It’s not often we trumpet our achievements (we’re modest people, ahem).
But recently one of our long-term clients gave us such a glowing review that we thought we would pick his brain to find out what works - or doesn’t - in the process of recruiting the right talent.
Here, we speak to Chuah Soon Keat, General Manager of Bell Direct / Third Party Platform (TPP), the software development arm for Bell Group, one of Australia’s biggest stockbroking firms.
Work with specialists
Soon Keat actually got to know us through an ex-staff. After placing him successfully, Shaun asked him if he could "connect myself and TRIIIO.”
At that point of time, TPP was expanding the IT team in KL office and already partnering with some other recruitment agencies. But after Soon Keat did some background research and saw that we specialise in the tech industry, he decided to give us a go.
Three productive years later, we have helped TPP hire 12 talents!
At TRIIIO, we believe that specialist recruiters are better placed to find you a suitable and well-matched candidate. Our team of consultants actually specialize by programming language. With today’s ultra competitive hiring environment for software engineers, we pull out all the stops to help you attract the best talent.
Build strong relationships
In the past, a recruiter-hiring manager relationship is viewed as one where the employer gives orders and the other just follows them. When it’s a true partnership, however, everyone gets more out of the relationship.
“With TRIIIO, there is a strong personal touch,” says Soon Keat. “They treat our interactions like a relationship rather than just a service recipient/provider. When you are a partner, you work more closely together, share more information and are more transparent. That way, the recruiter can understand our requirements more clearly and use that information to pitch it to the candidate.”
“What makes TRIIIO different is the consultants will communicate with us on various channels, not just emails. We speak on the phone and even meet up face to face because their office is nearby. Recently, we met up for coffee to discuss our action plan for this year. They try to understand what’s your long term plan and goals and factor that into their strategy.”
Like all professional relationships, it takes effort, investment and transparency to get the most out of partnering with a recruiter.
All hands on deck
At TRIIIO, we believe that the most successful hiring process is a team effort. The recruiter, the hiring manager and the HR work together with the goal of moving quickly and efficiently through the process to close the position.
Soon Keat shares, “The current consultant Jean has been proactively reaching out to Lawrence, my hiring manager and myself trying to understand our current status. Once we let her know a position has become open and has been approved, she will engage directly with Lawrence so that she can take note and factor in his requirements when she is doing the candidate sourcing.”
According to Soon Keat, this level of interaction is not something common in the industry. “Some agencies do everything through email. Some refuse to engage with the hiring manager. I always tell my recruiters to talk to the hiring manager to understand exactly the expectation from the hiring manager because everything in the job description is very standard - I need a Dotnet, I need a C-sharp skillset. There might be other expectations the hiring manager might have.”
“A face to face interaction is more personal and effective to communicate the company culture and perks. All this is very difficult to put on a piece of paper or a job description.”
Employer branding matters
Employer branding makes a big difference by helping you stand out to candidates. It also helps the recruiter to “sell” your company to the talent pool of applicants, especially in the software engineering market where talents are like hot cakes.
“In such a competitive environment, our key hiring challenges are 1) getting the right candidate with the right skillsets 2) someone with longevity,” Soon Keat says. “A lot of talents these days have a job-hopper pattern. This won’t do for the online stockbroking industry because the system is very complex and competency in different language skill sets are required. A talent will need at least six to eight months to ace the learning curve, so if they are just staying for one or two years, it’s a waste of time for both parties.”
“Bell Direct is the most famous stockbroking company in Australia, but people in Malaysia may not have heard of our brand. Therefore it is important for the consultant to promote our company.”
TRIIO understands this, so we have been working closely with Bell Direct to understand their company values and work culture to ensure they align with the ideal candidates' aspirations.
Trust your recruiter
Soon Keat was initially surprised by TRIIIO’s approach. “Our experiences with other recruiters were different. They would use the criteria we give them, put that into their database, search and end up with a dozen candidates who meet the criteria. That approach may deliver in terms of quantity but the candidates did not always have the quality we were looking.”
What does TRIIIO do differently? “They really try to understand if the candidates’s competencies and whether they can fit into our culture,” says Soon Keat. “They also took the initiative to visit our company to understand the culture better and see if candidates can fit in. I believe this is an effective strategy because TRIIIO has helped us to hire a total of 12 engineers since 2018.”
When you keep an open mind to your recruiter’s advice, insights and recommendations, it will help improve your chances of filling a role.
Be honest and transparent
Honesty is the best policy when it comes to a healthy relationship. When you are upfront and transparent with your recruiter, they can use this information to better tailor their search for you. Always maintain open communication with your recruiter around any other opportunities in the pipeline.
Transparency also means sharing where they have room for improvement.
Soon Keat is candid in his assessment. “I would give TRIIIO a rating of 4 stars because no one is perfect. The experience working alongside with TRIIIO has been really pleasant, they have the right people doing the right job, consultants are always full of energy and passionate about what they are doing. I can see that they have been constantly striving to deliver a better customer experience to both their clients and candidates. Kudos to the team!”
“One area for improvement is the number of candidates we get. TRIIIO consultants have the right skillsets and quality so if they can pump in one or two more consultants, I’m sure they can get more candidates - and I’ll definitely up the score to 4.5!”
These are great inputs, Soon Keat. What you’ve described are all very salient points and we believe that implementing these strategies will not only help us find the best talent for our clients but also help them to stand out in the competition.
Your shoutout is a great morale booster for our team - thank you for making our day!
TRIIIO is a Malaysian recruitment firm focused on partnering with companies to find and recruit top talent and build their Software Engineering teams. For more information on how we can help you recruit Software Engineers in this candidate tight market, visit our service page.
Techdesk.my is a curated job board lovingly created by us at TRIIIO Recruitment to make your job search easier! Visit Techdesk.my and start searching for Software Engineering jobs today!
