Hiring Salesforce Employees: Richard Ferriman (Client Background)
Richard’s career has spanned a period of 25 years, most of that in the software industry. He was an early employee with Visio corporation before it was acquired by Microsoft and was then part of the transition team integrating Visio into the Microsoft portfolio. Richard then went to IBM in their software team selling emerging technologies such as WebSphere into the large retail chains. In 2009 Richard co founded a small managed services company which was successful but he felt he wanted t break out on his own. In 2011 he made the ultimate leap and set up his own Salesforce Consulting business.
As this business grew, one of the key challenges that faced Richard was the ability to secure high-quality Salesforce employees that also had a passion for the Non-profit sector, Richard’s key target market.
It was then that Richard had a chance meeting with Lee and Theresa Durrant, the founders of Resource on Demand. Richard was instantly taken with their different attitude to recruitment and the way that they engaged with both candidates and clients to find a match that wasn’t just a quick deal, but a long-lasting asset to his business.
The Challenges of Recruiting Salesforce Employees
Richard’s experience of recruitment companies to that point has been rather painful. He had not yet found a recruitment company that would take time to understand his business, a ‘partner’ who would consider non-standard ways of working that would prove to be a win/win for both sides. A recruitment company that wouldn’t just throw hundreds of CVs at him and expect a fee. That was until he started working with Lee and Theresa at ROD.
In the early stages of growing his Salesforce business, Richard would sometimes need to make a frantic phone call at 7:30 pm at night to Lee to see if he could find a Salesforce contractor to start the next morning on a client site as a member of Richard’s team had let him down at the last minute.
Speed and efficiency were vital in the early days and meant his team could react quickly and offer the Salesforce customer the service they wanted. This set and continued to set, ROD apart from the competition.
What happened next?
Lee and Theresa’s approach to their business and the service they offer enabled Richard to grow his business into the #1 Salesforce partner for the Salesforce.com ecosystem.
They knew the type of candidate that would thrive in the business and also have room to grow, so instead of sending 100’s of Salesforce CV’s blindly, they would send 2 or 3 that they knew would fit his business’ culture perfectly. This built a large degree of trust in their partnership as well as quantifiable value and return on investment due to the excellent and right Salesforce candidates ROD provided.
What was Richard’s experience of working with Resource On Demand?
Over the past 8 years Resource On Demand recruited more than 30 Salesforce Consultants, Developers, Business Analysts, Project Managers and Architects for Richard’s business.
He valued the following qualities and characteristics;
- Lee and Theresa were very responsive and willing to find different ways of doing things. When Richard’s company needed a Salesforce candidate, he knew they would work very hard to find the right person not just word match on a CV.
- ROD made it a priority to get to know Richard and his business. They appreciated that he often recruited on getting the right ‘personality’ fit as much as an ‘experience’ fit. The ROD team again worked tirelessly to fit people who they knew, from their experience working with Richard, would be good for his team and of course good for business.
Would you recommend Resource On Demand and why?
“Resource On Demand is just different. They stand head and shoulders above everybody else. They were the first recruitment company to specialise in Salesforce skills. They are not a massive organisation with huge overheads and growth targets, which means that their advice is not tailored in a way to line their own pockets, which is absolutely the case when you speak to other, bigger agencies who are pressurised into making the next sale regardless of the fit. ROD are about the Salesforce eco-system, their candidates careers and their clients’ businesses.
They will find the right role or candidate for you. It may take them longer but this is your Salesforce career or your business, so what would you prefer?
It may mean that you’ve got to have more time working with them. But at the same time, ROD is not going to put a candidate forward for to a client if they don’t think that person is right for the role and company.”
“I like the fact that they are a Founder-led business and the people that work for them are made in their own image.”
“ The ROD team are hard-working, and I know that they are well supported behind the scenes as I’ve seen it first hand, and at the same time I also know that I’ve got full access to Lee or Theresa if something isn’t quite right or something’s gone wrong like a candidate pulling out of the process.”
“To be perfectly honest, I can’t particularly distinguish between working with ROD as a client or candidate, because the trust I have in them comes from the fact I’ve built trust and a business friendship as human beings, not just a number.”
“They do pull out all the stops when they know I need something. Which is lovely”.
“As a candidate, it’s knowing that if you’re going to talk to them, they’re going to get feedback for you which isn’t always the case with other recruiters.”
“I suppose the key thing for me, and this is a very personal thing, is that they know me and by knowing me, ROD know the opportunities that are real and those that are not.”
Richard Ferriman July 2018