Established in 2022 and based in Australia, LandNow is a specialized online B2B real estate marketplace. They are dedicated to facilitating seamless interactions between land developers and home builders, offering a centralized platform that simplifies the sales process and effectively addresses the sector’s unique challenges.SECOMM has had the pleasure of collaborating with LandNow since the inception of their system. In this project, SECOMM took on the responsibility of hiring, assembling, and managing a dedicated IT team of five skilled professionals. These experts were meticulously selected from the Vietnamese talent pool, ensuring a robust foundation for LandNow’s digital presence.

Demand for Skilled Developers with Affordable Cost

With their headquarter in Australia, LandNow can easily access the highly skilled IT teams in the area. However, the high cost of local developers (average AU $100,000 annually) posed a financial challenge for the nascent company, especially when considering the initial investment for their project development.When selecting an IT outsourcing option for software development needs, LandNow decided to work with SECOMM due to our distinguished track record of skilled IT professionals, evidenced by numerous successful collaborations with big Australian companies. This choice was not only due to the reputation of SECOMM but also to the benefits of choosing Vietnam as an IT outsourcing destination, ranging from cost efficiency to a large talent pool.Entrusting SECOMM with a pivotal role, the company was tasked with recruiting a dedicated team of five adept IT professionals to collaborate closely with LandNow on all of their development projects.

3.1. One-by-One Hiring Approach

Understanding LandNow’s requirements from both technical and financial perspectives, SECOMM decided to implement the method of hiring one-by-one rather than hiring all team members at once. Through this, Landnow and SECOMM can jointly build an overall plan to gradually fill the vacant positions without having to pay the full cost upfront.

SECOMM also combines an efficient recruitment solution by using only one paid recruitment channel with the highest reputation in the market and leveraging free channels.

The project’s team was assembled gradually, adding UX/UI Designers, DevOps specialists, Data Engineers, and Frontend Developers to collaborate with Landnow’s existing Australian team (including Product Manager, Technical Lead, and other key players like Backend Developers). This strategy aimed to form an all-encompassing team dedicated to product development.

Within this team, the Product Manager was responsible for market assessment and analysis, while the Tech Lead evaluated technical feasibility and addressed potential issues. The UX/UI Designer then created wireframes and mockups based on the provided data, the Frontend Developer transformed the designs into an interactive interface, and the Backend Developer built functionalities within that interface. DevOps played a crucial role in coordinating development, testing, and deployment tasks efficiently. The Data Engineer handled data processing from collection to utilization.The tech lead guided the process throughout development, ensured best practices, and reviewed code. The product manager oversaw the release and monitored user engagement metrics during the project launch.

3.2. Two-Stage Interview Process

SECOMM follows a three-phase approach for hiring the most qualified candidates: Planning, Hiring, and Onboarding. In the Planning Phase, project information is received, and proposals are provided, laying the groundwork for subsequent activities. Moreover, the Hiring Phase involves evaluating many applications and conducting a two-stage interview process. Finally, successful candidates receive the necessary tools during the onboarding phase, and their performance is reviewed. In this case study, SECOMM has focused only on the hiring phase due to the IP NDA agreements with LandNow. However, during the team’s functioning period, SECOMM also provided HR consulting services to help LandNow monitor the team performance and motivate the members with suitable policies to improve technical and soft skills. 

The Hiring Phase

The recruitment initiative commenced with a robust influx of applications, with hundreds of CVs initially submitted. The evaluation phase was conducted with stringent criteria, resulting in a 50% reduction in the candidate pool. Subsequently, only one-third of these applicants progressed to the final selection phase. The interview process was structured into two distinct stages: the preliminary round conducted by SECOMM, followed by the final round with LandNow. This meticulous approach ensured the selection of the most suitable candidates for the dream team.

Round 1 with SECOMM

In the initial round of SECOMM’s hiring process, candidates underwent assessments to evaluate their technical and English skills against the company’s initial requirements. The technical leader and the HR manager meticulously selected and evaluated candidates, adhering to SECOMM’s standards for IT staff at the senior level and above. However, the interview questions in this round were intentionally brief and foundational, aimed at assessing basic knowledge and skills. Despite receiving approximately a few hundred CVs throughout the process, only half of the candidates successfully advanced past this first round with SECOMM.

Round 2 with SECOMM & LandNow

In the second round of interviews, LandNow actively participated alongside SECOMM. While the format remained consistent with the first round, the questions now delved deeper into detail. These inquiries were specifically tailored to real-world scenarios faced by LandNow, assessing candidates’ abilities to handle practical challenges. Given the heightened complexity, only one-third of the interviewees successfully met the requirements during this round. The results were subsequently shared with LandNow for their further consideration in choosing the best-fit candidates for the team.

3.3. “1-for-1” Warranty Policy

Recognizing the possibility of turnover of hiring service during the initial months, instead of guaranteeing candidate stability (which depends a lot on human factors), SECOMM provided LandNow with a special warranty: if a candidate leaves within a month, SECOMM will promptly provide a replacement at no additional cost.Furthermore, to minimize the impact of the turnover issue while the project was underway, SECOMM constantly collaborated with Landnow to promptly resolve any HR issues as soon as possible.