We Are Social, a prominent global social-first creative agency, has significantly streamlined its talent acquisition processes and bolstered its competitive edge through a four-and-a-half-year partnership with Workable, a leading applicant tracking system (ATS). The strategic integration has led to an average reduction in time-to-hire and time-to-fill by 5 to 10 days, alongside marked improvements in candidate experience, process consistency, and data-driven decision-making across its global operations. This transformation underscores a critical shift from fragmented manual systems to a unified, automated platform, addressing the complex recruitment demands of a rapidly expanding international agency.
We Are Social: A Global Creative Force
Founded on the principle of being "social-first," We Are Social has carved out a unique niche in the global marketing landscape. The agency operates at the dynamic intersection of culture, creativity, and data, crafting compelling social content and campaigns at scale for an enviable roster of global brands. Its client portfolio boasts industry titans such as Adidas, Amazon Music, and Lucozade, reflecting its capacity to deliver impactful, culturally resonant work across diverse sectors. With a workforce exceeding 1,000 employees distributed across multiple continents, We Are Social’s operational footprint is truly international, necessitating a sophisticated approach to talent management.
The agency’s success hinges on its ability to attract and retain top-tier talent across an exceptionally broad spectrum of disciplines. This includes creative roles like content creators and community managers, alongside strategic positions such as global heads of research and insights. This vast and varied talent pool, coupled with the imperative to recruit globally, presents a dual challenge: making recruitment a strategic priority while simultaneously navigating significant logistical complexities. In an industry where innovation and cultural relevance are paramount, the ability to quickly identify, engage, and onboard the right individuals is not merely an operational concern but a fundamental driver of business success and client satisfaction.
The Pre-Workable Landscape: A Patchwork of Inefficiency
Before the adoption of Workable, We Are Social’s recruitment infrastructure was characterized by a decentralized and largely manual system. The agency relied heavily on a disparate collection of Google Sheets, which served as individual trackers for candidate information. This approach, while initially seemingly cost-effective, quickly became a significant bottleneck as the agency grew in scale and complexity. Candidate data was scattered across multiple documents, often managed by different teams with inconsistent update schedules. This fragmentation created a severe lack of a "single source of truth," making it exceedingly difficult to gain a holistic view of recruitment activities across the agency’s global offices.
The ramifications of this fragmented system were far-reaching. A critical deficiency was the absence of a centralized mechanism for providing and collating feedback, hindering collaborative decision-making and objective candidate evaluation. Process consistency was virtually non-existent, leading to varying recruitment standards and experiences depending on the hiring team or geographic location. This lack of standardization inevitably compromised the candidate experience. Without a structured communication workflow, the timeliness and quality of interactions with potential hires were uneven. Some candidates might have navigated a relatively smooth and well-managed process, while others, unfortunately, "fell through the gaps," experiencing delays, lack of communication, or an overall inconsistent journey. In a competitive talent market, such inconsistencies can deter top candidates and damage employer branding.
Furthermore, the broader strategic picture of talent acquisition remained opaque. The absence of unified, reliable data meant that the talent acquisition team lacked the necessary insights to understand hiring performance across different markets. It was challenging to identify where processes were breaking down, pinpoint inefficiencies, or make data-driven decisions about where to focus improvement efforts. This meant that strategic adjustments were often based on anecdotal evidence rather than empirical data, impeding continuous improvement and scalability. The sentiment within the agency, as captured by a representative, highlighted this frustration: "The hiring process before Workable was pretty slow. It was very clunky. We were looking for one source of truth, an opportunity to have everything in one place, and an understanding of what that looked like globally." This statement encapsulates the urgent need for a robust, integrated solution capable of bringing order and visibility to their global recruitment efforts.
The Strategic Imperative for Workable
We Are Social’s decision to partner with Workable was driven by a clear understanding that their growing global footprint and diverse talent needs demanded more than a basic database. They required a sophisticated platform capable of addressing several critical strategic imperatives. Firstly, the agency needed a solution that could standardize recruitment processes across its varied international markets without sacrificing the flexibility essential for adapting to local nuances and cultural differences. This balancing act of global consistency and local adaptability is a hallmark challenge for multinational organizations.
Secondly, the chosen tool needed to be genuinely user-friendly for hiring managers, who are often busy and may lack extensive recruitment training. A system that was intuitive and seamlessly integrated into their existing workflows was crucial to ensure adoption and effective utilization. Thirdly, the talent acquisition team required a system that could make their work visible and measurable, providing tangible metrics to track performance, justify investments, and demonstrate impact. This shift towards data-driven talent acquisition was vital for elevating the function from an administrative task to a strategic business partner.
Workable emerged as the ideal solution by directly addressing each of these needs. Its robust platform offered a single, unified system for managing candidates globally, eliminating the fragmentation that had plagued We Are Social’s previous approach. The platform’s automation capabilities were instrumental in reducing manual coordination tasks, freeing up recruiters’ time to focus on strategic engagement rather than administrative overhead. Crucially, Workable’s comprehensive reporting functionalities provided access to data that had previously been unavailable, offering unprecedented insights into recruitment performance. Moreover, the system’s inherent structure was designed to support modern hiring methodologies, specifically aligning with We Are Social’s commitment to skills-based hiring, without necessitating a complete overhaul of their established operational frameworks. This blend of global reach, user-centric design, and powerful analytics made Workable a strategic necessity for an agency operating at the forefront of digital creativity.
Transformative Impact: A New Era of Talent Acquisition
The implementation of Workable marked a paradigm shift in how We Are Social approached talent acquisition, yielding a suite of quantifiable improvements and strategic advantages across various key metrics:
-
Accelerated Time to Hire and Time to Fill: Workable’s streamlined workflows and automation tools have been pivotal in reducing the average time to hire and time to fill by 5 to 10 days. This acceleration has direct and significant business impacts. Faster offers mean that We Are Social is more competitive in securing top talent, reducing the risk of losing desirable candidates to rival agencies. It also translates into reduced vacancy costs, as open roles are filled more quickly, minimizing productivity gaps and ensuring teams are fully staffed to meet client demands. The improved efficiency also contributes to a more positive candidate experience, as applicants move through the pipeline with greater speed and clarity.
-
Enhanced Candidate Experience: A cornerstone of We Are Social’s employer brand, the candidate experience has been dramatically improved through Workable’s automated stage-based communications. Across the entire recruitment pipeline, candidates now receive prompt, consistent, and professional responses at every touchpoint. This automation ensures that no candidate is left in the dark, fostering a sense of respect and transparency. In an industry where talent is highly sought after, a positive candidate experience is crucial for attracting and retaining top creative professionals, enhancing the agency’s reputation as an employer of choice.
-
Unprecedented Process Consistency: The transition from a fragmented collection of Google Sheets to a single Applicant Tracking System (ATS) has established Workable as the "one source of truth" for all recruitment activities. This centralized platform ensures consistent processes across all global offices and hiring teams, eliminating discrepancies in how candidates are managed, evaluated, and communicated with. This consistency not only streamlines operations but also promotes fairness and compliance across diverse regulatory environments, providing a unified and professional face to the global talent market.
-
Empowered Skills-Based Hiring: Reflecting modern best practices, Workable has facilitated We Are Social’s commitment to skills-based hiring. The integration of customizable scorecards directly into the hiring workflow ensures that evaluations are structured, objective, and evidence-based. This systematic approach helps to mitigate unconscious bias and ensures that candidates are assessed purely on their relevant abilities and potential, rather than subjective impressions. This results in more informed hiring decisions and a better fit between candidates and roles, ultimately strengthening the agency’s creative and strategic capabilities across every market.
-
Increased Hiring Manager Accountability: A common challenge in large organizations is ensuring timely feedback and engagement from hiring managers. Workable addresses this through automated feedback notifications and evaluation prompts. This system significantly reduces the need for recruiters to manually chase managers, allowing hiring managers to act faster and more consistently in their assessment duties. The automation fosters a culture of shared responsibility in the recruitment process, improving overall efficiency and collaboration between talent acquisition and hiring teams.
-
Robust Reporting and Analytics: Workable provides real-time data on critical recruitment metrics, including candidate source, time to hire, and time to fill. This rich data landscape offers We Are Social a clearer, more granular picture of its global recruitment health. The talent acquisition team can now identify trends, pinpoint areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies. This analytical capability is invaluable for strategic workforce planning, resource allocation, and demonstrating the tangible return on investment of recruitment efforts. By understanding which sources yield the best candidates or where bottlenecks occur, the agency can continuously refine its approach and maintain its competitive edge in talent acquisition.
A Partner, Not Just a Platform: The Value of Support
Beyond the tangible features and functionalities of the Workable product, the quality of customer service has been a defining element of the enduring partnership for We Are Social. A representative, identified as Simon, highlighted Workable’s customer support as a key differentiator. In a lean talent acquisition function operating across multiple time zones and diverse markets, responsive and genuinely helpful support is not merely a convenience but a critical operational necessity. The ability to quickly resolve issues, clarify functionalities, and receive timely assistance ensures uninterrupted recruitment operations and maximum utilization of the platform. Simon’s appreciation for the support team underscores a relationship built on trust and reliability: "In addition to Workable being a great product, the customer service is definitely one of the key highlights. Super supportive, super helpful, and always on hand when we need them." This level of dedicated partnership is crucial for global enterprises navigating the complexities of modern talent acquisition.
Broader Impact and Strategic Competitive Advantage
Four and a half years into its collaboration with Workable, We Are Social has cultivated a talent acquisition function that is fundamentally more agile, consistent, and data-driven than at any prior point in the agency’s history. The strategic pivot from a disparate, spreadsheet-based system to a unified, automated platform has systematically eliminated structural friction at every stage of the hiring process. This transformation has had a cascading positive effect across the organization.
Hiring managers are now more engaged and accountable, contributing more effectively to talent selection. Candidates, in turn, experience a significantly improved and professional journey, reinforcing We Are Social’s reputation as a desirable employer. Crucially, the talent acquisition team now possesses the unprecedented visibility required to manage a complex global operation and, perhaps more importantly, the actionable data to continuously refine and improve its strategies. This enables proactive rather than reactive talent management, aligning recruitment efforts closely with the agency’s evolving business objectives.
For a creative agency like We Are Social, whose very essence and success are predicated on its ability to attract, develop, and retain exceptional talent across a vast array of disciplines and geographical locations, these improvements are far from being mere "back-office" enhancements. They represent a profound and fundamental competitive advantage. In the fast-paced and highly competitive creative industry, the ability to consistently secure top talent quickly and efficiently is a direct determinant of an agency’s capacity to innovate, deliver outstanding client work, and ultimately, sustain its growth and market leadership. Workable has not just optimized a process; it has empowered We Are Social to strengthen its core asset: its people.
