Global Employment
How Zattoo used Lano to find the right talent by hiring remotely abroad
With Lano, Zattoo hired a specialized candidate abroad quickly despite competitive hiring practices.
1
month to hire the first employee with Lano
1
contact at Lano for any support or hiring topics
Faster
to hire remote employee than an in-country employee
"When we were searching for the right candidate from Germany or Switzerland only, we had a position that was open for nearly three years. Once we expanded our search to Europe and found Lano, we hired the person within a month."
Marie Schuster
People Partner
About Zattoo
Zattoo is a TV streaming platform for television channels and video on demand content both within the browser and on a mobile application. The company was one of the first providers to stream the first match of the FIFA World Cup for free. It is now one of the largest streaming services in Europe with several million monthly users. Zattoo largely serves the DACH market, with an emphasis on German language content.
Headquartered in Zurich with an additional office in Berlin, Zattoo employs around 250 people with the majority of them located in either Switzerland or Germany. In the past, the company tried to avoid hiring remote workers; however, Zattoo opened up some of their positions to include applicants from other countries in Europe after struggling to find the right talent in the countries where they had offices. Adapting to a global hiring strategy brought some challenges, including finding the right partner for EOR services.
Challenge
Finding and hiring the right candidates anywhere
Zattoo faced two main challenges when it came to hiring the right candidates for their highly technical team. The first challenge was finding the right people to join the team, whether they were based in a country where they had an entity. The second challenge was finding the right EOR partner to hire talent that was not based in these two countries. Both of these obstacles led to delays in hiring and a blocker of larger projects.
The IT industry is a particularly competitive industry when it comes to talent. The nature of the roles that Zattoo hires are often highly technical and specific. With trying to source talent only in Germany or Switzerland, they had long times where positions were open. One position in particular was open for over three years, delaying the progress the team was able to make in this area. Because of these delays, the team chose to adopt a remote working policy for candidates, meaning that they would not have to relocate to Berlin or Zurich. With this change in approach, the team found the right candidate who was located in Poland. Hiring this person compliantly became the next question.
In the past, Zattoo worked with another EOR service provider but faced several challenges here as well. Insufficient country coverage and service levels led the team to evaluate other options for global hiring. Previous promises of expanded employment coverage brought missed deadlines and having to reject qualified candidates. This paired with long waiting times for responses without a dedicated account manager created frustrations with hiring. The Zattoo team needed global coverage and a better service experience to experience the flexibility they needed.
Solution
Compliantly scaling their team with highly technical players
To fill their new open positions, Zattoo chose to evaluate new global employment solutions to find a new partner that they could rely on anywhere in the world. There were several factors that were critical during their new evaluation process that led them to Lano. These included working with a company that operated via the partnership model rather than direct entities. The new company should offer fast SLAs and a single point of contact guaranteed. Finally, it was key that the new partner had expansive global coverage. Lano ticked all of the boxes here.
For compliance concerns, it was important that Zattoo chose an EOR provider that operated via the partner model. The partnership model that Lano uses offers a single point of contact with Lano and Lano has strong relationships with existing EOR providers in various countries. These EOR providers have often been working in particular markets for decades and therefore have a deep knowledge of employment law and customs in that particular market. Lano’s wide-ranging partner network met Zattoo’s needs in terms of having the global partners and vast knowledge around employment and taxation.
Lano also stood out by the quality of their service. The dedicated account manager helped answer any questions quickly. Zattoo could test the platform and get an understanding of how much it would cost to hire an employee with Lano. Whenever questions came up, Zattoo had a single point of contact to reach out to who was there to answer any questions or concerns. Lano struck the right balance of moving quickly and taking time to make sure all of the stakeholders involved had peace of mind that the decisions they were making were the right ones in the long run. Building this relationship was important as Zattoo hopes to build a long term partnership with their global employment solution to move faster with the next hire.
Results
Filling critical positions with high quality candidates quickly
With Lano, Zattoo was able to hire their new employee within a month of reaching out to Lano. Lano operates under a global MSA model, meaning that the first hire is always the most time intensive. This approach minimizes the amount of time necessary for employing new people and reduces the amount of back and forth necessary. Despite the fact that employing a remote person requires more work for the People team, it took nearly the same amount of time with Lano.
The trial hiring flows helped give Zattoo a sense of the costs from the very beginning of the evaluation process. The Employment Calculator gave a clear breakdown of the costs for a hire in Poland. Onboarding with Lano was very simple and it was easy to get up and running quickly with the intuitive user interface.
Paying the invoices through Lano is simple. Zattoo receives reminders to make the payments and expense management is straightforward. Invoices are received in a standardized format and it is easy to have an overview of costs and payments.
Finally, the EOR employee is very satisfied with the service of Lano. They have a single account manager that ensures that their questions are answered and any HR needs are met. Having a positive relationship with the EOR provider is key for employee satisfaction and later on retention, which are key considerations in highly competitive hiring markets. The Zattoo team is able to remain productive and reach their goals with qualified employees and the People team is able to concentrate on other value added activities.
With Lano, Zattoo knows they have found a partner not only for today, but for the future as well. They are looking into hiring their next employee with Lano and considering the steps of transferring other employees from their previous EOR provider to Lano.
© Lano Software GmbH 2024