Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Spotlight interview at OutsourceSchool.
My name is Connor Gillivan. I’m the CMO and an Owner of Outsource School.
We’re on a mission to help 10,000+ business owners master hiring virtual assistants and freelancers, and industry partnerships is a big way that we’re able to make it happen.
We’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce, agency, SAAS, and online space.
In this exclusive interview, we interview Noel Andrews from JobRack.
Noel is all about connecting people. Professionally he runs JobRack.eu where he helps business owners hire actually-awesome team members from Eastern Europe. Personally he loves arranging gatherings, parties, dinners and events, having great conversations with great people.
Connor: Hey Noel, thanks for taking the time to chat with us here. We love getting to know our partners better so that our community can benefit from what our partners are offering and doing in the industry. To get started, can you give us a high level overview of JobRack and how it got started?
Noel: Sure, JobRack is where growing business owners come to hire actually-awesome remote team members from Eastern Europe.
We help business owners figure out the people they need then we help them find the best people to join their team and help them grow. From Executive Assistants to Operations Managers, Marketing specialists, software developers or any other remote role we can find amazing people to join their team.
JobRack was born way back in 2015 as a job board helping entrepreneurs and businesses owners hire really great developers and assistants from Eastern Europe. Since then we’ve helped thousands of businesses hire really great team members and we now do that through both our DIY job post offer and our main service which is a Done With You service where we take on all the hard work of hiring for them working closely with them along the way.
Connor: Love that! Can you dive a bit more into the hiring services that you offer? I’m sure our audience would love to know exactly what problems you could solve for them.
Noel: We have two services, the main one is our Done With You service. This is where we work as a hiring partner to our clients right from helping them figuring out the right role to hire next, through sourcing and headhunting the very best people, screening, testing and filtering them before presenting them a shortlist of the absolute very best people for their role and team.
Then we support them throughout the interview, offer and onboarding stages to make sure they get someone that really works out for the long-term.
Unlike many in the recruitment industry we work on simple flat-fees that keep things affordable to get the help that our clients want and need with their hiring.
Connor: Jumping off of that…if there was one problem you’d say that JobRack solves best for your clients, what would it be? Why?
Noel: Finding the best talent.
Often the very best people just aren’t hanging out on job boards waiting for your job post to appear!
They have to be hunted down, attracted to your role and then converted through a really engaged, and rapid, hiring process.
Connor: As the company continues to grow over the next year, what are your plans for expansion? Any new products, offerings, or enhancements to your current services?
Noel: It’s an exciting time in the world of remote hiring and we’re always looking at ways we can expand how we can help our clients more effectively. We’re looking at how we can support our customers even better both through our own services as well as through our partners.
That includes helping businesses to pay their team, onboard them more effectively, manage them over the long-term as well as helping them to do the super important things like building a really great remote team culture.
Connor: And how specifically would you say that JobRack and your team is different from other similar businesses in the industry?
Noel: There’s two main things.
Firstly we’re the experts in hiring from Eastern Europe.
That’s what we do.
We’ve been doing it since 2015 and we really know this region like no one else. We know how to find the right people whether that means hunting in private facebook groups, Slack communities or even behind the sofa – wherever they are, we’ll find them!
Second, we’re real people and we pride ourselves on being helpful and friendly no matter how hard hiring is.
This may sound odd but getting really close to our clients is so important to us. Hiring great team members is about finding the right people, not just about finding a candidate with the right skills and experience. So it’s crucial we understand the person that’s going to be right for them.
In short…. We hold our clients hands throughout the hiring process… even when it gets a bit sweaty!
Connor: What’s your outsourcing story? We find that everyone has a different experience when outsourcing and hiring online. What is your first memory that comes to mind?
Noel: Before I owned JobRack I was consulting and helping business owners with their team and hiring and I started getting more clients that wanted to hire remotely. I remember presenting a short list of candidates to a client that was running a small data analytics company and he was just blown away at the amazing quality of people I’d found for him in Eastern Europe.
I’ll never forget that and it planted the seed of a lot of what we do for our clients today, and we still receive that kind of feedback from our clients now too!
Connor: Love it! Talking more about outsourcing, what advice would you give to yourself if you were just about to start outsourcing and hiring online?
Noel: Get help.
Unless you’ve a ton of experience hiring, or you have a ton of time to spare, then get some help with your hiring.
This might be advice and guidance from peers or business communities you’re in, or it might be getting help from someone like me.
Either way hiring is hard, it can take a ton of time, and if you make mistakes and hire the wrong person it can get really really expensive. For me hiring is like accounting. It’s complex, it’s super important and there’s experts that are really really good at it that save you time and money.
Plus… get super clear on what you need BEFORE you start to hire. You can get help with that too!
Connor: How about this one…how do you communicate with the people you hire online? What’s your best practices there and how has it changed over time?
Noel: Regularly! For me I treat people like employees and team members, regardless of their legal status or contract mechanism. I’m almost always looking for someone I can work with again and again even if it’s a small task or freelance project but more commonly it’s full-time or part-time team members working with me as part of my core team.
We use Slack, we use project management tools, we have team meetings every two weeks and every team member has regular 121’s with clear expectations and KPIs set all round.
The most important thing is to take time to listen to them. They’ll likely have great ideas for how you can develop and improve your business, you just need to give them time and listen.
Connor: Finally, this is one that I think our community will love, who’s been your best online hire? What do they do for you? Why are they your best hire? Tell us all about them and that story!
Noel: Oh now that’s a tough one! I have an amazing team so to choose one is just way too hard!
One that really sticks out though was my very first assistant, Vladan.
When I first bought JobRack it was a bit crazy!
We had clients, we had candidates, we had tech stuff, we had so much to learn and all kinds of different things that needed doing. Plus I was still working in my old corporate job then too!
So I hired Vladan to come in and help me with a huge variety of things.
Everything from customer support to testing website changes to creating images and publishing blog posts and lots more.
Having an extra pair of hands that could just take things on to help me was such a relief and made a massive difference to my first year owning and building JobRack. Couldn’t have done it without him!
Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today?
Noel: So for JobRack simply head to https://jobrack.eu or to connect / follow me best bet is LinkedIn.
Always love to help people out so for anyone that comes to us from Outsource School we’ll get you the hiring clarity you need on a free consultation call AND we’ll give you a Supercharged Scorecard Consultation where we’ll work with you on a call to get you a comprehensive role scorecard with KPIs, metrics and outcomes ready for your new team member even before you’ve hired them.
