Over the previous few years, Eliassen Group has undergone a serious digital transformation, modernizing its tech stack to assist its international development and streamline operations. Mitesh Ashar, Chief Buyer Officer at Bullhorn, sat down with Rob Waddell, EVP/CIO of Eliassen, who led the group’s shift, to debate Eliassen’s method, the function Bullhorn Recruitment Cloud and Bullhorn Center Workplace performed, and the recommendation he’d supply different leaders contemplating an identical transfer. We’ve edited their dialog under for size and readability.
Ashar: Eliassen has made some main shifts lately. Are you able to share a bit about this?
Waddell: Certain. So over the past 35 years, Eliassen has grown right into a $500 million enterprise. We’ve advanced considerably in our use of expertise. After a strategic evaluate in 2023, we set our sights on international development and higher cross-selling throughout our three enterprise pillars: expertise options (our technical consulting and staffing pillar); monetary, danger and compliance advisory; and scientific options enterprise. We noticed clear cross-selling alternatives that we weren’t capitalizing on and realized we wanted a extra unified course of throughout these teams. That led us to search out the best system to assist our targets.
We discovered that Bullhorn may do one thing to tie the ATS to the center workplace utilizing Workato, and we landed on integrating Bullhorn’s Center Workplace with Bullhorn Recruitment Cloud. And I’m fairly pleased we did.
Ashar: Earlier than you truly applied the answer, what had been a few of your large challenges from a payroll and billing standpoint?
Waddell: Earlier than implementation, we relied on a closely custom-made Erecruit setup for payroll and billing. However there was plenty of customized automation in there, and it wasn’t actually arrange for long-term integration success. In order we began pushing into international enlargement, the concept of shifting a few of that automation to our companions as a substitute of dealing with all of it in-house simply began to make extra sense. We used NewAge Expertise’s cloud-to-cloud companies and integration companies to combine with downstream programs like tax, gross sales tax, and forex conversion. And the form of expertise Bullhorn is utilizing now could be going to make these integrations rather a lot simpler.
Ashar: Had been there any inefficiencies?
Waddell: Sure! Our VP of Finance sees the largest profit in utilizing VMS Trade — the automated connection to VMS platforms for time seize. Beforehand, we needed to manually log into every VMS to tug down time entries, which was time-consuming. Now, that course of is totally automated.
Ashar: What had been a few of the key determination standards so that you can choose this answer over others out there?
Waddell: Effectively, I believe our belief in Bullhorn was key. I’ve by no means needed a giant engineering staff. We simply want environment friendly, dependable options. The Salesforce ecosystem actually matched nicely with the place we had been headed with the enterprise. In case you suppose international enlargement, Salesforce is ideal for that on the ATS and CRM aspect. Having Bullhorn Center Workplace as part of that bundle simply made it rather a lot simpler than having to combine with a separate pay invoice system.
Ashar: You had been migrating from Erecruit to a fancy new answer, which will need to have felt daunting. How was the implementation and migration expertise?
Waddell: Effectively, we tried to keep away from surprising challenges by assessing plenty of danger. We had been altering out the ATS we had been already evenly utilizing the CRM and Salesforce, however we went all-in, altering out the whole tech stack. That included introducing a brand new center workplace and, partway by means of the challenge, switching our PSA [professional services automation] instrument from Projector to Kantata.
We additionally had a transfer from Nice Plains to Sage in the course of this for the GL. So we took on a ton of danger for an 18-month challenge. Three components made it work: first, partnering carefully with Bullhorn’s program administration and your high engineering and structure staff for the center workplace; second, bringing in Newbury [Partners] for program administration on our aspect; and third, uniting everybody into one staff working immediately with our enterprise leaders. Our leaders even ran a number of work streams, together with knowledge migration and cleaning.
One other crucial space was reporting. Considered one of our apply leaders led the reporting workstream and course of, whereas key recruiting and gross sales gamers labored carefully with our core growth staff on course of enhancements. Standardizing processes throughout all three pillars was dangerous, however they did an excellent job. We managed danger weekly, by no means letting points linger, with common program updates involving all suppliers. We additionally introduced in a change administration chief from our apply.
Ashar: You talked about change administration is essential. What methods or coaching strategies did you discover best?
Waddell: We introduced in a apply chief from our staff to give attention to change administration. She surveyed your complete worker inhabitants to know their expectations and clear up myths concerning the new system. That perception helped us talk clearly and handle expectations all through the rollout.
We additionally labored carefully with our studying and growth staff and Bullhorn’s coaching group to tailor coaching. We targeted on just-in-time coaching, particularly throughout the early implementation weeks, to assist recruiters and gross sales employees as they tailored. Even now, we hold an lively Groups channel the place workers assist one another, which has helped make the transition extremely clean.
We deliberate an 18-month rollout however delayed two months to bolster coaching and thorough testing, together with three full take a look at rounds and a number of go-live rehearsals. Launching on September ninth went easily, due to this cautious, low-risk method.
Ashar: That’s implausible. Since going dwell, past the VMS advantages you talked about earlier, are there different benefits your staff is seeing?
Waddell: Apart from tightening our partnership with Bullhorn, which is essential, the funding we’ve made there may be undoubtedly paying off for us.
Ashar: Now that you simply’re utilizing Workato to maintain the info clear, do you’re feeling like you might have the inspiration for with the ability to embark on this AI journey?
Waddell: Sure. The info is cleaner and ruled extra strictly. We’ve lowered consumer duplications with a customized instrument in Recruitment Cloud that flags them. New accounts route by means of a verify course of.
Clear knowledge is important for AI. With instruments like Search & Match and Amplify, that consistency offers us a robust basis.
Ashar: What recommendation would you give to of us right here evaluating Bullhorn Center Workplace or Recruitment Cloud?
Waddell: First, construct a robust partnership along with your provider (on this case, Bullhorn). I actually imagine the extra you put money into that relationship, the extra it pays off. They’ve been working laborious to unify their groups throughout the group, and that helps us as purchasers.
Second, change administration is crucial. Perceive what your workers suppose is occurring, talk clearly and infrequently, and keep away from tech jargon. Usher in knowledgeable when you can; they know translate advanced adjustments into on a regular basis language that resonates along with your individuals.
And eventually, take a look at. Measure greater than as soon as, and solely then make the minimize. That’s what helped our go-live run so easily.
Ashar: That’s extremely useful, and a good way to wrap issues up. Rob, thanks for taking the time to share your story and classes discovered.
Waddell: After all — thanks for having me.
