The global legal technology firm, LEAP Legal Software, a pioneer in cloud-based practice management solutions for small law firms, has demonstrated remarkable advancements in its talent acquisition strategy and operational efficiency through a sustained partnership with Workable, an applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruiting software. This long-standing collaboration, spanning over eight years since its inception in December 2018, has been instrumental in transforming LEAP’s hiring landscape, enabling a lean human resources team to operate at scale across a vast international footprint. The strategic adoption of Workable has not only streamlined recruitment processes but has also yielded tangible results, including substantial time savings, a nearly exclusive reliance on internal referrals for US hires, and a significant reduction in external recruitment expenditure.
LEAP Legal Software: A Global Leader in Legal Technology
Founded more than three decades ago in Australia, LEAP Legal Software has evolved from its humble beginnings into a formidable global enterprise. The company specializes in providing intuitive, cloud-based legal practice management solutions tailored specifically for small law firms, empowering them with tools for case management, document automation, billing, and accounting. With a strategic presence across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, LEAP now employs approximately 900 individuals worldwide, cementing its position as a critical technology partner in the legal sector. The US arm of LEAP, which primarily focuses on crucial support, sales, client success, and implementation roles, is expertly overseen by Susanne Poole. As the driving force behind all people-related functions, including recruitment and culture, Poole has navigated the challenges inherent in a rapidly expanding technology company, often serving as a singular HR professional responsible for an entire talent acquisition engine while simultaneously managing a myriad of other strategic responsibilities. The company’s growth trajectory underscores the increasing demand for specialized legal technology solutions that enhance productivity and streamline operations for legal professionals.
The Pre-Workable Era: Navigating Recruitment Roadblocks
Prior to integrating Workable into its talent acquisition framework, LEAP Legal Software managed its recruitment activities through a module embedded within its existing Human Resources Information System (HRIS). While technically functional, this system presented significant operational hurdles, creating considerable friction throughout the hiring lifecycle. The previous HRIS module was characterized by its clunky interface and lack of intuitive design, rendering it cumbersome for both HR personnel and hiring managers. A primary deficiency was its inability to automatically disseminate communications to hiring managers. This critical flaw meant that Susanne Poole, operating as a solitary HR professional in a rapidly scaling organization, was compelled to engage in extensive manual follow-ups. She frequently had to physically track down stakeholders, issue repeated reminders, and constantly update individuals on candidate progress. This manual administrative burden, requiring constant oversight and intervention, proved to be an unsustainable drag on resources, particularly for a company experiencing rapid expansion.
Furthermore, the previous system severely limited access to a broad spectrum of job boards. This constraint was particularly acute for LEAP, a company with a burgeoning international presence that required extensive and varied candidate sourcing across multiple geographies. The inability to distribute job postings with the necessary volume and breadth directly hampered the company’s efforts to attract diverse talent pools essential for a growing technology enterprise. Poole succinctly articulated the core issue: "I needed our recruitment to be much more efficient and I needed it to be able to talk to the recruiting managers around the business instantly. We struggled with our previous system in doing that." The inherent inefficiencies of the legacy system not only consumed valuable time but also hindered LEAP’s ability to compete effectively for top talent in a highly competitive market, underscoring the urgent need for a more agile and technologically advanced solution.
The Strategic Pivot: Why Workable Stood Out
The imperative for a more robust and efficient recruitment system led LEAP to evaluate alternatives in 2018. At this juncture, the organization was still operating in a dynamic startup mode, characterized by rapid scaling and a need for cost-effective solutions. Pricing was a significant consideration, which naturally excluded some of the more expensive enterprise-level platforms. However, LEAP’s decision-making process extended beyond mere economics. As a technology company itself, LEAP sought a hiring platform that would align with its core identity: one that was smart, innovative, and genuinely intuitive. The goal was to adopt a system that would not necessitate extensive change management efforts to ensure widespread adoption among hiring managers spread across six different countries, each with their own operational nuances.
Workable quickly distinguished itself during the initial demonstration. Poole recalled, "Workable felt like it had its finger on the pulse. It spoke to what we needed and it was just smart. And Workable has always really delivered on that." This initial impression was reinforced by several key functionalities that directly addressed LEAP’s pressing needs. The platform’s advanced people search functionality, coupled with its multi-board job distribution capabilities, emerged as particularly meaningful differentiators. Given LEAP’s global hiring requirements, accessing diverse talent pools across different geographies was paramount. The ability to seamlessly manage both UK and US hiring operations from a single, unified platform, rather than maintaining disparate, parallel systems, offered precisely the integrated solution the organization desperately needed to support its international expansion and consolidate its talent acquisition efforts. This strategic choice reflected a foresight into scalability and efficiency that would define LEAP’s hiring success for years to come.
Seamless Integration and Widespread Adoption
The implementation of Workable across LEAP’s global organization was, in Susanne Poole’s assessment, remarkably straightforward and free of significant disruption. To facilitate adoption, Poole disseminated intuitive learning videos to hiring managers and conducted a limited number of targeted workshops to bring teams online. This streamlined approach ensured a smooth transition, which is particularly noteworthy for a company that, at the time, employed between 500 and 600 individuals. Such a frictionless rollout is rarely guaranteed in large-scale software implementations, but Workable’s inherent intuitiveness proved to be the decisive factor.
Poole commented on the ease of transition, stating, "People weren’t confused by what we were trying to get out of it. They embraced it quickly. I don’t recall this giving us any hiccups." This rapid and enthusiastic adoption was not merely coincidental; it was a direct consequence of Workable’s design philosophy. The platform is engineered to be user-friendly, catering specifically to individuals who may not be professional recruiters but are, instead, hiring managers with demanding primary responsibilities and limited patience for complex or cumbersome software. By meeting users at their level of technical comfort and operational familiarity, Workable effectively minimized resistance to change and maximized engagement, laying a solid foundation for its long-term success within LEAP Legal Software.
Transformative Efficiency: Reclaiming 20 Hours Weekly
One of the most immediate and profound operational impacts of LEAP’s transition to Workable was the significant reclamation of time. During LEAP’s period of rapid scaling in 2018, the volume of manual chasing, constant reminding, and laborious coordination of candidate feedback under the old HRIS system consumed an inordinate amount of Susanne Poole’s workweek. The administrative drag was immense, diverting critical HR resources from strategic initiatives to mundane, repetitive tasks.
With Workable’s robust automation capabilities, this overhead largely vanished. The platform began handling automated communications, sending timely pipeline reminders, and providing continuous candidate status updates. Poole quantified this dramatic shift: "Easily about 20 hours a week back in 2018. There was so much chasing because we didn’t have a system that spoke to everyone and kept everyone honest." This remarkable saving of approximately half a full-time workweek during peak hiring periods allowed Poole and her team to redirect their efforts toward higher-value, more strategic work. This included focusing on enhancing candidate quality, engaging in more meaningful strategic hiring conversations with departmental leaders, and proactively building a robust talent pipeline. The ability to reallocate these hours from administrative drudgery to strategic talent management has been pivotal in enabling LEAP to reduce its dependence on costly external recruiters across a majority of its role categories, leading to substantial long-term cost savings and improved talent quality.
A Referral Strategy That Redefines Talent Sourcing
Perhaps one of the most compelling statistics to emerge from LEAP’s partnership with Workable is the fact that, over the past 12 months, a staggering 100% of its US hires have been sourced through internal referrals. This extraordinary figure is not a mere coincidence; it is the direct outcome of a meticulously crafted and deliberate talent strategy, built upon the strengths of LEAP’s existing workforce and seamlessly supported by Workable’s advanced referral functionality. Rather than adopting a scattergun approach of saturating job boards with postings and subsequently sifting through thousands of applications for operational and support roles, Susanne Poole implemented a more discerning and strategic methodology. This approach emphasizes trusting the organization’s established network, leveraging Workable to efficiently manage the entire referral pipeline, and prioritizing candidates who come recommended by individuals already integrated into and understanding of LEAP’s culture and operational ethos.
Poole underscored this intentional shift, noting, "To the point where I don’t even post the role on the job boards at the moment. We took a very deliberate approach to do the referral piece." This strategy has proven immensely successful. For operational and support roles, Workable has consistently delivered a stream of highly qualified candidates, entirely obviating the need for any external recruiter spend. The cost efficiency derived from this strategy is substantial, accruing significant savings over time, particularly for a company like LEAP that is experiencing steady growth across multiple international markets. Beyond financial benefits, referred hires often exhibit higher retention rates, better cultural fit, and faster ramp-up times, contributing to a more stable and productive workforce. This referral-centric model, powered by Workable, has become a cornerstone of LEAP’s sustainable talent acquisition strategy.
Elevating the Candidate Experience Through Reliability
The implementation of Workable has profoundly improved the candidate experience throughout LEAP’s hiring process. A crucial aspect of this enhancement is the platform’s automated messaging system, which ensures that no applicant, regardless of their ultimate success, falls through the cracks. Every candidate receives timely, professional, and consistent communication at each stage of the application process. This level of reliability is paramount in today’s highly competitive hiring market, where the candidate experience serves as a direct reflection of a company’s brand and values. LEAP, as a company deeply committed to both, understands the strategic importance of a positive and respectful interaction with every potential employee.
Among Workable’s features, the self-scheduling tool has emerged as one of Susanne Poole’s most valued assets. This functionality eliminates the cumbersome and time-consuming manual coordination of calendars across multiple stakeholders, a process that traditionally introduced significant delays and friction. Instead, candidates are empowered to select interview times that best suit their own schedules. This autonomy not only eradicates the tedious back-and-forth communication but also significantly accelerates the overall hiring process. More importantly, it conveys a profound respect for the candidate’s time and personal commitments, enhancing their perception of LEAP as a considerate and efficient employer. Poole lauded the feature, stating, "Self-scheduling is brilliant. It connects your calendar, you push it out to candidates, they pick a time that suits them. It stops so much unnecessary back and forth. It is a huge time saver and it always works." This commitment to a seamless and respectful candidate journey reinforces LEAP’s brand as a desirable employer in the legal tech space.
Championing Structural Fairness: The Power of Anonymized Candidates
One of the features that Susanne Poole highlights with particular enthusiasm is Workable’s candidate anonymization functionality. For a company like LEAP, which views diversity not merely as a compliance checklist but as a genuine competitive advantage, the ability to remove identifying information from candidate profiles before they reach hiring managers is a strategic imperative. This feature serves as a powerful mechanism to combat unconscious bias, a pervasive human tendency where individuals, however well-intentioned, often gravitate towards candidates who share similar backgrounds, demographics, or experiences.
Anonymization fundamentally disrupts this pattern, ensuring that the initial evaluation by a decision-maker is based purely on a candidate’s skills, qualifications, and potential contributions, rather than superficial or potentially biased demographic data. Poole elaborated on its profound impact: "It takes out that unconscious bias thing that we all have, much as we don’t want to have it. Our diversity is definitely our superpower. By anonymizing candidates, you’re just finding the people that have what you need. It is so smart and it was so easy to set up." By embedding structural fairness into its hiring process, LEAP actively fosters a more equitable environment, leading to a truly meritocratic selection. This approach not only strengthens the company’s ethical standing but also directly contributes to its "superpower" of diversity, recognizing that varied perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds drive innovation, enhance problem-solving, and ultimately bolster business success in the dynamic legal technology sector.
Eight Years of Continuous Innovation: A Partnership Built for the Future
Beyond the efficacy of any single feature, what Susanne Poole values most deeply in the partnership with Workable is the platform’s unwavering commitment to continuous evolution and innovation. The Workable platform she initially signed with in 2018 is, by her own admission, meaningfully different and significantly more advanced than the version she utilizes today. This constant enhancement, she asserts, is precisely "how it should be" for a technology partner.
Poole expressed her admiration for this dynamic development, stating, "The innovation that has come out of Workable, I can’t keep up with it. The Workable we had in 2018 is completely different to the Workable we have now, and that is how it should be." For a technology company like LEAP, choosing a hiring platform that consistently innovates is not merely a preference; it is a fundamental requirement for staying competitive and responsive to the rapidly changing demands of the talent market. The legal tech industry itself is characterized by swift technological advancements, and LEAP’s ability to attract and retain top-tier talent is directly linked to its sophisticated and adaptable recruitment infrastructure. Workable’s proactive development ensures that LEAP remains equipped with cutting-edge tools to meet its evolving talent needs, supporting its strategic growth and maintaining its market leadership. After eight years of a mutually beneficial relationship, the partnership between LEAP Legal Software and Workable continues to thrive, showing no signs of faltering, and underscoring the enduring value of strategic technological alliances in the modern business landscape.
