Cyberhawk's story
Helping an established, drone tech company to grow their teams.
Cyberhawk
Mission: Keep people out of danger.
Cyberhawk use drones and their iHawk SaaS software to inspect critical energy assets, construction and infrastructure. Headquartered in Edinburgh, with offices around the world, Cyberhawk's solutions keep people out of danger and reduce the carbon footprint of their clients.
Cyberhawk approached Conga in Febuary 2022 after our service was recommended to them. They were an established business with big ambitions to grow their team and wanted expert talent acquisition consultancy to help them achieve their goals. They had tried using traditional recruitment methods and recruitment agencies, but this approach had not worked as they had hoped.
Delving into the problem, we found Cyberhawk had a challenging tech stack to hire for which was in very high demand. But, Cyberhawk do interesting work, drones are cool, their mission is purposeful, they offer hybrid or remote working, and they are based in a climbing centre next to a surfing centre!
We liked Cyberhawk and their ethos and we were confident that if we used innovative techniques and told their story well then we could find everyone they needed. We became the Cyberhawk Software Embedded Talent Team working directly with their HR and Software teams.
Journey from a small dev team to a full software product team.
We began by working with the people function and the development team, finding out about the team, the tech, the best things about working for Cyberhawk, the current process. We then advised on making adjustments to the process and how we were presenting ourselves, mapping everything out clearly so everyone knew what was required.
We focussed on improving the employee brand from the off and telling the story well with every interaction. We set up the technology specific platforms we needed for hiring tech talent handling everything from contract negotiation to writing and organising the page collateral. We rewrote all the collateral for adverts, candidate contact and organised the talent acquisition system so that it worked better for our needs.
We run the whole recruitment process and make improvements as we go. We are involved in the initial thoughts on what skills we need and the right cultural fit for each team. We organise everything and everyone involved in the process from screening, through testing, through a multistage interview process. We also helped make a video for tech candidates about what it is like to work in the tech team.
Cyberhawk often have hiring peaks and troughs, so we adjust our service as required.
The Cyberhawk Team:
Product Managers, Business Analysts, UX/UI Design, Senior, Mid and early career Engineers (Front end, Full stack, Back end), AI and Computer Vision, Testing and QA, DevOps. Product Support, Development Manager, Power BI, Technical Author, IT Support, GIS specialists in Qatar, UK and America, Drone pilots
What we all achieved.
We joined Cyberhawk when they had a small team of Software Developers and Product Owners / BAs. They now have a large, stable, product focussed team.
In the first three and a half years we have hired over 46 people. The majority of these have been permanent hires, but we have also helped hire contractors. We have not used an external agency in that time.
We have saved Cyberhawk a significant amount of money on the recruitment agency fees that they were previously paying.
Cyberhawk’s iHawk platform continues to go from strength to strength.
We are most proud of: The scope of our hiring across Product and Software Engineering but also headhunting very niche GIS specialists and drone pilots for overseas relocations. Cyberhawk have an excellent reputation as an employer, a low employee turnover rate, low time to fill vacancy figures, high offer acceptance rate and strong diversity ratios.
We have built a great team, most of whom have stayed with Cyberhawk for a long time and people who have been through the process tell us that it is enjoyable and thorough.
“Working with Gemma and Nick (Conga Group) has been, and continues to be, a fantastic experience. Our partnership started back in February 2022 and there has been no occasion where they haven't delivered what we have asked. Our main roles include the Software Development and Product Side, but they have even been able to help us find some really complex and niche roles like a Head of Geomatics in Qatar with a very long list of essential criteria. They take the time to understand our business, our culture, and the specific needs we look for in our new team members. We consider them an extension of the Cyberhawk Talent Acquisition Team and have full trust in them representing our business and branding. The process has always been smooth, efficient and professional; and the candidates they've introduced to us have been consistently meeting our standards.
Thanks to their support, we've been able to bring in great talent that has made a real impact on our team. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to find tech expertise for their company, and even outside of the Software Function." - Helena Ferrer, People Business Partner