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How Koenigsegg reduced its time to hire by almost 60% with Alva & Jobylon

Koenigsegg, renowned for its painstaking craftsmanship of state of the art hyper cars, applies the same exacting standards to its hiring process. With such a reputation for technical innovation, Koenigsegg routinely attracts applications from across the globe – posing a significant challenge for the talent acquisition team to fairly and efficiently manage that inflow. 

When faced with compromising between speed and quality in their process, Koenigsegg rejected the question altogether and chose Alva Labs to step in and help streamline their process.

This is the story of how Alva Labs, together with the applicant tracking system Jobylon, helped optimise Koenigsegg's talent pipeline, guiding them to enhance their candidate experience and improve the experience for hiring managers. On top of that, they sliced the lead time for hires from two months to 25 days – a reduction of almost 60 per cent. 

Koenigsegg’s journey to find the best candidates

Based in Ängelholm, Sweden, Koenigsegg puts a high degree of care and consideration in each handcrafted part that comprises their one-of-a-kind hypercars. The engineering and design teams building these vehicles are rigorously screened to deliver on that brand promise. After all, this is the famed automobile manufacturer behind the legendary Koenigsegg Agera. Otherwise known as the fastest production car on the planet, which reached a two-way average record speed of 277.8 mph in 2017. 

With its strong reputation, it's no surprise that Koenigsegg has such an abundance of candidates. In 2023 alone, the company received over 200 applications for a single mechanical design engineer position, and a staggering 500 applications for a designer internship. In a sea of qualified candidates, Talent Acquisition Partner Mats Johansson and his team in Skåne rely on Alva Labs candidate assessment platform and its seamless integration with Jobylon's ATS to identify the candidates with the best fit for the role. 

Problem and Solution

Facing this number of applications, Koenigsegg's talent acquisition team needed a solution to manage the influx and ensure each candidate received a fair evaluation. To help with this, all candidates applying via their Jobylon-hosted careers page are automatically invited to complete an Alva logic and personality test.

"Building cars that push the boundary of what is possible requires talented individuals not only with a unique set of functional skills but an inclination to constantly learn, develop and innovate," said Alva CSM Josh Spencer.

"The core challenge we're solving together is quickly and reliably identifying candidates who possess the natural tendencies or soft skills indicative of strong performance in this type of unique environment."

Leaning on a mix of general research findings and Koenigsegg-specific success factors, the talent acquisition team worked with their CSM to create relevant and automated screening criteria based on findings from Alva’s psychometric assessments. This allowed Mats and his team to quickly identify candidates with the highest potential, which was essential to providing a positive candidate experience while also delivering on organisational needs. 

This new approach called for tight alignment with the hiring managers. They evaluated candidates based on their technical skills and readiness, leveraging the Jobylon ATS to gather and organise all the necessary information for informed decision-making.

  "A tool like Alva, which allows the recruiting manager to get an insight into the kind of people who are applying, is invaluable," said Fredrik Karlsson, Manufacturing Engineering Manager at Koenigsegg. "It helps us achieve as much output from the energy that we put into our work as possible. That's the kind of tool you want as a manager."

The impact of this streamlined process has been significant. "The candidate experience has improved, we have a better hiring quality, we have a huge engagement from the hiring managers that we couldn't see before," Mats explained. "It's now 100 per cent engagement in our hiring processes."

Fast Hiring with Uncompromised Quality 

The collaboration between Alva Labs, Jobylon, and Koenigsegg yielded measurable outcomes. The rollout of Alva's science-backed candidate assessments together with Jobylon's ATS significantly refined Koenigsegg's hiring strategy and reduced their time to hire. Adopting assessments with automated interpretation from the onset of the recruitment process played a key role in Koenigsegg's ability to significantly reduce their lead time.

That level of velocity and effectiveness is crucial within Koenigsegg's highly competitive talent market. With high-quality candidates often juggling multiple offers, streamlining time-to-hire is not merely an efficiency gain – it's a strategic imperative.

The advantages of this collaboration go beyond speed. With a richer pool of data on candidates, hiring managers are equipped to make more informed decisions. The calibre of candidates remained consistently high, ensuring Koenigsegg continues to attract and secure top-tier talent. 

This speaks to the precision of Alva's assessments and their seamless integration with Jobylon's ATS.

  "Not only has Alva and Jobylon helped Koenigsegg save a ton of time," Josh said, "they're also very happy with the people they've been able to find throughout the process."

The honed hiring strategy boosted the efficiency of the recruitment procedure while improving the candidate experience and engagement from the hiring managers. Koenigsegg managed to maintain their uncompromising attention to detail in their recruitment, mirroring their meticulous approach in crafting their luxury sports cars.

Mats added his perspective on the impact of this integration.

  "To be able to do really fast hires and still keep the quality, you need lots of information in a good way," he said. "Alva Labs helps us define what we're looking for and the integration with Jobylon and Alva helps us to expedite this process and obtain that information right from the start of the recruitment phase, not in the end."

The impact of these results extends beyond the hiring process. By enhancing their recruitment strategy, Koenigsegg can better support its pursuit of uncompromising perfection in the automobile industry.