About the Customer

Odyssey Information Services (Odyssey IS) is a Texas-based consulting firm that helps global companies meet their hiring needs in the areas of technology, assessment, management, logistics, and accounting/finance. With an experienced recruiting team, the organization provides premier consultants to complete their clients’ projects on time and under budget.

The Challenge

When your company finds talent for staff augmentation and manages critical projects for Fortune 500 companies as a service, time is not your friend. Every day the team at Odyssey IS races to get a statement of work or a submittal for contract positions. The first recruiter presenting the right candidate wins the business.

“Our turnaround is so quick; sometimes we only have 24 hours,” said Shelley Casino, Senior Technical Recruiter.

Always looking to stay on top of the latest recruiting trends, Shelley had growing concerns the team’s sourcing skills needed a serious boost, or it would eventually impact the business.

The Solution

Odyssey IS chose SourceCon Academy - ERE’s online training course that teaches the latest search techniques, sourcing methodologies, and candidate engagement strategies via a video-based learning platform. After hearing about SourceCon Academy at a local recruiting event, Shelley was intrigued and knew the team needed this training.

President and CEO, Jon Hibbs, is always open to ideas from his team. Upon viewing a demo of the online training course, Jon was convinced he would get a return on the investment.

“Shame on us for not continuing to train and motivate,” said Jon. “Anybody that owns a business has got to keep up with the times.”

The Results

Since completing SourceCon Academy, Odyssey IS’ recruiters are finding candidates through new channels and realizing higher response rates, resulting in higher productivity. Senior Technical Recruiter, Kristin Hughes, believes SourceCon Academy helped her recruiting team gain a competitive advantage assuring the organization's long-term success.

“There’s not a lot of real training for recruiters today. SourceCon Academy taught us new and innovative ways to find and reach out to candidates.” Kristin added, “With so much competition in the market, it is paramount to stand out and be different. SourceCon Academy has given us the knowledge to do just that.”

The candidate engagement lessons paid off for Shelley, with a 90% increase in response rates from qualified candidates.

“The sessions taught me to venture out and use new, attention-grabbing techniques in reaching out to candidates,” explained Shelley. "Particularly using humor and clever subject lines in emails proved to be very beneficial in driving responses from the highly sought-after professionals with unique skill sets.”

As Odyssey IS’ leader, Jon is continuing to invest in training to keep his team's skills sharp and up-to-date.

“I don’t worry about losing a big project because we can’t find the right people. Every new recruiting employee will take this training course when they start,” explained Jon.“SourceCon Academy is an eye-opener and it gives us an edge on the competition.”