Case study:
JIVR

How an electric bike manufacturer got employees in several countries at once

About company

JIVR is an urban electric bike manufacturer operating since 2011. The company distributes its products mainly to Western European countries supporting residents of large cities in getting around without a car.

Industry: Engineering

Number of employees: 20

Challenge: Recruiting employees in several countries simultaneously

How to recruit a sales network in several European cities simultaneously?

In 2018-2019, one of the sales channels for JIVR products was the ambassador network. Their tasks included arranging meetings with interested customers, conducting test rides and assisting users with problems related to the use of electric bikes.

JIVR ambassadors had to meet a set of requirements, have an adequate network and be available to meet with clients outside of standard business hours.

An additional challenge in the project was the locations where the company decided to find employees – in total JIVR decided to implement an ambassador project in more than 10 European cities, including Berline, Brussels and London.

Local recruitment needs local support

JIVR decided to take advantage of Talent Place’s support early on in the project. The bicycle manufacturer’s internal HR resources were insufficient to recruit ambassador candidates for more than 10 different locations in a short period of time.

With help came Talent Place and our international community of HR experts. With recruiters located in different parts of Europe Talent Place was able to search for candidates locally taking into account how the local market works – including salary expectations, availability of candidates and the most effective sourcing channels. Talent Place also provided support to JIVR in screening potential ambassadors.

Asynchronous recruitment as a way to overcome the distance barrier

The candidate sourcing process for JIVR took a total of 2 months and took place in two rounds. The goal of the first was to recruit 6 candidates in 6 cities – Zurich, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Brussels and Copenhagen. In executing the recruitment Talent Place focused on the quality of the process and the right selection of candidates. As a result, 1 in 2 referred candidates received employment.

The recruitment process consisted of 3 stages and was completed 100% online::

Initial screening of candidates by Talent Place team
Asynchronous recruitment interview in the form of a video during which candidates answered questions displayed by the program
Final verification interview with JIVR representatives

“We were particularly impressed with the speed of Talent Place” said Marcin Piątkowski, CEO JIVR. “When planning to hire more than 10 people in several European cities we assumed that the project would be very demanding and take many months. Talent Place quickly proved that location diversity was not an issue for them, and the company’s network of recruiters allowed us to close the project in much less time. Moreover, even though the entire process was done online the quality of referrals was above expectations and we ended up with great employees” he adds.

After Talent Place delivered 100% of the targeted hires in the first phase JIVR decided to move forward with the project and have another 10 ambassador positions filled in France, England, Scotland, Spain and Italy. The process was again successful but due to internal changes at JIVR the candidates did not ultimately begin working with the company.