LEAP Legal Software, a global leader in cloud-based practice management solutions for small law firms, has achieved remarkable success in optimizing its talent acquisition strategy through an eight-year partnership with Workable, a prominent applicant tracking system. The collaboration has yielded substantial improvements across key recruitment metrics, including a 20-hour weekly time saving for HR during peak periods, the elimination of external recruiter spend for operational roles, and a groundbreaking 100% internal referral rate for all US hires over the past year. These results underscore the transformative potential of integrated HR technology in supporting rapid global expansion and fostering a high-quality, diverse workforce.
LEAP’s Journey: From Australian Roots to Global Legal Tech Powerhouse
Founded more than three decades ago in Australia, LEAP Legal Software has evolved from a pioneering local entity into a formidable international presence, serving legal professionals across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. With approximately 900 employees worldwide, the company’s growth trajectory reflects the burgeoning demand for innovative legal technology that streamlines operations for small law firms. The US arm of LEAP, specifically focusing on critical support, sales, client success, and implementation roles, is spearheaded by Susanne Poole, whose remit encompasses all aspects of people management, recruitment, and organizational culture. Like many HR leaders in fast-growing technology companies, Poole has often operated as a lean, agile team, tasked with maintaining a robust hiring engine while simultaneously managing a broad spectrum of HR responsibilities. This context of rapid scaling and lean operations made the efficiency and strategic impact of its talent acquisition platform paramount.
The Pre-Workable Predicament: Navigating Recruitment Challenges in a Scaling Environment
Before adopting Workable in December 2018, LEAP’s recruitment processes were managed through a module embedded within its existing Human Resources Information System (HRIS). While technically functional, this setup presented significant operational friction. The system was characterized by its clunky interface and lack of intuitive design, hindering seamless workflow. A critical deficiency was its inability to automate communications with hiring managers, necessitating a laborious manual follow-up process by Poole. She was required to physically track down individuals, issue repeated reminders, and provide constant updates on candidate statuses. For a sole HR professional overseeing a rapidly expanding global enterprise, this administrative drag was unsustainable and severely limited her capacity for strategic HR initiatives.
Furthermore, the previous system imposed severe limitations on job board access and distribution capabilities. In an increasingly competitive global talent market, a growing technology company requires broad and efficient reach to attract diverse candidates. LEAP’s prior setup could not distribute job postings with the necessary volume or breadth, a constraint that proved particularly acute for a business operating across multiple international geographies with distinct talent pools. "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," Poole recounted, highlighting the core challenge. "We struggled with our previous system in doing that." The operational bottlenecks and restricted reach underscored an urgent need for a more sophisticated and agile talent acquisition solution.
Strategic Shift: Why Workable Became the Chosen Partner in 2018
In 2018, as LEAP embarked on evaluating alternative recruitment platforms, the organization was still operating with a startup mentality, prioritizing agility and cost-effectiveness. Price was a significant consideration, effectively ruling out some of the more expensive enterprise-level platforms available in the market. However, the decision to partner with Workable was not solely economic; it was deeply rooted in LEAP’s identity as a technology company. Poole sought a platform that mirrored this ethos: smart, innovative, and genuinely intuitive. The chosen solution needed to minimize the need for extensive change management, ensuring that hiring managers across six countries would readily adopt and effectively utilize the system without significant training overhead.
Workable distinguished itself from the initial demonstration. Poole noted, "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." Key features that resonated deeply with LEAP’s requirements included Workable’s robust people search functionality and its multi-board job distribution capabilities. These were particularly crucial given LEAP’s imperative to hire across diverse geographies, each with unique talent landscapes. The ability to manage both UK and US hiring from a single, unified platform, rather than maintaining disparate or parallel systems, offered a strategic advantage in terms of consistency, efficiency, and data centralization. The intuitive design and forward-thinking features positioned Workable as the ideal partner to support LEAP’s ambitious global expansion.
Seamless Integration: The Frictionless Rollout Across Continents
The implementation of Workable across LEAP’s global operations was, in Susanne Poole’s words, "remarkably straightforward." This seamless rollout was a testament to Workable’s intuitive design and user-centric approach. To facilitate adoption, Poole disseminated instructional videos to hiring managers and conducted a limited number of workshops to bring teams online. Crucially, the process unfolded without any significant disruption to ongoing operations. For a company that had grown to between 500 and 600 employees at the time, such a frictionless transition is not a given and often represents a considerable organizational challenge. The inherent user-friendliness of the Workable platform proved to be the decisive factor.
"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," Poole confirmed. This rapid and widespread adoption was not accidental. It was a direct outcome of Workable’s design philosophy, which prioritizes usability for individuals who are not professional recruiters. Hiring managers, who already carry full responsibilities within their primary roles, typically have minimal patience for complex or unwieldy software. Workable successfully met these users where they were, providing a tool that was both powerful and effortlessly navigable, thereby maximizing engagement and operational efficiency from day one.
Tangible Returns: Quantifying the Impact of Workable on LEAP’s Operations
The strategic partnership with Workable has delivered a series of quantifiable and qualitative benefits that have profoundly reshaped LEAP’s talent acquisition landscape. The "Quick Results" table provided a snapshot of these achievements, each representing a significant operational improvement and a strategic advantage for the company.
Restoring HR Bandwidth: The 20-Hour Weekly Dividend
Perhaps the most immediate and impactful operational benefit following the transition to Workable was the significant reclamation of time for the HR team. During LEAP’s intense period of rapid scaling in 2018, the previous system necessitated an enormous volume of manual chasing, reminding, and coordinating of feedback. This administrative overhead consumed an "easily about 20 hours a week" of Susanne Poole’s valuable time. To put this into perspective, 20 hours represents half of a standard full-time work week. By eliminating this burden, Workable effectively provided LEAP with the equivalent of an additional half-time HR resource, without the associated cost.
With Workable’s automated communications, pipeline reminders, and real-time candidate status updates, this extensive manual overhead largely disappeared. The time saved was strategically reallocated towards higher-value activities: a deeper focus on candidate quality, more meaningful strategic conversations with hiring managers about long-term talent needs, and the proactive development of a robust talent pipeline. This shift enabled a lean HR team to operate at scale, pivoting from reactive administrative tasks to proactive, strategic talent management, directly supporting LEAP’s ambitious growth objectives.
The Power of the Network: 100% Internal Referrals Redefine Talent Strategy
One of the most impressive outcomes of LEAP’s Workable implementation is the transformation of its internal referral strategy. Over the past 12 months, a remarkable 100% of LEAP’s US hires have been sourced through internal referrals. This figure is not a mere coincidence; it is the deliberate result of a well-executed talent strategy built on leveraging the strength of the organization’s existing employee base and robustly supported by Workable’s integrated referral functionality.
Industry benchmarks for referral hiring typically hover between 20-30%, making LEAP’s 100% figure exceptionally high and indicative of a deeply ingrained, effective strategy. Rather than broadly posting roles and sifting through thousands of applications, particularly for support positions, Poole adopted a more considered and targeted approach: entrusting the company’s internal network. By utilizing Workable to efficiently manage the referral pipeline, LEAP ensures that new hires come recommended by individuals who already understand and embody the organization’s culture and values. "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," Poole stated, highlighting the strategic shift. This approach not only yields higher quality candidates with better cultural fit but also significantly reduces the time and cost associated with traditional recruitment channels.
Streamlined Cycles: Consistent Time-to-Hire and Time-to-Fill
The adoption of Workable has brought unprecedented consistency and predictability to LEAP’s hiring cycles. The average time-to-hire now stands at 4 weeks, while the average time-to-fill is 6 weeks. These metrics are crucial indicators of recruitment efficiency. Time-to-hire refers to the duration from the initial contact with a candidate to the offer acceptance, while time-to-fill measures the period from a job requisition opening to the new hire’s start date.
In a competitive market, these streamlined cycles are vital. Industry averages for time-to-hire can range from 30 to 60 days or more, depending on the role and industry. LEAP’s figures demonstrate a highly efficient process, ensuring that critical roles are filled promptly, minimizing potential productivity gaps. The ability to manage the entire candidate journey—from initial job posting to the new employee’s start date—within a single, integrated platform has been instrumental in achieving this consistency across a globally distributed organization. This predictability allows business units to plan more effectively and ensures a steady influx of talent to support ongoing operations and growth initiatives.
Eliminating External Dependency: Significant Savings in Recruiter Spend
A direct and highly beneficial consequence of LEAP’s optimized talent acquisition strategy, powered by Workable, has been the complete elimination of external recruiter spend for operational and support roles. External recruitment agencies typically charge substantial fees, often ranging from 20% to 30% of a hired candidate’s annual salary. For a company growing steadily and hiring numerous operational and support staff across multiple markets, these fees can quickly accumulate to significant costs.
Workable’s consistent ability to deliver qualified candidates through its various functionalities, particularly the robust referral system and efficient job board distribution, has rendered agency dependency obsolete for these critical role categories. This cost efficiency compounds over time, directly contributing to LEAP’s bottom line and allowing resources that would otherwise be spent on agency fees to be reinvested into other strategic areas, such as employee development, benefits, or further technological enhancements.
Unifying Global Operations: A Single Platform for Multi-National Hiring
LEAP’s global reach and diverse operational footprint—spanning Australia, the UK, and the US—present unique challenges for talent acquisition. Managing hiring across different legal frameworks, cultural nuances, and talent markets traditionally requires complex, disparate systems. Workable has provided a singular, unifying solution, enabling LEAP to manage recruitment for approximately 900 employees across six countries from one centralized platform.
This global adoption ensures consistency in recruitment processes, branding, and candidate experience, regardless of geographical location. It simplifies data management, reporting, and compliance, offering a holistic view of global talent pipelines. The ability to adapt to varying regional job board requirements and candidate sourcing strategies within a single system has been a critical enabler for LEAP’s international growth, mitigating the complexities and inefficiencies associated with fragmented HR technology stacks.
Elevating the Candidate Experience: Reliability and Respect in a Competitive Market
In today’s highly competitive hiring landscape, the candidate experience is not merely a courtesy; it is a critical component of employer branding and talent attraction. LEAP’s hiring process has significantly improved since Workable’s implementation, transforming the candidate journey into one characterized by reliability and professionalism. Automated messaging ensures that every applicant receives timely and professional responses at each stage of the process, irrespective of their ultimate success. This level of communication prevents candidates from feeling "lost in the system" and upholds LEAP’s brand reputation.
One of Susanne Poole’s most valued features is Workable’s self-scheduling tool. This functionality eliminates the cumbersome manual coordination of calendars across multiple stakeholders and candidates. Instead, candidates receive a link to select an interview time that aligns with their availability. This automation not only saves substantial administrative time—"Self-scheduling is brilliant… It is a huge time saver and it always works," Poole attests—but also conveys respect for the candidate’s time, making the process feel more efficient and candidate-centric. This streamlined approach contributes to a positive impression of LEAP as a modern, considerate employer, a crucial advantage in attracting top talent.
Championing Equity: Workable’s Role in Fostering Diversity Through Anonymization
LEAP Legal Software views diversity not merely as a compliance requirement but as a fundamental competitive advantage. In this context, Workable’s candidate anonymization feature holds particular strategic importance. This functionality allows for the removal of identifying information—such as names, gender, age, or educational institutions—from candidate profiles before they reach hiring managers. This is more than a procedural step; it is a deliberate choice to mitigate unconscious bias in the initial stages of candidate evaluation.
Unconscious biases are inherent human tendencies that can inadvertently influence decision-making, leading hiring managers, however well-intentioned, to gravitate towards candidates who mirror their own backgrounds or demographics. Anonymization disrupts this pattern, compelling decision-makers to evaluate candidates primarily on their skills, experience, and qualifications, rather than on pre-conceived notions based on personal identifiers. "It takes out that unconscious bias thing that we all have, much as we don’t want to have it," Poole explained. "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." This feature directly supports LEAP’s commitment to building a diverse workforce, ensuring structural fairness in its hiring practices and ultimately strengthening the organization through varied perspectives and talents.
A Partnership for the Future: Eight Years of Continuous Innovation and Adaptability
What Susanne Poole values as much as any individual feature is Workable’s unwavering commitment to continuous innovation. The platform LEAP adopted in 2018 is meaningfully different from the one they utilize today, a testament to Workable’s ongoing development and responsiveness to evolving market needs. "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," Poole observed.
For a technology company like LEAP, selecting a hiring platform that consistently innovates is not merely a preference; it is a fundamental requirement. The legal tech landscape, like all technology sectors, is dynamic, demanding agile and forward-thinking solutions. Workable has consistently demonstrated this adaptability, evolving its features and functionalities to meet the contemporary challenges of talent acquisition. This continuous evolution ensures that LEAP remains equipped with a cutting-edge tool that can adapt to future hiring demands and technological shifts. After eight years, the strategic relationship between LEAP Legal Software and Workable shows no signs of faltering, solidifying its role as a cornerstone of LEAP’s global success.
Broader Implications: LEAP’s Model for Modern Talent Acquisition
LEAP Legal Software’s experience with Workable provides a compelling case study for organizations navigating rapid growth in competitive sectors. The strategic adoption of an intuitive, feature-rich applicant tracking system has not only resolved immediate operational inefficiencies but has also become a catalyst for a more strategic, cost-effective, and equitable talent acquisition approach. By achieving a 100% internal referral rate for US hires, significantly reducing time-to-hire and time-to-fill, and eliminating external recruiter spend for key roles, LEAP has demonstrated how HR technology can transform recruitment from a cost center into a strategic advantage. The emphasis on candidate experience and the proactive use of features like anonymization further underscore LEAP’s commitment to modern, inclusive hiring practices. As the global talent market continues to evolve, LEAP’s model exemplifies how thoughtful investment in HR technology can underpin sustained growth and foster a thriving organizational culture.
