Global M Case Study

Overview

The newly funded Genomics SaaS Startup, was looking to scale its technology team, with additional UK based Senior Backend Engineers and 1 QA Engineer. The QA would help with growth and take away some of the testing burden from the very busy senior engineers.

Why Global {M}

Global {M} had been consulting with Lifebit during the early stages of their development as a Startup. We had been advising on the hiring of Senior Machine Learning Engineers and found them a talented Engineer from MIT in the USA. This prior-trust enabled us to work together in a way that we could hit the ground running, having honest and straight forward conversations with Senior Stakeholders from the start.

Challenge

As a startup about to move into a scale-up phase that was totally new to them, Lifebit required Global{M} to help build out their hiring process for tech positions, setting up clear lines of communication, reporting and advising on technical interviewing / tests and diversity hiring. 

Our aim was firstly to deliver a pipeline of strong senior backend engineers, who were experienced using a very modern tech stack, i.e. Node.js, Typescript, JavaScript, MongoDB and AWS. The challenge was to attract this top London talent and negotiate a remuneration package that Lifebit could afford, as a young and early stage startup. Secondly, Global{M} were to make at least 2 hires in 3 months of working with Lifebit. Thirdly Global{M} were tasked to concentrate on diversity hiring. Our challenge was made harder due to Covid-19, which made candidates unsure about moving to companies within industries that could be affected by the pandemic. We were able to use our understanding of Lifebit, the tech market and Life Science industry, to reassure top “passive” candidates that Lifebit was a good move for their careers and they would be moving to an industry that was stronger than ever at this time.

Approach

We integrated 1 remote/onsite Talent Partner, who worked closely with an Account Manager. The Talent Partner was given access to Lifebit’s ATS, which was Workable. The Talent Partner was tasked with direct sourcing, video screening and submitting new candidates for the engineer roles, as well as managing direct applications from external sources. This allowed quick communication and to see and act on blockages in the hiring process. We also used a Trello board to give a higher level view to the Hiring Manager of the candidate/hiring pipeline. Trello was used as an important part of our weekly hiring committee meetings with the hiring manager and his HR Business Partner. It allowed the Talent Partner to clearly present candidates to be considered for submission, to First Stage Interview with Lifebit.

The Talent Partner and Account Manager had daily stand-ups in the afternoon, to keep things agile and moving at pace. Working closely with an HR Coordinator/business partner, we were able to consider a candidate who required sponsorship from India.

Results

2 Senior hires across the Node/Javascript Stack – 1 Senior Backend Engineer and 1 Senior QA Engineer. 1 x Diversity Hire.

Global{M} aimed to make a diversity hire from its inclusive outreach strategies. We managed to include 2 female QA engineers in the final shortlist for the role, one of which required visa sponsorship and ended up being hired by Lifebit.