Deep Dive into Keen's Wow Factors

Over the past year, I had many people asking me about the mission of WeAreKeen, what we do and how we are actually different from any other ‘typical’ recruitment agency. 
I could give you a lot of different answers starting from the usual pitch - “We scale-up recruitment teams” to more detailed answers where I would explain how we have recently helped one of our clients to find a new recruiter or Head of People to their team. 

It’s been a year since I became a Talent Partner at WeAreKeen and perhaps it’s the perfect timing to share with you the big secret of how we make a difference in the recruitment world. I would never say that we do things better, but I can surely be proud of the recruitment community we’ve built so far and the loads of warm words we’ve got from our candidates. 

In this short piece, I’ll reveal all about our candidate experience and disclose the Keen ‘Wow Factors’. Make sure you read the whole thing - I have saved the best for last.

1. Recruitment Inception 🌀

Recruiting recruiters for recruitment teams. From the very beginning, we’ve been focusing on the recruitment community - helping great recruiters find new, exciting career opportunities, at the same time supporting our clients building up their talent acquisition teams. Our goal wasn’t to hire as many people as possible but to really understand the market needs and to answer these needs with the right solution. We’ve been helping professionals develop their desired recruitment skills, while connecting them with the best possible job at our partners.

We support not only through making a good match but also through knowledge sharing, content creation and bringing great thought leaders together at our Keen Academy programme, webinars, masterclasses and meet-ups.

2. In Partners We Trust 🤝

We believe in what we do and whom we do it with. Our partners are either fast-growing scale-ups like Backbase, Deliverect, Takeaway or already well-established enterprises such as Rabobank, Capgemini or Van Lanschot. And even though each of them has its unique characteristic, different mission and distinctive product they all have something in common - they are KEEN to learn, KEEN to always do better and KEEN to help their people grow. 
These are the values we cherish and believe in, therefore with hand on heart we can always recommend our clients to future Keenies.

3. You’re in the lead 🚀

You decide what works for you. At the very first step in our recruitment process, we’re trying to understand what you are looking for and what your needs are. We’re not desperately trying to convince you to take the job but we kick off a discussion to help you find the best track for yourself. If it happens that your aspirations match the role we currently have we support you all the way till you get your dream job. 

4. We got your back 🙋‍♂️

We live up to this promise - whether it’s still during the process or after you landed the job. We always try to manage your expectations - provide the feedback as soon as possible and be transparent about the whole process. Starting with a good preparation before you dive into the recruitment process, continuing with hints before the intake and good luck messages on the interview day. Everything to help you nail the process and your interviews :)

Don’t worry, we won’t abandon you there! After you have started your dream role, we schedule regular evaluations to see how you’re doing, what you are struggling with and how we may help you deal with all the challenges you’re facing.

5. We want you to grow 📈

And again our number one rule - KEEN to learn. From day one our mission at WeAreKeen has been to share knowledge, to support professional growth and to create opportunities for networking. That’s why we’ve designed the Keen Academy Training, and during more difficult and isolated times, come up with the idea of online Masterclasses and KeenWebinars.

We’ve also recently developed our own Slack channel where all the Keenies are able to reach out to industry experts, read some interesting articles or just connect with colleagues from the same industry. All of this to help our candidates to keep on learning!

6. Business in the front, party in the back 💃

It’s not only about business. Although we support your personal growth and we help you progress in your career we also always look forward to getting to know you a bit better. 

Not so long ago, in a world without social distancing, we would often organise Friday drinks or seasonal parties. We love to celebrate together and have all these little chit chats to hear how your pet is doing or to help you to find your new apartment. We genuinely believe that these are the little moments that create great memories and start amazing relations or friendships.

For obvious reasons, we can't continue this little tradition right now but we hope to meet again very soon. To all our Keenies out there - we really miss you guys!

7. Small gestures 💓 

They may be small but they make a whole lot of difference. I’m talking about all the little things we do to build great relationships with our Keenies because we really care.

Good luck postcards before your start - we know how it is to start a new job; sometimes it might be exciting or scary, so by sending you this card we just want to show you that we truly believe in your success and we’re happy for you about this new adventure.

Anniversary wishes - whether it’s your birthday or the 1st job anniversary - there is always a good reason to reconnect and send you best wishes!

Let’s not forget about the one and only Keen swag - the original T-shirt or hoodie that all our new Keenies receive as a gift. You can proudly wear it at your office, to walk your dog or just to feel comfy at your house.

There might be hundreds of ways of approaching recruitment and there is definitely no perfect or ideal way. At WeAreKeen we just love to connect with people and believe in the simple rules of being human, kind and caring. 

It doesn’t matter how you do that as long as you stay motivated, stay curious and above all, stay keen!