Travix is a global online travel company that manages a suite of leading booking brands, including Cheaptickets.nl, BudgetAir and Vliegwinkel. Formed in 2011, Travix experienced incredible success in a relatively short time. With demand for their services sky high, they put together a new development roadmap. They would need to rapidly expand their stretched .NET engineering team, growing from 25 to 50 specialist engineers with three months to deliver it.

The Netherlands is a hotbed for software engineering, and locally attracting the best talent is highly competitive. Recruiting 25 new engineers at speed could quickly have become a significant distraction and full-time task for management and current engineers. Travix worked with a small roster of recruitment agencies, including Arrows Group, for previous job placements. We looked at the scale and speed of this project and realised that a different solution was required. One that would allow Travix to recruit in even less time than anticipated. The existing engineering team were based at the company headquarters in Amsterdam.

Arrows Group created a multi-pronged solution for Travix and was appointed as an exclusive agency for these roles. We introduced a dedicated Client Partner, who applied our international specialist network, streamlined the interview process, and supported relocation for new hires.

The Client Partner was an experienced member of our Amsterdam team. They gained a deep understanding of company culture by being on-site, knew what was necessary with new hires, and could help and support the complete process. They worked on-site with Travix two days a week as the key point of contact between the CTO, Hiring Manager and recruiting teams at Arrows.

To rapidly find .NET engineers, we recommended extending the search outside the Netherlands. Travix has a very international mindset. English is the business language, making it highly appealing to candidates in different markets. Arrows Group has offices in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. Each office has specialist engineering teams, so we could easily tap into our international network. We agreed that Travix would focus on finding 15 engineers from the local market and Arrows Group the other 10.

Arrows Group also helped Travix streamline the interview process, using our OneDayTM methodology. Our applicant tracking system (ATS) meant all parties could easily see the real-time status of every candidate in the process. This approach changed the existing 4 to 5 stage interview process into a single-day flow, including “meet-and-greet” and pair programming tests.

Arrows Group secured eight accepted offers for Travix within eight weeks.

Thanks to our specialist international engineering network, we created a shortlist of candidates in three weeks. We advised Travix to select 16 people to take from the shortlist to interview. We then spaced the interview process across two rounds of 8 people. All first-round interviews were completed within six weeks, ten offers were made, and eight were accepted within eight weeks.

The offer to acceptance ratio was 16 offers to 8 acceptances. This approach improved their current ratio of 4 offers to 1 acceptance and exceeded our expectations of 2.5 to 1.

Most of the engineers found by Arrows Group had to relocate for the role. Our expertise around relocation meant we could give valuable support during this process. We got most people to start within their standard notice period, despite the change of country.

Recruiting within just eight weeks had several positive consequences for Travix. It reduced the time spent on recruitment by internal teams. Together with our streamlined interview process, existing staff only had to spend a couple of days a month on recruitment.

Bringing in new people so quickly was a massive boost for the existing engineers. They could see how rapidly support was coming in. And, of course, it allowed Travix to keep to their development road map, maintaining their soaring success.

The success of this project is also a testament to how engaged Travix was with the process. We are proud to have continued working with them across multiple roles, with a dedicated Client Partner remaining on site.