An innovative and internationally acclaimed platform that uses online coding challenges and creative hackathons was created in south-eastern Poland to help companies recruit tech talent faster and more effectively. It allows employers better reach, engage and hire “hidden” candidates with proven job skills.
South-eastern Poland sees global success with innovative tech talent recruitment platform
- 27 September 2019
ChallengeRocket clients managed to generate up to 600 software developers recruitment leads in a single open challenge. Overall time-to-hire was reduced by 54 % and cost-to-hire was reduced by even up to 80 % as compared to traditional job-board recruitment campaigns.
The project developed unique artificial intelligence (AI) talent analytics to observe coding candidates, assess them without human intervention and gain insight into their skills. It built a platform, purchased and maintained IT infrastructure, carried out marketing actitivies, as well as promoted and hired staff.The developed ChallengeRocket product has been sold to global brands that use it to assess and hire top-performing job candidates such as software developers and other IT specialists. Through talent pools built around companies, new staff can be recruited quickly, easily, effectively and cheaply compared with other hiring methods.
Filling positions faster
The growth in the new technology sector is unprecedented and in the EU demand for employees with programming skills outstrips supply by almost 500 000. Forecasts suggest this number could double by 2020. However, talent assessment in the tech industry can be a long, expensive and ineffective process.
ChallengeRocket helps discover and recruit new candidates for tech positions by running programming competitions that are open to everyone willing to practice and show off their skills. These attract developers and allow companies to see skills in action.
AI talent analytics give employers automatic insights into candidates’ programming skills. This reduces the time it takes to hire someone, strengthens employer branding, generates new innovations and allows recruiters to monitor coding skills outside their organisation.
ChallengeRocket clients have generated up to 600 software developer recruitment leads in a single open challenge. Overall time-to-hire was reduced by 54 % and cost-to-hire was reduced by up to 80 % compared with traditional job board recruitment campaigns.
Fun and effective
ChallengeRocket’s method allows brands to reach, engage and hire “hidden” candidates who might not actively be looking for a job. Often these candidates would not respond to a typical job offer but they do not mind taking part in a coding tournament that allows them to show off their talents. Within two hours, the system is capable of checking and verifying the skills of 1 000 candidates by testing their knowledge of a particular technology.
The project won top honours from the European Startup Days and the Association of Business Service Leaders, came first in the Facebook Global Challenge and was named TC Top Pick at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. According to Facebook for Developers, it is the world’s best solution for software developers to assess and improve their craft. It has also been named as one of the top five startups in the CEE region as part of the MIT Enterprise Forum CEE programme.
ChallengeRocket plans to pilot the system in select Dubai schools and universities later in 2019.
ChallengeRocket currently employs 19 permanent employees.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Innovative platform for recruiting IT specialists – Challengerocket.com” is EUR 243 521, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 187 404 through the “Eastern Poland” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “SMEs competitiveness”.