Over the years, we have seen the positive impact of talent outsourcing on big corporations and their business returns. However, with the growth of start-ups and smaller companies supporting a global pool of clients worldwide, many businesses see the value of outsourcing as an alternative means for them to scale up more effectively.
With the abundance of talent globally, how does one find the right match for their business with the aim of increasing productivity and growth? We speak to Brianna Carney and Kate Ringcodan of CrewBloom to find out more about this bespoke talent outsourcing service.
Welcome to Marketing in Asia, ladies. Before we dive into CrewBloom, tell us who Brianna and Kate are, your professional background, passion and interests.
Brianna: I started my career at a startup which allowed me to understand how small companies scale. I moved to Amazon where I had an opportunity to work alongside and learn from some incredibly disruptive talent. I also experienced the impact the global workforce can have on an organization given Amazon’s dependence on global resources. I began to question why more organizations weren’t taking advantage of the global talent pool.
Kate: After graduating from the university, immediately decided to be part of the remote workforce instead of taking the normal route of getting a corporate job. This familiarized me with the remote outsourcing space in the Philippines and overseas. I saw a lot of potential for the work-from-home industry to grow in the country, and how this could propel more job opportunities to other Filipinos looking for a well paying opportunity.
Tell us about your agency, CrewBloom and how did you both get together to form this power partnership?
Brianna: CrewBloom was established in 2016 and our goal is to help business owners find a way to scale in a quicker, more affordable way through remote outsourcing. We are a remote recruitment agency and we’ve been 100% distributed since inception. Our talent primarily fills sales and support roles for SaaS companies. What sets us apart from our competition is highly-vetted talent and a model which adapts to the ever-evolving needs of our client partners. We have the top 2% of remote professionals working throughout 12 countries in Central/South America, Asia and we recently launched South Africa and Europe.
I am based in New York whereas Kate is based in Manila, and we got connected remotely. After several Skype calls, it was clear that our visions aligned and together we could get to work building an impactful organization.
Over the last few years, we have seen a rapid growth in the professional outsourcing need. How is CrewBloom different from the rest?
Kate: We place strong emphasis on our quality of hires over quantity. Outsourcing is a very competitive industry, and we carved our name in the industry by having the best of the best talent, working fully remotely, and fostering a human-centric work culture. Because we all work-from-home, we are able to offer really competitive compensation, alongside competitive rates to our clients, empowering them to achieve profitability.
The agency has seen a phenomenal growth over the last few years. What are the success factors that have led the agency to experience such exponential growth?
Brianna: Focus on a performance-driven, human-centric culture. One common feedback that we always get from our clients is how impressed they are with the caliber of talent we are able to place on their team. Since our agents are remote, we place importance in their performance and in always meeting, if not exceeding, their KPIs. With this, we get a lot of referrals from our clients, as well as horizontal and vertical growth within our existing accounts.
We also make sure we take care of our agents by keeping them happy. We believe that making your team happy increases performance and productivity. We have a success team that serves as their support and coach, and also set forth perks like anniversary rewards and performance spiffs to encourage longevity.
What was one of the biggest challenges you faced while growing CrewBloom?
Kate: There’s a lot, but one that stands out is selecting the right infrastructure to support and manage our remote team. When we started, remote working isn’t as popular as it is now, and not many tools were readily available in order for us to have a streamlined process. We had to test out multiple tools and do a lot of trial and error in in order to establish the tech stack that we’re supported by today.
As an agency, how do you ensure that you continuously provide solutions that will meet the needs of your clients?
Brianna: Whenever we win a new account, our partnership doesn’t end after they have hired one of our agents. We serve as a continuous resource and support throughout the partnership. Constant check-ins with our clients is an essential part of our workflow wherein we ask their feedback about our existing processes and things we can do on our end to make their lives easier. Lastly, we always look into reducing the manual-ness of our process by looking into process automation.
What is your leadership philosophy and in your opinion, what makes a great leader?
Kate: Our company has always fostered a culture of humility and transparency. This has helped us a lot especially when we were just starting and are looking for hires to join our core team. We have so much to learn from our personal experiences and from other people, and keeping that mindset facilitated openness and innovation at CrewBloom. Lastly, we also believe that we should be transparent to our team members regarding our expectations, where we currently are as a company, and where we want to be. This built a trust within our members, which is crucial to any organization looking to scale.
In your opinion, how important is branding and marketing in building your brand?
Brianna: CrewBloom wouldn’t have grown and survived the outsourcing niche without our unique branding of having the cream of the crop, affordable remote talent to set us apart. As we have mentioned previously, the outsourcing market is very saturated, and knowing how we stand out from the competition is essential. It allowed us to better market ourselves from the competition and build a base of clients who are loyal and believe in our brand.
What was the best marketing and business advice you have received and who was it from?
Kate: Satisfied clients is your best marketing strategy. Businesses owners know other entrepreneurs who might need our service. Word-of-mouth and referral marketing is much easier and more effective these days through platforms such as LinkedIn, and this is how we’ve gained some of our long-standing clients.
What is your advice for business owners who are looking into talent outsourcing, such as how to embrace it, what to outsource, expectations, something like that?
Brianna: If you are a business owner looking to outsource hires, you must first identify the roles at your company which can support a remote-only infrastructure. Often, we have prospects looking to outsource talent from us but do not have the tools and training process in place that can make their hires successful.
Lastly, when you outsource, it doesn’t mean that you can pay below minimum wage. We get that a lot, and that won’t cut it. If you expect the best talent to apply for you, then you must also be prepared to pay well. The way you can save through outsourcing is looking for hires in lower-costing economies.
Thank you for your insights ladies. How can our readers connect with both of you?
We’re both active on LinkedIn so we encourage you to connect with us there; Brianna Carney and Kate Ringcodan. You can also follow CrewBloom on LinkedIn. Or if you prefer email, you can reach out to us here: Brianna and Kate.
