What a SaaS Company Gained by Rethinking Talent Acquisition

A traditional approach to recruiting can surface the talent your company needs—until it falls short. When Crownpeak’s growth outpaced its ability to find the skills and professionals it needed, Alfie Callan-Shropshall, head of talent for the SaaS (software as a service) company, realized the status quo was unsustainable.

Crownpeak is a digital experience platform (DXP) trusted by leading brands like Bosch, Asics, and Daimler to help drive commerce, loyalty, and engagement. The DXP offers a robust product set—including content management, natively integrated accessibility, and digital quality assurance tools—to deliver personalized content seamlessly across all devices and platforms.

As Crownpeak moved through its acquisition of Attraqt in late 2022, the two entities merged into a new company that was comparatively larger and in a consistent state of growth. The talent acquisition (TA) team found itself lagging. “Our time to hire was close to three months,” Callan-Shropshall said. “We couldn’t continue to push every need through a direct recruitment model.”

Instead, the team looked for a flexible talent solution that was ready to scale. “When we can quickly find people who fulfill those needs—that’s fuel in the engine for any business.”

A traditional approach to talent comes at a cost

To make the most effective talent-related decisions in the past, incoming requests would trigger a thorough review process. This enabled Crownpeak to go to market with “the right role, described in the right way, with the right salary and the right package at the right time.”

The traditional talent model gave Crownpeak three ways to access the skilled expertise they needed: full-time hiring, permanent hiring with contracts, or interim hires. The TA team would start with a needs analysis to determine the skills, experience, and attributes that were missing. Then they would measure any identified gaps against backfill and expansion strategies.

The result? “It took a very high amount of effort to even get close to hiring someone,” Callan-Shropshall explained.

And that’s if they could find the professionals they were looking for. “The right person isn’t always waiting for you,” he continued. In a direct recruitment model, if you don’t fulfill the need, you just go back and do it again. And again. And again. Until you find the person you need—or not.

“You can go through the cycle a couple of times, and that time forces trade-offs you can’t get back,” Callan-Shropshall said. “If you extrapolate that effort across the number of vacancies we typically have as a growth business—one with a lean TA team—you can get a sense of the challenges we faced. We couldn’t scale. And we needed to.”

Finding the right talent at the right time on Upwork

Introduced to Upwork through several channels, Callan-Shropshall quickly saw the power of the global work marketplace. Already a remote-friendly business with offices located around the world, it wasn’t a stretch for Crownpeak to go where the talent was.

However, it also became apparent that to build a more flexible and growth-oriented workforce, Crownpeak would need to rethink their hiring strategy.

“Moving from traditional role-based recruitment to skill sourcing and needs-based engagement was a journey,” Callan-Shropshall said. Over six months, the TA team methodically introduced Upwork to leaders and hiring managers throughout Crownpeak, emphasizing the potential impact of independent talent.

“One big shift is understanding that the value of talent isn’t where they are or what time zone they’re in,” Callan-Shropshall said. “What matters is how they interact with our company, the value of the work they produce, and the problem they solve.”

Without the talent they found on Upwork, Callan-Shropshall said, he doesn’t know how Crownpeak’s trajectory may have changed.

“What’s the value of a project going out on time—and what’s the impact if it doesn’t? Without independent talent, would we have been able to deliver the same quality? Would we have had the right skills on the team? There’s an opportunity cost when you can’t get the talent you need into place.”

Speed, transparency, and leverage for a talent acquisition team

Crownpeak’s updated talent strategy has allowed them to source and engage independent talent in an average of nine days, in contrast to their 90-day time-to-hire average for traditional recruiting. “Even when our time-to-hire is at the one- or two-week mark, with pre-vetted professionals coming to us through talent services, we generally have one- or two-day turnarounds,” Callan-Shropshall said.

“The cumulative impact of time saved over the past year or so, after engaging tens of independent professionals? Literally hundreds of days of talent acquisition time and hiring manager time.”

But speed isn’t the only boost the new talent model has given to Crownpeak.

Energy that can be redirected where it’s needed more

By leveraging features such as compliance services and the Upwork Payroll solution, Callan-Shropshall’s team has been able to refocus. “As a business, particularly after the acquisition of Attraqt, we were juggling so many balls,” he said. “By taking several important functions largely off our plate, we can put our energy into other aspects of our growth strategy.”

Simplified screening with detailed talent profiles

On Upwork, an independent professional’s profile provides a snapshot of their experience within the work marketplace. This includes earned talent badges, which highlight proven talent and expertise, and a Job Success Score, which reflects a professional or agency’s reputation on Upwork.

“Each profile includes a summary of a professional’s experience in their own words,” said Callan-Shropshall. Profiles may also feature key skills, portfolio samples, feedback from previous clients, and other information to help quantify projects they’ve completed on Upwork. “That kind of transparency is something we don’t get with other talent sourcing models.”

Better visibility into rates and availability

Sometimes, Callan-Shropshall explained, the TA team knows the type of talent they need as well as the budget needed to engage a professional. But they don’t always know what to budget for a defined scope of work. With rates and location readily available from talent on Upwork, the TA team can gather critical information from the start of their search. “That visibility gives us a lot more flexibility,” he said.

Upwork is a trusted and vital talent source

“We need access to niche skills that are really hard to replace if we lose them and really hard to find if we're expanding,” Callan-Shropshall said. “Hiring managers trust that when they come to us, we can use Upwork and our other sources to make sure their need is filled.”

This trust has built up over time, not only because of the consistent quality of talent discovered on Upwork but also thanks to the TA team’s ability to find the exact expertise that’s needed.

“There have been multiple instances where a hiring manager has believed a skillset was too niche—or too critical to success—to source except through direct recruitment,” Callan-Shropshall said. “We believe differently, and we’ve consistently been able to fill those requirements.”

Without Upwork, Callan-Shropshall thinks there’d be a loss of productivity and increased stress as teams hustled to fill gaps. “Ultimately, Upwork has been a vital source for us. Our TA function would not be able to cope if we were still doing work the old way.”

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