Charlie Works - Recruitment Case Study

The Challenge

Charlie works is a recruitment company which connects businesses in the Netherlands with candidates from Eastern Europe for temporary & seasonal work in the agricultural, logistics and food industries. Although Charlie works was serving a sizable client base, its growth had stagnated which had caused financial pressures. A new owner saw potential and had the vision of digitally transforming Charlie works using Salesforce.

Through adoption of standardized practices, enforced by workflows on the Salesforce platform, the new owner seized the opportunity to optimize the business. By cutting overheads, accelerating workflows and replicating processes, Charlie works are now able to adapt this solution for use in other industry segments. This had previously been impossible, as their existing customized solution led to slower productivity, regionalized processes and data storage in multiple disparate sources.

After reviewing different options, Charlie works selected VRP Consulting as their consulting and implementation partner for their first Salesforce Solution, a recruitment platform. The teams were ready to start the discovery workshops, however, the pandemic and subsequent global lockdowns halted the plans.

A nimble reaction to a disruptive lockdown

As soon as news of the lockdown came through, VRP's global team reacted very quickly to set up online discovery workshops. This involved teams from Minsk, Rotterdam & Krakow, alongside Salesforce in Dublin and, of course, the core Charlie works team in Den Haag. Looking to drive digital transformation within their business, Charlie works agreed to proceed with the implementation plan and the certainty their investment would pay off.

Collaborating during various global lockdown schedules provided a few challenges which were easily overcome by all involved. Configuration and additional training sessions all lead to a seamless end-to-end remote implementation, made possible by VRP Consulting's hybrid delivery approach. Even the traditional 'Go-live' cake cutting ceremony was conducted remotely. Happily, for those based in Den Haag however, the cake could only be eaten in one location.

Experiencing immediate benefits Their boldness paid off and user adoption was high. Thanks to their new ATS, standardized procedures and training, Charlie works saw an immediate improvement in key areas, such as reduction in time-to-fill positions and increase in vacancy fulfillment. Charlie works managed to optimize their business by cutting costs, increasing revenue and driving profitability. All in line with the business's long-term strategic goals.

Expanding for the future With new standardized processes on a robust cloud solution, Charlie works now have a scalable foundation to prepare them for future growth. As they expand to new countries and industries such as transportation & industrial warehousing, across Hungary and Ukraine, they can rely on their robust platform and implementation partner to drive their business forward.

Continued transformation

Due to the effortless collaboration, Charlie works are now excited to continue their digital transformation journey. The next project planned with VRP Consulting involves integrating Sales Cloud and Pardot with Charlie work’s ATS. The aim is to provide an end-to-end lead generation process, instantly matching newly signed fulfillment contracts to candidates. By unifying their company, vacancy and candidate data it will be possible to automate their sales processes as they optimize recruitment further. The longer-term strategy is to deliver exceptional client and candidate experiences and, of course, drive revenue and growth.

Company Profile

Charlie works is a European employment agency based in the Netherlands that links motivated employees to clients. Charlie works has offices in five countries with additional recruiters based in distant countries, all working towards cross boarder collaboration.