How We Are Social cut time to hire and unified global recruiting with Workable

Who is We Are Social?

We Are Social is a global social-first creative agency with offices spanning multiple continents and a client roster that includes some of the world’s most recognizable brands, among them Adidas, Amazon Music, and Lucozade. The agency creates social content and campaigns at scale, operating at the intersection of culture, creativity, and data.

With just over 1,000 employees globally, We Are Social hires across an exceptionally wide range of disciplines, from content creators and community managers to global heads of research and insights. The breadth of the talent pool, and the global footprint required to access it, makes recruiting both a strategic priority and a logistical challenge.

We Are Social has been a Workable customer for four and a half years.

Quick Results

What Hiring Looked Like Before Workable

Before Workable, recruiting at We Are Social was held together by a patchwork of Google Sheets. Candidate information was scattered across multiple trackers, owned by different teams, and updated inconsistently. There was no centralized place to give feedback, no reliable way to ensure process consistency, and no clear view of what was happening across the agency’s global offices.

The candidate experience suffered as a result. Without a structured communication workflow, the quality and timeliness of candidate touchpoints was uneven. Some candidates moved quickly through a well-managed process. Others fell through the gaps.

The broader picture was equally unclear. With no unified data, the talent acquisition team had no reliable way to understand hiring performance across markets, identify where processes were breaking down, or make informed decisions about where to focus improvement efforts.

“The hiring process before Workable was pretty slow. It was very clunky. We were looking for one source of truth, an opportunity to have everything in one place, and an understanding of what that looked like globally.”

Why Workable

We Are Social needed more than a database. They needed a platform that could standardize process without sacrificing the flexibility required to operate across very different markets, a tool that hiring managers could actually use, and a system that would make the talent acquisition team’s work visible and measurable.

Workable addressed each of those needs. A single platform to manage candidates globally. Automation to reduce manual coordination. Reporting to surface data that had never existed before. And a structure that could support the agency’s commitment to skills-based hiring without requiring a complete overhaul of how people worked.

How Workable Changed Hiring at We Are Social

1. One Source of Truth Across a Global Agency

The shift from scattered spreadsheets to a single ATS fundamentally changed how the talent acquisition team operates. Candidate information, communication history, interview feedback, and pipeline status now live in one place, accessible to everyone who needs it.

For an agency with offices across multiple regions, that centralization matters beyond convenience. It means a hiring manager in one market can operate from the same baseline as a counterpart in another, with no ambiguity about where a candidate stands or what has already been communicated.

2. Faster Hiring, With Data to Prove It

Since implementing Workable, We Are Social has seen a meaningful reduction in time to hire and time to fill, averaging five to ten days across markets. That improvement varies by location and role, but the consistency of the gain reflects a more disciplined, better-supported process.

Critically, Simon points to the data itself as one of the most significant outcomes. For the first time, the team can actually measure what is happening and make evidence-based arguments for where and how to improve.

“The biggest benefit is the fact that we have the data to actually be able to say and assess that. We now have a broader picture of what recruitment looks like for We Are Social.”

3. A Candidate Experience That Keeps Pace With the Brand

We Are Social builds campaigns for some of the world’s most sophisticated consumer brands. The agency’s own candidate experience needed to reflect that standard. Before Workable, it often did not.

Workable’s automated communications have closed that gap. When a candidate moves from application to phone screen, an email goes out immediately. No delay. No manual follow-up required. Candidates know where they stand, and the agency looks like the professional, responsive organization it is.

• Automated stage-transition emails keep candidates informed at every step
• Recruiters can track when communication last occurred and act on gaps
• Consistent touchpoints across markets regardless of individual hiring manager habits

4. Automation That Removes the Recruitment Manager as Bottleneck

One of the more practical gains has been in how hiring manager accountability is managed. Previously, chasing feedback was a recurring drain on the talent acquisition team’s time. Workable’s automated notifications have changed that dynamic.

When a candidate needs evaluation, the hiring manager receives an automated prompt. The recruiter does not need to intervene. Feedback comes in, gets logged centrally, and can be used to construct a high-quality response for the candidate.

“I love the fact that each hiring manager gets a notification to say we need feedback on a candidate. It isn’t just me having to chase them. They get that automated.”

5. Scorecards That Support Skills-Based Hiring

We Are Social operates as a skills-based hiring organization, which means the quality of candidate evaluation matters as much as the speed. Workable’s scorecard functionality has become central to how the agency approaches that challenge.

Hiring managers are prompted to complete structured evaluations tied to the competencies that matter for each role. Scores are visible, comparable, and feed into an overall assessment that makes hiring decisions more defensible and more consistent across teams and markets.

• Role-specific scorecards prompt structured, skills-focused evaluation
• Scores are centralized and visible to all relevant stakeholders
• Overall assessments support fairer, more consistent hiring decisions

6. Reporting That Enables Strategic Thinking

Access to data has elevated the talent acquisition function from operational to strategic. The team can now report on candidate source, time to hire, time to fill, and pipeline health, not just globally but by market. That granularity changes the conversation.

Rather than generalizing about where recruiting is performing well or poorly, Simon can point to specific markets, specific stages, and specific patterns. The data gives the team both the credibility and the context to drive meaningful improvement.

A Partner, Not Just a Platform

Beyond the product, Simon singles out Workable’s customer service as a defining part of the relationship. The support team has been consistently responsive and genuinely helpful, which matters for a lean talent acquisition function operating across multiple time zones and markets.

“In addition to Workable being a great product, the customer service is definitely one of the key highlights. Super supportive, super helpful, and always on hand when we need them.”

Business Impact

Four and a half years into their Workable partnership, We Are Social has a talent acquisition function that is faster, more consistent, and more data-driven than at any point in the agency’s history. The move from spreadsheets to a unified platform has removed structural friction at every stage of the hiring process.

Hiring managers are more accountable. Candidates receive a better experience. The talent acquisition team has the visibility it needs to manage a complex global operation and the data to improve it continuously.

For a creative agency whose work depends on attracting exceptional talent across disciplines and geographies, that is not a back-office improvement. It is a competitive advantage.