At Loxo, we talk a lot about proactive recruitment of passive candidates — and how it can be a game-changer for hiring teams and recruiters. In fact, our Talent Intelligence Platform was designed with this in mind (if you’ve been around for a while, you’ve likely heard us wax poetic about this many a time).
BUT… What we don’t talk about as frequently is the fact that, around these parts, we eat our own dogfood.
What does that mean, in practice? It means we believe in the power of our platform — and the power of the proper workflow — so strongly that we use it ourselves to build our growing global team.
You may have seen our recent funding announcement — funding that will allow us to deliver features and product enhancements at a more rapid rate than ever before. But in order to truly have the impact we’re aiming for (i.e. to deliver the best AI-powered recruitment platform in the market), our team needs to scale at an accelerated pace, too.
Needless to say: this is one of those moments where it’s convenient to work for a market-leading recruitment software company 😉
So, how does our team use Loxo to solve our hiring challenges — across our entire global team? We’re so glad you asked.
Specialized roles need smarter sourcing
Some of the most challenging roles to fill effectively, at Loxo, are often within our technical support function. These positions require a unique blend of technical aptitude, problem-solving skills, and a genuine curiosity for learning. Traditionally, relying solely on active applications can limit the pool of candidates.
Enter Loxo Source, stage right.
Lyndsay Knupp, who oversees enablement & strategy at Loxo, began building out our technical support team in late 2023 — starting with a Technical Support Manager.
Understanding the skills that would perform well within this role and especially among our Loxo culture was absolutely critical for sourcing the right candidate pool. For this hire, Lyndsay was looking for someone who could communicate effectively through reactive situations, emerge as a leader, and also have a strong drive with a technical aptitude.
“I used a few Boolean strings to play around with different combinations of phrases, keywords, and some of Loxo’s filters to better understand the variety of profiles,” Lyndsay says. “Ultimately, I found a few carefully selected people to send highly personalized messages to, and worked from there.”
By employing smart search strategies and focusing on transferable skills and learning agility, Loxo helps you identify individuals who may not have extensive software experience but possess the core qualities you’re after.
“Fairly quickly, I zeroed in on my top candidate,” Lyndsay says. “His experience as an EMT — talk about calm under pressure! — and his advancement within technical customer-facing roles stood out as an excellent match. But because his experience was a bit unconventional, if I hadn’t been using some of the smart sourcing strategies that Loxo supports, I may have missed him.”
The perfect fit may not be actively looking
One of the core strengths of Loxo Source is its ability to identify passive candidates — individuals who possess the skills and experience we need but aren't actively applying for jobs (at least not openly).
Remember that top candidate for the Technical Support Manager role Lyndsay mentioned? He’s now been in the role for over a year and is thriving. But Matthew Fitch wasn’t broadcasting the fact that he was open to a role at the time.
"Lyndsay reached out with perfect timing, as I was already looking for a new position casually," Matthew recalls. He hadn’t labeled himself as ‘Open to Work,’ but was quietly searching for his next career move — without broadcasting it.
When Lyndsay sent a LinkedIn message with the opportunity to learn more about what working at Loxo could look like, Matthew jumped at the opportunity. He hadn’t yet gotten to the place where he was seriously searching for his next step — which meant Lyndsay’s outreach saved him a lot of the rigmarole he had been gearing himself up for.
“It was only after joining the team that I realized Lyndsay had actually used Loxo Source to find me,” Matthew says. “It’s also when I learned what recruiters go through on a daily basis trying to find well-matched candidates who are actually open to making a move — and how obvious it is that smart sourcing tools make that so much easier.”
Matthew's experience highlights a key benefit for candidates: being discovered for opportunities that align with their skills and interests — even when they aren't actively job searching.
Loxo Source provided the tools our team needed to move beyond reactive job postings and strategically identify individuals who could be a fantastic addition to our company culture and growth.
Global teams need diverse talent pools
Our team spans the globe, with key hubs in the US, EMEA, and APAC.
Anita Nikomani, the leader of our global customer success team — who was herself sourced using Loxo — is now leveraging the platform to build her own team. She currently has multiple candidates in final interview stages and is utilizing both Loxo’s outreach campaigns and sourcing capabilities to identify & contact great-fit individuals.
“Expanding into a brand new market in APAC, it felt like we were starting from scratch — no network to rely on, no connections, etc.,” Anita says. “Using Loxo felt like having a dedicated recruiter working this for me, especially in those early sourcing stages.”
The reality is that juggling a hiring process yourself — while also running a global team — is no walk in the park. It means keeping up to speed with every candidate, across every role, at every stage. “Loxo’s workflow automations helped immensely,” Anita says. “There’s no way I would’ve been able to keep things from slipping through the cracks otherwise.”
The ability to proactively source is particularly impactful for our globally distributed team, allowing us to tap into diverse talent pools and overcome the challenges of different time zones. Instead of waiting for inbound applications or relying solely on active candidates, our team can use Loxo to identify and engage with potential hires across the world, ensuring a continuous flow of qualified candidates.
This efficiency extends to feedback and collaboration. As our hiring managers are also embracing Loxo Source, the process of sharing candidate highlights and providing feedback on joint roles is streamlined, eliminating the delays of waiting for different time zones to align.
“Being able to have all team feedback centralized in the system helped narrow down decisions, making it easy to identify who we wanted to extend an offer to,” Anita says.
Engaging candidates is critical
We know we’re preaching to the choir when we say it’s not just about finding candidates; it's about engaging them effectively.
Our team utilizes Loxo's features to conduct A/B testing on messaging, constantly refining our outreach to improve open and response rates. We've moved beyond generic "Is this a fit?" messages to more targeted and informative outreach.
For example, including a clear call to action that acknowledges the possibility of the opportunity not being the right fit — "Let me know if the timing isn't right," etc. — has yielded positive results.
While not fun, hearing a “no” from candidates is better than hearing nothing at all, for multiple reasons:
- Any response to an email signals to the domain overlords that you’re a real person, not a spammer. Optimizing your emails to be both read and replied to helps your domain rating — which increases the likelihood of your emails being read and replied to in the future.
- All data is good data. With this information, you can refine your approach, stop sending emails to uninterested parties, ask the candidate if they have someone in their network who could be a good fit, add the candidate to a list for future roles, etc.
The ripple effect & the future of recruitment
Our internal journey sourcing and contacting candidates using Loxo has not only enabled us to build a talented and diverse global team but has also provided invaluable insights into the candidate and recruiter experience.
By using Loxo ourselves — and learning every step of the way — we’re continuously refining our strategies, improving our platform, and ultimately empowering our users to achieve the same level of success in building their own exceptional teams.
More customer stories
Become a hiring machine
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