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Global Relay Case Study

Global Relay, a leading provider of cloud technology services for the financial industry, faced a challenge in rapidly scaling up their European team to support their growing headquarters. To achieve this, they partnered with Understanding Recruitment, a tech recruitment agency specialising in the Java sector, to provide quality tech talent and expert advice on software recruitment. Despite the obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the partnership was highly successful, delivering over 224 talented individuals to Global Relay and accelerating their growth in the European market.


Client Overview


Global Relay was established in 1999 in Vancouver, Canada, providing software services to the financial industry. Over the years, the technology services company has expanded its offerings and operations, currently serving over 20,000 customers in 35 countries worldwide.

As a leader in cloud technology, Global Relay specialises in electronic communications archiving, messaging, eDiscovery, supervision, and information governance, employing more than 1,000 people across the globe.

To support its European headquarters' growth, Understanding Recruitment has been a crucial partner, providing quality tech talent and expert advice on software recruitment. In 2020, Global Relay turned to Understanding Recruitment to scale up its European team, and the partnership has proven instrumental in achieving this goal.


The Challenges


Global Relay faced a significant challenge when they urgently needed to scale up their team to support their growing European headquarters, which was expected to reach 100 people by the end of 2020. 

Understanding Recruitment, with its years of experience in recruiting in the Java sector, was the perfect partner to not only provide Global Relay with top talent but also advise and support them throughout the process. 

With their knowledge of the London market, the Understanding Recruitment team were able to offer guidance on everything from the ideal salary bandings for different roles to conducting effective interviews to secure the most sought-after tech talent. 

Charlotte Young, Senior Java Recruitment Executive, worked closely with Global Relay, including Steve Taylor, Lead Recruitment Specialist, Jerry Gill, Vice President of Software Engineering, and Joyce Hung, VP of HR, to understand the company culture, ambitions, and employee offerings. Despite being a new relationship, Understanding Recruitment was able to deliver quality developer talent, accelerating Global Relay's growth in the European market.


The Solution


Although the COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for recruitment and onboarding, all parties adapted and embraced an effective remote interview process, working around the time difference with Canada.

Charlotte explains, "The biggest challenge of this ongoing partnership with Global Relay undoubtedly has been hiring during the pandemic which started in the UK in March 2020, which was only two months after the company announced their big plans to build European headquarters. Global Relay's ambitions remained unchanged, so as with most obstacles, you adapt to a new way of working and delivering, and our interview and recruitment process became fully remote."

To educate on timescales and how quickly the London tech market moves, Understanding Recruitment provided salary reports, identified pre-screening technical questions, and created an interview structure based on their market knowledge. Bi-quarterly catch-ups were also held with hiring managers and heads of departments to fine-tune the hiring process.

Charlotte adds, "Scaling an HQ almost from scratch is a very different process in the UK from Canada too. We had to start with recruiting Senior Developer talent for the first three months or so, all interviewing was predominantly conducted with Vancouver-based employees, so working around the time difference required a lot of effort on both sides. We developed a seamless process that works extremely well."


Results


Understanding Recruitment's partnership with Global Relay has been highly successful, delivering quality developer talent to accelerate the growth of Global Relay's European market. The first placement was made in April 2020, and since then, over 224 talented individuals have joined Global Relay to propel their software-as-a-service offering forward. One of the key placements made by Understanding Recruitment was Simon Tomlinson, who was placed in the role of Engineering Manager to lead the London headquarters.

The partnership is set to continue as Global Relay plans to expand its team with new Java developer roles, grow its Application Support team, and potentially explore Machine Learning & AI. Charlotte Young, Senior Java Recruitment Executive, is excited to continue helping the team grow even further in 2022 and beyond. "What has been an extremely rewarding partnership is set to continue in the future, and I'm very excited to continue supporting Global Relay's growth," she concludes.

Just some of the 224+ roles Understanding Recruitment have filled for Global Relay across Development, User Experience & more:

  • Junior, Intermediate, Senior, Lead Java Developers
  • Intermediate, Senior React Developers
  • Intermediate, Senior, Lead Software Developer in Test
  • Full Stack (Java/React) Developers
  • Software Engineering Managers
  • Technical Product Managers
  • Technical Product Owners
  • Product Directors
  • Junior, Intermediate, Senior Lead SRE/DevOps Engineers
  • Kubernetes Application Developers
  • UI Designers
  • UX Designers
  • UX Directors
  • iOS Developers
  • Senior Android Developers
  • Senior Architects


Conclusion

Global Relay, a technology services company based in Canada, had a significant challenge when they urgently needed to scale up their team to support their growing European headquarters. To achieve this goal, Global Relay turned to Understanding Recruitment, a recruitment agency with expertise in the Java sector. 

Understanding Recruitment provided Global Relay with quality tech talent, advised and supported them throughout the recruitment process, and accelerated their growth in the European market. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the partnership has been highly successful, delivering over 224 talented individuals to Global Relay's European team, and is set to continue as Global Relay plans to expand further.

It’s been great to work with Global Relay on building their team because we have been able to bring our specialist experience of the UK software development market to assist with recruitment processes and a pool of talent that operates very differently to Canada. It has been a fantastic opportunity to help scale a European HQ which began with a handful of employees to over 250 in under 24 months – and during a global pandemic and all the challenges that can bring! Building strong relationships and partnerships with a team committed to forward-thinking tech practices and building a strong collaborative culture has been extremely rewarding. We have been able to work with the Global Relay team to create and tailor a recruitment process that aligns with their ambitious hiring plans whilst working with hiring managers directly to ensure we secure the talent they need. I’m very excited to continue helping the team grow even further in 2022 and beyond!
Charlotte Young - Senior Java Recruitment Executive Understanding Recruitment
I have worked with James & Charlotte and co for nearly two years now. They understand the engineering group we are trying to build, they understand what good looks like for the types of people we are looking to hire, and they have consistently delivered high quality applicants with very little drop in volume despite a very tough market at times. They are professional whilst also being thoroughly enjoyable to work with and I would probably say they know our business better than any other agency.
Simon Tomlinson - Director, Software Engineering London Global Relay
We have worked with James, Charlotte and their team for the better part of two years, during a time when we were dramatically scaling our operations in London. They played an instrumental role in helping us to hire a significant number of technical people, including Java Developers, SDET’s, React Developers, DevOps Engineers, Product Managers and a few others. The communication and collaboration with their team has further enabled a very fruitful relationship, and it’s fair to say that we have found a strategically in Understanding Recruitment.
Steve Taylor - Lead Recruitment Global Relay
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