Bluetrain is a digital marketing agency in Edmonton, Alberta, whose value proposition focuses on using data-driven insights to help their clients achieve incredible online results. When Director of Client Services, Brad Eves, was tasked with finding qualified talent to work at Bluetrain, many factors needed to be considered.

The first is that each member should possess Bluetrain’s core values which include:

• Balance
• Growth
• Teamwork
• Quality
• Integrity

If you don’t hire someone who follows the core values, that could prevent your company from building a high-performing team and could eventually drive your most talented individuals away and, in turn, deliver adverse effects to your company.

The second problem was that digital marketing agencies are unique in that everyone must meet specific requirements around strategic and analytical thinking and be adaptable to the ever-evolving technology changes and consumer habits.

With their hiring complexities, it was essential to find a more effective and efficient way to find top talent in the industry.

But first, let’s look at how Bluetrain traditionally searched for talent. It always started with a post on LinkedIn, Bluetrain’s website, and other industry websites. Next, they sifted through resumes and used phone screening to identify their top candidates – a real time-consumer.

“We would aim to manually screen 20-30 applicants” – Brad Eves, Director of Client Services, Bluetrain

A process that was, no doubt, labour-intensive and often unreliable.

One of the biggest catalysts to finding a solution to their hiring woes was the need to receive more detailed information from candidates. A resume can tell you about a candidate’s experience, but it doesn’t necessarily speak to culture, diversity, and qualifications. On the other hand, screening can provide their potential prospects with an equal opportunity to exhibit their best characteristics and how they relate to the open position. And this was a benefit to Bluetrain as well. But the gift and the curse of receiving 100s of applicants proved daunting.

Enter ResumeFree™

Allie Knull, Founder and CEO of ResumeFree™, was thorough in her approach to creating the best screening experience for the roles Bluetrain were looking to fill. First, she met with every department of the company to get a sense of the company culture and the current and future positions Bluetrain™ would be hiring. This gave Allie an understanding of the requirements that each candidate for each role would need in order to be defined as a qualified prospect.

The team at ResumeFree™ developed screening questions and ensured that general queries and scoring matrix were standardized for each role to avoid any legal implications. For more information on standardizing your screening questions, visit our blog.

Once there was a job posting, ResumeFree™ provided a Google document to help track the responses from each candidate.

“Allie and the ResumeFree™ team were easy to work with and were adaptable to customizing screening for different roles.”

The results of implementing ResumeFree™ in Bluetrain’s hiring process included less resource usage and quicker time from job posting to hire.

“This has saved time in the long run as the recruitment process takes less time and helps us find the most qualified candidates.”