AI is reshaping hiring. Make it inclusive.
AMS partnered with rinna, a newly independent AI technology startup, to build a diverse, high impact workforce at speed following its spin off from Microsoft. With immediate pressure to scale critical technical, commercial, and operational teams, rinna required a direct sourcing approach that could deliver specialist talent while staying true to its values of fairness, diversity, and trust. AMS designed and executed a company wide recruitment strategy that enabled rapid growth without reliance on agencies, supporting rinna to establish its core teams, attract highly specialised AI and engineering talent, and lay the foundations for a globally diverse organisation built for long term innovation.
rinna is an AI technology development company. Its mission is to revolutionalise the world by empowering people and organisations with a new style of communication using “AI chatbots”. The rinna team developed AI characters in Microsoft’s AI & Research division.
In August 2020, rinna was spun off from Microsoft. As aresult of becoming an independent company, rinna needed to immediately organise and establish sales, support and back office in order to successfully launch its business. It urgently required talent such as developers, engineers and researchers to accelerate its research & development at speed.
Diverse and fair hiring is a central value to rinna, and the AI developed by them is based on the principles of equality, diversity and trust. rinna looked to AMS as a partner who could deliver the talent they needed quickly, while aligning with them on its diversity and fair hiring values.
When partnering with AMS, it was agreed that a company-wide proactive recruitment plan was required immediately in order for the company to scale at speed.
To meet the surge in demand for talent across the entire company, rinna partnered with AMS and quickly established a company wide, end-to-end recruitment drive, including graduate and midcareer hiring led by rinna’s HR Manager, Alex Lagata.
With the support of the entire senior leadership team, including CEO, Chen “Cliff” Zhan, and COO Momo Klyen, rinna and AMS have together managed the entire recruitment ecosystem since mid-December of 2020. Using strictly direct talent sourcing, rinna was able to grow rapidly in its first 3 months, from 15 to 60, avoiding costly agencies and job posting sites.
‘AMS gave me a reliable and proactive resource that helped in realising the recruitment plan I had crafted. Incorporating AMS in the hiring process was straightforward as they were prepared and ready to partner with us from Day 1.’
— Alex Lagata, HR Manager
‘I am delighted that we have been able to compete and win against large, well-established companies when it comes to recruiting new talent. The senior leadership team at rinna trusts AMS. In addition, by partnering with them, their knowledge and innovative culture has further strengthened our HR process.’
— Momo Klyen, COO
Together with AMS, rinna has succeeded in complex hiring including hiring new developers with specialised knowledge researchers, such as C#, Kubernetes, Python, TypeScript, Machine Learning, with relevant backgrounds in natural language processing as well as product managers, sales professionals, and marketing executives.
Their target to reach 100+ within their first year of independence, is attainable given their current strong growth rate.
rinna is a truly global company employing talent from China, Russia, Bangladesh, Germany, the Philippines and Indonesia. Talent ranges from new graduates to those in their 60s, and more than half of its board are women. With their hiring-winning formula, rinna continues to succeed in developing an organisation that enables AI development based on the principles of diversity and equality.
Now armed with the workforce required, these are truly exciting times for rinna.
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