Regional Sales Leadership hires build strong relationships and Achieve President’s Club

Summary

Workiva built the only cloud-native (SaaS) platform for reporting and compliance that simplifies mission-critical financial work by uniting financial reporting, ESG, internal audit, risk, and more. Workiva engaged AstroHire during a hyper-growth phase and through the World’s declining Bear stock market. We were tasked to spread Workiva’s employer value proposition across the talent market to engage and hire Senior Enterprise Regional Sales territory leaders.

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HIRING CHALLENGES

Competitors’ resources - Competition for this talent is intense, especially for engineers with high experience designing and developing software and internet-related services, senior sales executives, and professional services personnel. Many companies with which Workiva competes for experienced personnel have greater resources than Workiva.

Market timing - Major U.S. indexes post their worst year since 2008 - The Dow stock market fared the best of the indexes in 2022, down about 8.8%. The S&P 500 sank 19.4%, more than 20% below its record high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 33.1%.

Adapting to Virtual Interviews - We had to learn to effectively collaborate and deliver strong candidate experiences during this pandemic when all interviews were virtual.

Disrupting Competitors - Convincing passive external candidates that Workiva, the newer market disruptor, was the employer of choice versus mainstay industry players such as Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN), Workday, NASDAQ, and Thomson Reuters.

Company reorganization- During our recruiting engagement, Workiva reorganized its business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (“EMEA”) to align operations, sales, and marketing functions globally.

Candidate Confidence - Candidates were NOT eager to leave secure jobs with the Covid-motivated Bear Market.

RESULTS

Quick Time-to-Hire - In under 45 days, AstroHire placed a Regional Sales Director.

Recruiting ROI of 500+% - We can’t share exact numbers, but we know that industry-wide-wide, an Enterprise Sales hire that reaches quota and stays at a SaaS company for 2+ years can produce a Recruiting ROI of 300% to 800%.

Leadership traits - AstroHire’s Workiva candidate was nominated by Workiva management to participate in a Leadership Development Program.

High-impact hires - AstroHire’s Workiva candidate hire has achieved President’s Club for Top Performers by building relationships, continuous self-development, and crushing sales goals. The Regional Sales Director has been at Workiva for two years.

Positioning Workiva value- During our search, Workiva was named among the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Great Place to Work and Fortune magazine as we engaged multiple candidates.

Resources:

Workiva’s Q1’2022 - Quarterly Earning Press Release during the project.

Increased Q1 2022 Subscription & Support Revenue by 26.1% over Q1 2021
Generated Total Q1 2022 Revenue of $129.7 Million, up 24.4% over Q1 2021
Achieved 31.9% YOY Growth of Customers with Annual Contract Value Over $150K

Best Companies to Work For, Experienced Sales Talent, SEC Financial Reporting, Financial Data and Insights, Revenue Growth, New hires that Stay, (Quick) Time-to-hire, B2B.

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