DEV Social Recruiting: Is it really worth it? The case of GreenVulcano with Maurizio Fiumara

With a strong internal organization and innovative core, GreenVulcano has been able to face the Covid19 emergency head on. With our new work from home reality, GreenVulcano had to change the way we approached our customers projects and activities, all the while keeping the health and safety of our people at the forefront. This has been an incredible effort coming from a new mindset, in addition to a lot of work with regard to maintaining the morale of all involved.

Speaking of which, we’d like to suggest you to read our Gianfranco’s 10 tips for a highly-performing home working.

Among the many activities that we didn’t stop was our tech recruiting process. A new process that we recently developed to leverage the power and reach some of the new social frontiers. This is the subject of today's interview with Maurizio Fiumara, Senior Manager and head of the Human Resources department for the branches of Rome and Naples.

Hi Maurizio, thanks for being here with us!

What was the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on an international company such as GreenVulcano with regards to human resources?

We immediately prioritised the most relevant issues. That would be the needs of our colleagues’, customers’ and suppliers’. We adopted a work-from-home methodology to ensure that our teams respected the deadlines as well as the contracts we already had in place with our customers and suppliers. Although inconvenient at first, this became the new normal, supported by constant contacts and feedback from both colleagues and customers. This also allowed us to promptly respond to any and all potential issues quickly. At the same time, we tried to stabilize the revenues and to redesign our business model to get in line with the evolution of the market’s demand as well as to identify new growth opportunities.

Did the work from home formula work?

As a company, we did not hesitate to respond to the emergency allowing our teams to work from home. We already had similar experiences in our past, thus we were able to trust in our colleagues’ sense of responsibility and collaboration during these challenging times. I can definitely assert that the work-from-home methodology worked. All our colleagues kept working efficiently and willingly, fully supported by the company board. Not just for working matters. We also organised virtual coffee breaks and periodic meetings where we could discuss various topics and have fun.

Does it continue to work?

We were afraid that with the beginning of the second phase, the overall effort would decrease. Instead, now that we’re in the third phase, I can easily say that working from home is an effective solution, for two main reasons. First, working from home makes the employees feel safer. Second, one does not have to live with the stress of commuting every day.

Are you thinking about implementing this process in the future as well? We’re starting to see this with other big IT companies.

Surely we do not intend to go back to the traditional working ways. We are planning new modalities with a higher flexibility we want to kick off in September.

We know that in GreenVulcano you are always searching for new professional personal for the teams of both Rome and Naples. What are the fundamental skills a new employee must have besides the technical skills required to fill the position?

We’re always looking for new resources willing to face the new tech challenges with us. We are looking for talented people, but they should also have passion for the IT world. Similar to a new graduate willing to grow in a dynamic environment, keen to growing professionally.

2019 has been the year of hiring, while 2020 is the year of the covid. However, GreenVulcano keeps looking for new champions in the ocean of potential candidates. How many new resources entered the team in the last 12/18 months and how many are still to arrive?

We’re constantly looking for a potential candidate. During the pandemic we hired 5 new people. In the last 18 months we welcomed roughly 25 people counting all contractors and employees. We plan to hire another 10 people by the end of the year.

The University has always been GreenVulcano’s preferred channel when it comes to choosing new candidates. The marrying of our company’s culture to higher education has created some strong roots. However, this last year has challenged us to create some new methods in searching for senior professionals in the development field and not simply relying on our traditional academic channels. We’re talking about highly-skilled, sought-after professionals. Finding the best fit is often a complex and lengthy process. How much did the new digital marketing tools of Facebook and LinkedIn help GreenVulcano in finding qualified candidates?

To GreenVulcano, digital marketing tools meant a continuous and direct contact with a wide range of tech skills and profiles. Everyone from experienced professionals to the newly graduated looking for their first job.

In 2019, you launched two important recruiting campaigns via LinkedIn. For what roles? How many applications responded and what were the results?

Thanks to the LinkedIn recruiting campaigns for Senior and Junior Java and Angular Developers, we received more than 50 applications. We interviewed 40% of these and hired 10%.

Let’s try and do a bit of analysis: all in all, according to the 2019/20 data, would you recommend social recruiting?  

Yes, interacting with social networks is an integral part of our culture and daily life. Social recruiting is in line with our times. It allows us to gather more information about the resumes we’re analyzing, identifying behavioral and psychological aspects as well. It makes available a wide range of profiles, from professionals to fresh grads looking for the first job.

Are you planning to launch a new 2020 recruiting campaign for the branches of Rome and Naples?

Definitely. As I said, we are planning to hire new people by the end of the year and we’ll do this by launching new social recruiting campaigns by the first half of September.

Thanks Maurizio!

Maurizio Fiumara is a Manager with a twenty-year experience in an international environment. He developed his skills managing strategic projects for companies such as Poste Italiane, Telecom, INPS, and ACEA. At GreenVulcano, he’s been a manager for departments and projects such as Funding Project BU, Consultancy, and Recruiting since 2017.