Horner Recruitment x Onboarded Case Study

About Horner

Horner Recruitment is a leading recruitment agency based in Melbourne, Australia, with a proud 47-year history of matching clients and candidates. Current owner Peter Langford took over the business in 2005 with a vision for an innovative and collaborative agency that would deliver recruitment outcomes for businesses of all sizes.

The Challenge

General Manager Kylie Heffernan and Projects Manager Maria Karpetis work closely together to drive projects that increase efficiencies, focusing on continuous improvement to deliver the best possible recruitment service. Horner had a workaround in place for a number of years to facilitate candidate onboarding. In 2020, the organisation collectively agreed that it was not entirely fit for purpose; it was not a fully integrated solution and it resulted in inefficiencies. It was costing Horner time and money.

“Our existing CRM didn’t have an integrated onboarding portal or platform. So, we were using a workaround, a separate portal that didn’t talk to our system. It was creating an admin headache, as consultants had to download information from one platform, upload them to another, attach them to the right contact, etc,” Maria says.

“Not only was the process time-consuming and frustrating, it was also taking our consultants away from what they do best: finding the right candidates for our clients,” adds Kylie.

The Solution

Horner needed a solution that would reduce administration time and provide a seamless experience for consultants and candidates, starting with its CRM.

After considerable research, the team chose leading Australian CRM, FastTrack. During a product demonstration, Horner was introduced to Onboarded, a FastTrack integration partner.

“It was really one of the most impressive parts of the demo as it spoke to our existing challenges,” Maria recalls.

“We got in touch with Onboarded to organise a demo, and we were sold immediately. It did everything we needed it to do – it was a simple, clever solution, really fit-for-purpose. It rang a lot of bells for us.” And Maria says she was pleasantly surprised with how seamless the implementation was.

“There can be bumps in the road with any tech implementation, but this wasn’t the case with Onboarded. The team clearly knows the product well and asks the right questions. They run like a well-oiled machine and are very agile.”

“We had confidence in the Onboarded team from day one, and we weren’t disappointed.”

The Results

Horner Recruitment has been using Onboarded since 2020, with both recruitment consultants and the payroll team using the platform. And the results speak for themselves.

“We are onboarding people in a fraction of the time, without all the administration bogging our consultants down. Onboarded integrates directly with FastTrack, so information is readily available in our CRM.

There’s no data entry and anything the candidate attaches, licences, tickets, etc., is immediately on their profile in FastTrack,” says Kylie.

“Instead of uploading and downloading documents constantly, our consultants can dedicate more time to what’s most important: matching clients and candidates,” Kylie says.

The reporting functionality has also been a win for Horner. “The reporting functionality is fantastic. We can get feedback on the user experience from candidates through the simple star rating system, something we’ve never had before. In addition, we can see when a consultant isn’t onboarding candidates efficiently, so we can look into that and provide targeted training. It gives us great oversight,” Maria explains.

Horner is an innovative, process-driven organisation, always looking for ways to improve the status quo, something they have in common with Onboarded.

“We love that Onboarded shares our continuous improvement mentality. I’ll shoot an idea to them, something we’d like or need. Then, a week later, it’s deployed, and we’re up and running! And when the idea is something that doesn’t make sense for Onboarded, they’re upfront about that. That honesty and genuine partnership approach is gold,” Maria says.

Overall, Maria and Kylie agree that Onboarded has been a game-changer for Horner.

“Onboarded is simple to use, efficient and fit-for-purpose, and the support is second to none. The team is highly responsive and understands our challenges. It’s everything you need in a tech partner,” Maria concludes.