Exploring Staff Augmentation And Relationship-Focused Recruitment In L&D
Ann Cathers, Recruiting Manager at SweetRush, has a background in both the Learning and Development and Recruiting industries. After a short stint as a stay-at-home mother, she decided to merge the two and began recruiting in the L&D field. Ann has always been grateful to have a career that aligns with her values of treating others with care and compassion, and where she can apply her love of helping others through career advice or facilitating an exciting and logical next step. Ann jokes that she gets paid for talking all day and values her amazing conversations with top talent all over the world. “It’s a great career for people who want to help others, create win-win situations, and are authentic in their approach,” Ann explains. “I’ve always considered myself a relationship-based recruiter vs. a transactional recruiter. It’s about finding the right fit at the right time vs. cramming a square peg into a round hole just to make a placement.”
Ann has been with SweetRush for eight years and currently manages a team of four incredible Talent Solutions Consultants. She finds joy in managing this high-performing team and finding great opportunities for great candidates. Some notable projects include staffing a managed services engagement (40+ people) for an autonomous vehicle company and four separate learning teams (50+ people) for an EdTech client in a matter of a few weeks.
In this Q&A, Ann speaks with us about the importance of relationship-based recruiting and how AI is not taking over recruiting jobs.
Can you tell us a bit more about relationship-based recruiting and why it’s so important, particularly in the L&D field?
I realized a long time ago that the type of recruiting I practice is relationship-based rather than transactional. I find that, when you care about the individual and build a long-term relationship with that person, you will be much more successful in the long run. On one hand, it is innate in who I am as a person; on the other hand, there is a strong positive business case for this type of recruiting, and it’s also the recruiting philosophy that aligns with SweetRush culture. I don’t want to cram a square peg in a round hole simply to make a placement because that does not help anyone—not the client, the agency, or the candidate. For me, it’s all about finding the right opportunity for the right candidate, and it’s dependent on where they are in their career journey.
When it comes to L&D recruiting, it’s a small industry. Over the years, I have built a strong network of Learning Experience Designers (LXDs), Learning Consultants, Training Project Managers, etc. As a result of this relationship-based recruiting, my team and I can fill positions very quickly—sometimes in a day.
Another result of this recruiting philosophy is that professionals in our network send us frequent referrals. They trust us and send their trusted colleagues to SweetRush. They do this because of our values of caring and mutual respect, and the candidate experience that they’ve had here.
AI is one of the hottest topics at the moment. What (if any) role does it play in talent solutions? Do you feel that it’s taking over recruiting jobs?
My team and I have embraced AI, and we are tapping into it to help with repetitive processes or administrative tasks so we can focus our energy on the human side of recruiting. We are not going to use AI to conduct an AI bot screening. The human element is just too important to SweetRush and my team of recruiting consultants. Using AI to generate an initial draft of a job description or create interview questions saves us time and helps us be more efficient, but we always review and modify, so it’s an AI-human collaboration. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. I also use AI to analyze recruiting metrics, for example. That is a huge time-saver and helps me spot trends or focus quickly on areas of improvement.
A lot of people are afraid of this new technology, but I view it as a tool in my toolbox versus something that is going to replace me. My team feels the same way. We’ve all helped each other get up to speed on the various AI tools because, let’s face it, it can be overwhelming. But once you start playing with it and see its mind-blowing impact on efficiency, you just can’t ignore it. The AI possibilities are endless. Ask it to help you create a recruiting strategy or write a difficult email. Attend a free AI webinar. Start small and see where it will take you.
Based on your experience, what is one of the most common misconceptions or misunderstandings surrounding staff augmentation? How can it help organizations stretch available resources and leverage external expertise?
I think a common misconception about staff augmentation is that it is expensive and takes too long for consultants to ramp up to be effective. Clients think it is more expensive than hiring someone full-time, and they tend to ignore all the “hidden” costs associated with hiring a full-time employee. Costs associated with employee benefits typically hover around 30% of the person’s salary.
Later on, I’ll share a successful engagement that puts these assumptions to the test. This client’s ROI was impressive, and their learner performance saw a significant boost. These types of staff augmentation success stories speak for themselves.
The bottom line is that our speciality and focus is hiring top-tier L&D professionals who can hit the ground running. This is what SweetRush does for a living, and we do it for others through our staff augmentation or managed services offerings.
What is one of your most memorable managed services engagement staffing success stories?
My most memorable and successful engagement was when our autonomous vehicle client significantly boosted their L&D team’s capacity and ability to innovate through a partnership with us. Facing a lack of in-house Instructional Design expertise for their ambitious training strategy, the client augmented their team of 23 Instructional Designers (IDs) with 40 SweetRush IDs, effectively tripling their L&D team overnight. This augmentation of their team allowed them to manage a larger workload and meet growing business demands.
Key to this success was a careful talent matching process that ensured that we filled skill gaps in their team in addition to placing candidates who aligned with their culture. Also, SweetRush prioritized knowledge transfer and mentorship, which helped to upskill the client’s team. As the former Head of Operational Training observed, her IDs “started to naturally uplevel because they finally saw ‘what good looks like’ from an Instructional Design perspective.”
A relationship-focused approach, characterized by daily communication and close contact throughout the engagement, fostered strong collaboration between the SweetRush candidates and the in-house L&D team. This collaboration culminated in an on-site L&D event that united both teams for brainstorming and best practice sharing, and resulted in rapid prototyping and execution of the team’s ideas.
This partnership yielded impressive results, including a 155% ROI on one learning program due to innovative story-based modules and team “missions.” A coaching-focused onboarding program also dramatically reduced time to competency and classroom hours by over 50% each. Furthermore, yet another program developed collaboratively by the client-SweetRush team boosted learner performance by 140%.
This engagement demonstrates how combining specialized skills, increased capacity, and a collaborative environment through staff augmentation can drive innovation and deliver exceptional L&D outcomes.
What are the qualities you look for when recruiting an L&D candidate? Which positions does SweetRush primarily focus on?
We hire a lot of freelance Learning Experience Designers and senior LXDs. The industry is in the midst of major change because of technology, so it’s increasingly important that LXDs have experience working with AI. Ideally, we like to see some sort of AI certification or examples of how they are leveraging AI: Are they embracing this technology? What AI tools are they using? What have they found to be a game changer? How has it made them more efficient?
On another note, I always find it concerning when LXD candidates do not have an online portfolio to share. Sometimes clients request a person who has solid LXD skills and is also well-versed in eLearning development and multimedia authoring tools. In these cases, we’re looking for candidates who can create visually appealing learning assets and/or beautiful, engaging videos, but their learning solutions also need to be instructionally sound.
Last but not least, is there any project or initiative you’d like our readers to know about?
There are two things I’d like to share about SweetRush. One is that SweetRush is a full-service Learning and Performance strategic provider, and we transform how organizations and individuals achieve success. We’re not just a content provider; we’re a strategic partner. We offer customized learning solutions, including managed services with top-tier talent and staff augmentation. We’ve intentionally built a highly skilled and consultative talent pool to deepen our client relationships and deliver exceptional results. Whether you’re a client looking for an effective end-to-end learning strategy or a passionate performance consultant, we’re your trusted partner in meeting your business goals and navigating the future of work.
Secondly, we have a bench of AI consultants to help our clients with AI governance, AI data analysis and insights, AI engineering and development, and AI in learning design and development. We are helping our clients navigate through the new opportunities AI presents and helping them move into safe and proactive AI adoption.
Wrapping Up
Thanks to Ann Cathers for fielding our questions and offering her valuable insights. If you’d like to learn more about SweetRush’s staff augmentation services, you can check out their talent solutions to see their most popular placements and get in touch. We’d also like to congratulate SweetRush for being eLearning Industry’s No. 1 Provider for Top eLearning Staff Augmentation Services in this year’s top list.