Hiring at EV-Box—Growing an international team in a brand-new industry

In case you haven’t heard: Electric Vehicles (EVs) is the future. Spearhead this green revolution is EV-Box – the international market leader in EV charging solutions and related cloud-based services. EV-Box has more than 38,000 charging points worldwide ready to serve wherever you go: from public charging booths to simpler home chargers. Besides the hardware, you also get the cloud-based services that facilitate the operation and maintenance of your chargers.

Hiring in a young market

This innovative setup was founded by Bram van de Leur in 2010 in the Netherlands. By the end of last year, EV-Box opened its first offices outside the Netherlands. Now over 50 people are working with EV-Box on a sustainable future. Together with the growth of EVs around the world, EV-Box team sees its own rapid expansion. So we visited EV-Box to find out more about their amazing growth story. “In 2014, we were about 20 people. We’ve grown now to a bit over 50 people and we expect to keep growing over the next few years, especially in our international teams,” Winny van der Sleet, Human Resources Manager at EV-Box, told us.

The global growth also comes with its own challenges: “For example, with our UK vacancy, it’s really hard to find people because the market is so new. You cannot find people who have the right experience. Sometimes the experience is not needed, but at least they do need to have experience in similar companies or affinity with our product,” Winny shared.

Enhance the candidate experience

EV-Box solves its growth challenge by using Recruitee – the first and only hiring platform that EV-Box implements to organize its hiring process. Other than boosting her hiring efficiency, Winny uses Recruitee to leverage the candidate experience. “I use the search function a lot. Today I have this guy and I’m like ‘Hey, didn’t he already apply?’ Then I searched for his name and saw that he had applied three times. It’s really nice because I can see the history and it makes the communication more personal. At least I can say: ‘It was before my time, but I see that you already applied.’ Sometimes people also applied and later on, there is a role that fits them, and I can say: ‘Ok, we’re considering you now.’ The big picture helps and makes the whole thing personal.”

Scaling globally

Want to scale a dynamic team internationally? Winny has three advice for you.

First is team spirit.

“To be honest, I don’t think it’s really our package which I can resell because it’s quite basic at the moment. We’re working on that. I’d say: Try to (it works for us at least) get people to come to see the office, even if they’ll be working in another country, to meet the team in person to feel the vibe. It’s important to get people feel enthusiastic. We did that with the UK candidate and got him here. When people come here, they’re already impressed by the office. They love the car, and the open atmosphere, and the view (although it’s not in the city center), and being part of a hard-working and inspiring team,” Winny confirmed. “I think there is a real team spirit here. Lots of companies say they have it. But I do feel that here.”

Second is referrals.

“If you talk about referrals, it works for us. It’s always one of the best sources for me to find people. Here we do work with that a lot. Very recently we’ve hired two front-end developers and two back-end developers. We’re really happy that we found them because that’s really difficult. We’re lucky because we did it through our network. One of the guys who is working here used to work at this company and they decided to move to the US; so the hub here was closed. The people there could go to the US, but most didn’t want to. He contacted these former colleagues and we found two people from this one company, which is great.

We also have a €1000 referral bonus. But I have the impression that it’s not only the incentive. People are really enthusiastic and are into finding the right people for the company. If you work with a lot of young people, they have a big network and they have a lot of ambitious friends.” Referrals also work exceptionally well for EV-Box’s international recruitment, as Winny recalled. “Another thing we’re trying to think about is the local situation. Like with the UK vacancy: How is the situation there? What do we need there? How is the market there? Here again, it’s mostly networking. And the products. For the technical guys, EV-Box is a very interesting product. They have a lot of independence and they can really think with the company.”

Third is marketing.

“We have a very strong marketing department. We’re very good in branding the company and our image. The marketing on social media attracts both local and international candidates. When I applied here, I looked at the website and other social media channels, and I thought: ‘This is really attractive.’ That’s also what I get back from applicants. That’s often what you do: you see a vacancy and you go to the website and Facebook, and you can say: ‘I’m really interested. Sounds like a dynamic company.’,” Winny shared. “Internally, we’ve developed a referral program that empowers our team members to find the best talent in their networks. The marketing department is very active in creating content. They dynamically share the vacancies on our LinkedIn and Facebook, and let potential job seekers know that… ‘Hey, we’re hiring!’ Then we put the pictures and videos of the team on our Careers Site, which is really nice. That’s what we do through Recruitee.”

Thanks Winny so much for sharing your hiring experience with us!

Would you like to learn more about EV-Box and their open positions? Check these links out:

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This article originally appeared on Recruitee Blog (newsletter: eepurl.com/bMHiZD)

Hagi Trinh is an avid recruitment writer at Recruitee. The team is working on the greatest hiring platform of all time. You can sign up at recruitee.com to try it out and follow us on Twitter @recruiteeHR.