Snap: Moving recruitment in-house to save time and money

Snap relied heavily on outsourcing their recruitment, but found that this was a long and overpriced process. They were trying to find a way to streamline their hiring, while making better matches between candidates, roles, and teams.

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Using Thrive, they were able to fully transition their recruitment from external to in-house, shorten their process, and spend less money on hiring — while keeping all employees and candidates happy.

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Who is Snap?

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Snap is a leading partner for all things graphic design, print, branding, and marketing solutions. With over 40 years of experience, Snap has made its place into the heart of the Irish business community, proudly serving as the preferred partner for companies seeking to enhance their brand visibility.

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They first started using Thrive in October 2021.

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What did they want to achieve?

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Transition to in-house hiring, and spend less time on recruitment while hiring better suited candidates.

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What were their challenges?

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Recruitment can be difficult to get right. Finding the right pool of candidates and then ensuring, in a short process, whether they are a good fit or not can be challenging. “Before using Thrive, we relied on recruitment agencies,” explained Rachel Savage, Group Operations Manager for Snap.

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“We wanted to find a solution that would make the whole recruitment operation more efficient, save time, and increase the likelihood of having a successful process and finding the right candidate.”

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Depending on recruitment agencies has many benefits, but it can become expensive and lengthy. At some point, Snap found themselves spending too long on candidates that were clearly not suitable for the company. “In recruitment, a lot of time can be wasted,” Rachel described. “Meeting with candidates that are not the right fit for the role, something that you probably would have known had you done a few more assessments, is time-consuming. We wanted to find a solution that would make the whole recruitment operation more efficient, save time, and increase the likelihood of having a successful process and find the right candidate.”

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Solution: Thrive’s market-leading assessments

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Snap shopped around looking for a psychometric assessment provider that would inject science into their process. “We looked at a few different solutions, but the fact that Thrive offered a lot of background data, where you could make it specific to the role, was particularly intriguing. Other providers simply weren’t capable of doing the same, and definitely not with the huge database that Thrive has,” Rachel said.

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“Snap centres across the country buy-in and roll Thrive out because they trust it works, because we’ve demonstrated it with the candidates that we have placed.”

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They trialled Thrive, and got some fantastic results — so much so, in fact, that other Snap centres across the country have opted to use Thrive following the experiment. “To ask someone to spend additional money on a recruitment process is always a hard sell,” Rachel continued. “But the fact that we got other Snap centres to buy in and roll it out for their recruitment needs shows that they trust it works, because we’ve demonstrated it with the candidates that we’ve placed.”

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Their process is now far more streamlined and data-backed. They advertise a role asking for CVs and cover letters, then have an informal chat with shortlisted candidates, after which a few receive an invitation to complete the Thrive assessment. Snap then shares the employee report with the candidate, and uses the employer report to build a competency-based interview personalised to the particular applicant using the suggested interview questions, before making an offer. ”We want to create the best interview for that person and really drill into the areas where they scored low,” Rachel elaborated.

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The results

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“Thrive doesn’t just give you a report and then it’s up to you to decipher the information. It gives you the information, explains it in really clear terms, and then provides really useful tools so that you can use it best.”

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Saved time and money

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Thrive’s assessments have enabled Snap to stop using recruitment agencies for most hires, and instead manage the whole process internally. “We’re outsourcing fewer roles to external recruiters, which is definitely cost-saving,” Rachel explained.

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This is thanks to the useful data provided by the assessment reports, that allow the organisation to quickly work out who is the best fit for the role. “Thrive saves us time. For both the candidate and for the employer, it’s better to know sooner rather than later if someone is a good fit for the role and for the team, and the assessments are a really good way of knowing this early on. They give us insight into applicants’ thought patterns, work ethics, and behaviours — things that you don’t get from a CV and a cover letter,” Rachel praised the reports.

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When it comes to candidates, Rachel said it was a smooth transition: “Candidates don’t ever seem too shocked, nervous, or put-off by it, some of them have even come to expect that there would be some assessment in the process as it’s become more normalised. It’s well-received and nobody has ever had an issue when we’ve asked them to do it.”

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“Thrive gives us insight into applicants’ thought patterns, work ethics, and behaviours. When I go to interview someone, I’m confident that I can get the information from Thrive to ask the right questions and to explore the right areas with the candidate, and that saves both time and money.”

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Beyond the useful information in the assessments, the Thrive report also provides questions that can help employers structure their interviews with the results in mind. “It’s fantastic that Thrive gives us the tools needed to do a really thorough competency-based interview,” Rachel said. “Thrive doesn’t just give you a report and then it’s up to you to decipher the information. It gives you the information, explains it in really clear terms, and then provides really useful tools so that you can use it best. I love that! It’s something practical you can take away and put into place, and that’s what I’m most impressed with.”

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“When I go to interview someone, I’m confident that I can get the information from Thrive to ask the right questions and to explore the right areas with the candidate, and that saves both time and money,” Rachel summed up.

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Improved retention

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Matching the right candidate to the right job is arguably the most challenging function of HR and recruitment, and for Snap, it’s always been a priority. “We are really conscious of finding the right people for the roles, and to complement the team that we have in place,” Rachel gave insight into their thinking process. “Thrive gives an added layer of protection from an employer’s point of view, having a third party with all the data in the background — you have an added layer of security when you’re offering a candidate the job.”

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“We have an added layer of security when offering a candidate the job.”

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“The fact that we have used it and trusted it to make an offer, and then these employees have successfully passed probation, and are still in the business and doing really well, shows the added value Thrive provides,” Rachel said.

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Boosted candidate experience

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Snap also found that using the Thrive assessments provided them with the opportunity to strengthen their reputation among candidates. “It gives a really professional look to an organisation when they have invested the money into a platform that’s going to increase success in recruitment. It looks good,” Rachel explained.

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“The Thrive assessment is really easy to use, and candidates are delighted to receive the employee report — that’s not something many companies offer.”

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The employee reports have also been valuable in delivering a better experience for their candidates. “The Thrive assessment is really easy to use, and candidates are delighted to receive the employee report — that’s not something many companies offer,” Rachel added. “Whether you’re going to move forward or not with a candidate, I think it’s really nice to offer them some insight into how they did in the assessment and what they can work on. If you’re not successful, for any reason, you want feedback to know what you can do better next time, and we can provide this information thanks to Thrive.”

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Rachel herself found the Thrive report useful for her own development: “People are not always self-aware of their shortcomings. I scored quite well and I was really happy with it, but it’s human nature to look where you scored lowest, that’s the first thing I went through. My ability to adapt to change was one. I remember it really made me reflect, ‘maybe I am a little bit resistant to change, maybe I do need to be a bit more resilient’. And that in itself is really good, because it can make you more aware of your strengths and development areas in the workplace’’

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Interested to hear how Thrive can help you produce similar results? Book a demo with us today.

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