are internally, to see how we develop and enhance the employer branding; not just from a corporate standpoint. So this is very authentic. We’re trying to make it as authentic as possible because we know this is going to drive in really good candidates. I think that’s where I see huge benefits. There’s more, too. It’s not just the culture internally – it’s also the interactions and the tooling. It’s the forward-thinking of leadership. There’s an incredible scope for personal development. It simply gives you a high degree of flexibility either to spend a lot more time with family or maybe even to venture out to other aspects of business as well. 

JOD

That’s awesome to hear, Rene. I think one of the things I like about Kandidate is that everyone seems so genuine. Recruitment has for many years been driven by agencies. And now we’re in a space where we can truly use our skills as recruiters for good as we help companies grow. That is what we do. We’re not chasing down commissions or anything like that. It’s all about finding good companies, good managers, good new team members for them – and then helping them with that whole process flow. 

RFG

Absolutely. I think if money is your sole focus, Kandidate is probably not the right place for you. But if you’re looking for a place where you’re going to get a really good, basic income, where you’re going to get the flexibility and the culture that comes with it too – as well as the open communication. Another thing which is really exciting for me is the fact this is not a corporate environment. It’s far from it, even though we’re actively helping corporate environments. We allow employees to bring their own styles to their positions. That’s what we do. Everybody in Kandidate has their own style, and we don’t try and change it or make a single template for everyone. We actually celebrate everybody’s different styles, and this adds value to our clients because I think we make stronger connections as a result. But we also have very strong processes in place to help the development of each of the team members in Kandidate – they’re almost family members. 

JOD

It’s that kind of feeling, isn’t it? 

RFG

It is. I haven’t been here that long yet and it already feels like that. That says a lot. It’s funny because, as I said, I love the culture and yet we really are a mixed bag. We’re made up of different cultures throughout the world – we’re in Canada, we’re in the US, we’re in Europe, we’re in South Africa. I actually asked the question: Was this a set plan? Was it calculated? No! None of it was planned. And you can tell this is the case because they’re prepared to listen to any skilled candidate from anywhere in the world. I try not to be too evangelistic about things today, although sometimes it’s difficult not to be! 

JOD

I’m fascinated, Rene. How did you get started in recruitment?

RFG

I kind of fell into it, to be honest. Well, I’d had some experience with managing. I was a territory manager in South Africa for a fast food outlet chain. And part of that role was expanding the business and, obviously, hiring more people. I think we started off with four outlets and ended up with about thirteen. The increase in staff was something like 7x. We did it in probably two and a half years. And through a close golfing friend and some subsequent conversations, I fell into medical and healthcare recruitment. It was quite daunting because I went for the interview and they decided to put me up as a senior recruitment consultant. Fortunately, I did well – but it was very cutthroat. It was daunting at the time and obviously that’s an industry where there’s lots of regulation. But it was exciting. It’s great when your golfing buddies push you into conversations and connections while you’re enjoying a really great day out.

JOD

In your last role with Kandidate you were on site – deeply embedded with Trilitech. How did that go for you? 

RFG

Trilitech? I mean, it’s a fascinating vertical. It’s blockchain. Tezos. And the Tezos blockchain cryptocurrency has got some fantastic funding behind it. So the expectation was to increase the workforce very efficiently. However, a lot of the roles, initially, were highly strategic – they were very high-level strategic roles. So that made it a bit more challenging, especially when we didn’t have certain things in place, like JD’s. We had to create all these things on the go. It was challenging but it was really rewarding when we got things over the line. We ended up with a really good result, I think. With the JD’s that we got, we ended up with about 70% performance. And with those candidates still in the pipeline, it looks like we’re going to achieve above 90%. So it’s a fascinating vertical. Really interesting. Very challenging, though, because we simply didn’t have things in place at the start. But the result was great. 

JOD

So, from a Kandidate perspective, you’ve gone in there and you’ve helped them put together a recruitment pipeline, build job descriptions up to 70% fill rate – which is great, anyway – or even up to 90%, when that pipeline filters all the way through. 

RFG

In fact, I was just going to say: I think that 70% has gone up to 80%. I’ve just heard today that there were two new offers. So that’s already jumped it up. It’s really good news. But you’re right: I think we’re truly technical. And we’re slightly different in the sense that because we were working with such a young, early-stage startup, maybe we didn’t have all of the tools and structures that a normal company would have in place for this kind of recruitment drive. What we brought them was not just a path or a channel to pursue their drive with our added support. We also helped set up structures to build their JD’s and to process upwards using the ATS system. We helped them choose the right ATS system for the future, we helped to prioritize hires. We helped them with various processes. Also, we added value in other ways – like enhancing the EVP, building up their EV. Things like the general weekly reports helped them identify certain areas which they could tackle quite soon and would also have a big impact on the talent attraction process. 

JOD

Fantastic. And now you’re looking forward to your next spot? 

RFG

Yes, I’m on my new time now. This is one thing that’s also great about Kandidate. After every client you get your new time – it doesn’t get taken away from your holiday leave. So yes, I’m on that now and I’m being introduced to a new client tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

JOD

I’m happy to hear it. Thanks ever so much.