How to build a BNZSA Rocker

By Paul Briggs, Director Global Corporate Development

If you know anything about BNZSA, you’ll know that rock music has been a huge inspiration for us. We recently launched our first ever song, Together We Rock, which is an ode to our company slogan, and we refer to every single one of our employees as a BNZSA Rocker.

Like all the best bands, we got started in a garage. Our CEO, founder and frontman Brahim Samhoud explains why rock music is so important to him: “I love the image of the rock band. A group of people who might not have a lot in common apart from their single goal to work together and produce an incredible result that inspires and delights the crowd. I hope that’s what we do here every day – our multinational, multilingual teams come together to get great results for our clients”.

“I also firmly believe that anyone has the potential to be a great BNZSA Rocker. I challenged our onboarding team to come up with a programme that any person from any professional background can jump into. With the right attitude and the right support, anyone has the potential to excel here at BNZSA”.

This has been even more important as we prepared to scale fast! From March 2020 to now, we have grown our headcount by almost 400%. We want to fill people with the BNZSA spirit as quickly as possible and give them the tools they need to succeed from Day 1.

What makes a BNZSA Rocker?

There is no magic formula to create a BNZSA Rocker. Some people come with years of experience in B2B Sales, others can apply their skills from customer service, hospitality or other industries. Some people have many master's degrees and others are fresh from school. We look for people who have the drive and ambition to grow with us.

The people who succeed with us are those who live by the four Core BNZSA Values:

People – we would be nowhere without our People! Respect and support for each other as professionals and as human beings is something we always look for.

Extra Mile – this is not about working extra hours; in fact, we encourage everyone to close the laptop at 17.00 sharp. Extra Mile to us is about giving that bit more – trying just one more phone call after your 10^th “no” of the morning, raising your hand in the team brainstorm or encouraging a colleague who is having a tough day.

Highest Quality – we ask everyone to give the best they can at any given moment. What you can do in your first week is not where you’ll be a year later. Keep pushing for YOUR highest quality and you’ll be great!

Changing the industry – doing things differently is in our DNA. People with new ideas will always thrive at BNZSA.

How do we build a BNZSA Rocker?

We hired the amazing Álvaro Aldana three years ago to help us grow our onboarding process. Álvaro brings his experience as a learning and development manager from Starbucks to industrialise our onboarding and get our Rockers performing fast.

This training mostly focuses on those who will take on roles as BDRs, but we are quickly adding programmes for the digital, development and data teams, as well as a stream for new management positions.

We currently onboard up to 40 Rockers a month and have just two weeks to get them ready for the intense world of B2B lead generation.

Week 1: The tools for success

Week 1 focuses on instilling the BNZSA Values and culture – we spend a lot of time talking about our history, showcasing role models in the company and sharing our vision for the future. Being coachable and ready to grow is also an essential element of this week, so we include an immensely popular module called “Learning How to Learn.” There´s a strong focus on the basics of the IT products required by businesses so that any Rocker can prepared for whatever our clients throw at them.

During this first week we ensure that the new Rockers acquire all the basics that they will need to start getting the job done while also giving them space to absorb and reflect.

We finally also make sure that we find some opportunities to decompress with colleagues at our weekly Friday barbecue.

Week 2: Learning by doing

Week 2 is when things get serious. The best way to learn is to get on the phone and out in the market talking to potential IT buyers. Our newbies will first do some shadowing and role playing before they jump straight in and receive live coaching on their conversations. We support them with additional workshops on building connections over the phone, handling objections and tackling difficult situations – all using real examples from the group’s experience. Pretty much all of our newbies will make their first leads during this week – a huge confidence builder that prepares them for what comes next!

By their second Friday with us, we have a whole new batch of BNZSA Rockers ready and waiting to join the band!

Week 3 and beyond: the learning never stops

From Week 3, our new Rockers join the rest of the team and enter our ongoing coaching and training programme. We offer product trainings and team learning sessions as needed, as well as one-to-one coaching. Everyone at BNZSA also has access to a huge library of content via our Learning Management System Skillsoft Percipio – Rockers can work on their current skills gaps and take courses that help them meet their development goals for the future.

Together We Learn!

All aboard! Hiring and onboarding 50 people in lockdown

At the start of 2020, we had a very ambitious plan to scale BNZSA, which meant that as a recruiter I was on track to have a very busy year.

In January I sat down with our founder, Brahim, to map out how each team would grow and how we would build entirely new departments. Then in March, like everyone else on the planet, we had to rethink but we didn’t want to sacrifice the momentum we’d built or lose the opportunity to expand.

After a brief pause during Spain’s super-strict lockdown, we resumed hiring and continue to recruit top talent from around the world to join the BNZSA adventure.

Whilst in Madrid many companies have resumed office-based working, around 80% of our team are still working from home – although we know this is the best thing for the safety of our employees during this pandemic, it does present a lot of challenges in helping new starters feel engaged.

Read on to learn how we adapted our onboarding process over the past few months!

Here are the stats:

Since March, I’ve conducted 174 interviews with prospective candidates
We’ve had 48 new starters join BNZSA since March
Our new starters speak 8 different languages
We helped people relocate from Belgium, Finland and the UK to join us – that’s right, even in a pandemic!
We’ve recruited roles in tele-marketing, data research, software development, communications, design, project management, quality control and more
3 people who started since March have already grown to take on management positions

The challenge - onboarding in a pandemic

A huge part of BNZSA’s success is our company culture. We recruit people from different backgrounds and cultures, across a range of ages. Some don’t even speak the same language – we have 25 nationalities amongst our employees.

On paper, no one has anything in common, but somehow it all works because everyone buys into our core values: delivering high quality, going the extra mile, changing the industry and of course, believing in people.

How could we recreate the BNZSA spirit with 80% of the company working remotely?

Messing up and starting again

We messed this up big time for the first batch of new starters in May – Kjell, Marta, Ivan, Eva thank you so much for bearing with us!

We did everything possible to make the the office safe for people to come in – we’d rearranged all the furniture for 2 metre distancing, added sanitising stations and retained Mati our cleaner to be there full-time. We’d thought about the physical stuff but not enough about the overall experience.

We packed the schedule so they’d be occupied all day, but didn’t include enough breaks so they could bond with each other and absorb everything they were learning. They ended up feeling really disconnected because we didn’t arrange for them to speak to their own Team Leaders or wider teams. With back to back calls all day, they never got a chance to speak to other colleagues who were in the office with them.

At the end of the two week period, we ran a short survey and are so grateful for the honest feedback to help us do better! It’s an ongoing process, but we’re very proud of what we’ve implemented so far.

So what did we improve?

Bigger batches of new starters

Since they might not have the chance to meet many of their colleagues in person right away, it’s really important that they feel connected to their cohort and have ready-made internal network of friends and colleagues across teams.

Being more realistic about the schedule

You can only absorb so much over video call, so now we have shorter training sessions and more down-time for coffees and chats with people across the company.

More support available for all tasks

We have a team member available to support for all tasks, whether that’s reading our internal handbook, the Blue & Yellow Book, or making initial attempts at tasks related to their specific roles.

Longer time in the office

We realise that new recruits prefer the structure and support available in the office, so the on-boarding process has been extended to four weeks (from our initial two week programme). Once the month is up, they can choose if they’re ready to work from home or come to the office.

More in-person meetings

Whilst we don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable to come to the office, we encourage Team Leaders and coaches to come in at least a few times during the four-week onboarding so that everyone can meet properly in real life. It’s much easier to ask for help from someone you feel like you know.

More sessions with leaders like Brahim and Cristina

From formal training and Q&A sessions to ad-hoc coaching and chats at the coffee machine, we share the BNZSA spirit via the people who were here on Day 1!

Extra personal support

Several of our new starters relocated from other countries to join us and can get lost in the crazy Spanish bureaucracy, which is even more impenetrable these days since you can’t go to any government offices without an appointment. We offer much more support with paperwork, especially for people who don’t yet speak Spanish.

How have you overcome your onboarding challenges?

I hope this insight helps you with onboarding in your organisation! If you have tips or recommendations for us, please comment below or drop me a message.

Right now we’re focusing on the most pressing issue of all….how on earth do we recreate the famous BNZSA Christmas party in remote?