Moodle makes more time for strategy and sourcing using Workable

The challenge: Globally dispersed organization with no centralized system for hiring

Built on an open source philosophy, 140+ million educators use Moodle’s e-learning management system. Inspired by its mission to empower educators, it’s supported by a community of over 2 million. And there are 300+ developers who regularly contribute code. Buoyed by this, its core workforce has remained small. Until investment prompted change.

“Moodle was started in 2002 here in Perth and has generally operated on a small scale in terms of people,” says Holly Barnes, Head of People and Culture at Moodle. “But, with investment in place and the business growing, it was time to start hiring again. Over the past year Moodle has almost doubled in size.”

Recruitment focused on developing its support functions as well as its core development team. But, without a centralized system for managing hiring, it was losing out on talent.

“We were doing everything through email and the mix of different ATSs we had. We didn’t have one consistent place where our candidate info was stored,” says Holly. “Everything was all over the place. We missed things all the time. This lost us some great people.”

Scheduling interviews was also clunky.

“We’re a globally dispersed organization with team members—and candidates—dotted around the world,” says Holly. “Booking interviews across time zones took so much time.”

And, without an effective tool for collaboration, candidate feedback was often lost.

“We used an instant messaging tool to communicate across hiring teams, creating chat rooms for each role,” says Holly. “It was such an inconsistent system. Nothing was tracked, there was no record of what was said in an interview with notes written on hardcopy CVs, and it was also hard to refer to documents like CVs or assessments.”

The solution: More than applicant tracking

Innovative tech underpins Moodle’s business. So it knew that innovative tech was also the answer to its hiring challenges. But, with so many providers to choose from, why Workable?

“We researched lots of systems,” says Holly. “Workable stood out as the most intuitive platform. It also offered more than applicant tracking. We loved its built-in candidate sourcing tool, People Search; it meant we didn’t need to rely on LinkedIn Recruiter. The BambooHR integration and GDPR compliance tools were competitive features that helped win us over.”

The outcome: A hiring process that supports the company’s tech-focused brand

Increased digitization through Workable means Moodle’s hiring better reflects its brand.

“Recruitment’s progressed from being paper-based and telephone-heavy to almost entirely online. This matches our ethos as a digital, e-learning platform.”

Before Workable, progress through the hiring pipeline was not tracked. Which meant talent often slipped through the net. Now, it’s using integrated assessment tools to reduce screening time. They’re also able to keep great candidates engaged throughout the process.

“It’s much easier now to make quick, informed decisions about candidates,’ says Holly. “Interview scorecards, the thumbs up / thumbs down feature and the dashboard view mean we can evaluate with pace. We can push our best candidates along the funnel quickly. And use the bulk email tool to contact unsuccessful candidates in a timely and sensitive way.”

The interview process is faster.

“The Google calendar integration has saved us so much time arranging interviews across different time zones,” says Holly.

And applying for jobs more straightforward.

“We link to our Workable-hosted careers page when we’re advertising jobs on our social media accounts,” says Holly. “This reduces the steps it takes to apply for jobs. And it means our candidate experience is boosted from the outset.”

The future: New integrations, more sourcing and data-driven strategic planning

With greater transparency across its global hiring operation, there’s less pressure on the People and Culture team. Which means more scope for strategic planning and training.

“Hiring managers now do their own shortlisting. This frees us up to add value elsewhere,” says Holly. “We can focus more time on candidate sourcing, using Workable’s built-in tools to target hard-to-fill roles. And explore new integrations (like Zapier) to enrich our toolkit.”

Workable’s also helping them define targets around candidate care.

“By using Workable, we plan to set internal, service level agreements,” says Holly. “Our aim is to have a charter which commits us to getting back to candidates within a certain time.”

Presenting evidence-based proposals for talent-related projects is also easier.

“Having access to built-in reporting tools has helped us articulate a narrative for other business cases” says Holly. “This gives us greater power and credibility moving forward.”