HiBob VP of Customer Success Case Study

HiBob engaged Oakstone International to appoint a senior Customer Success leader to scale a revenue-owned CS function across EMEA after internal attraction efforts failed. Oakstone mapped 140 qualified profiles, presented 6 shortlist-ready candidates, and progressed 3 to the final stage, securing a leader with proven experience owning renewals and expansion within a high-growth HR Tech environment.

Background

Search Background

Requirements

The Challenge

The Results

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Background

HiBob's people management platform embraces the new world of work. Whether your teams are working onsite, remotely, or hybrid, Bob enables you to seamlessly onboard, develop, and retain talent, ensure employee wellbeing, promote engagement and build a remote culture.

Search Background

• HiBob was seeking an experienced customer success leader to scale a revenue-focused customer success function.

• This hire would lead the customer success team in EMEA and be based in the UK.

• The hiring manager for the role was the Chief Commercial Officer

• Contingent agreement

Requirements

• Previous experience in a revenue-focused customer success leadership role.

• Previous experience managing a customer success team that owns the renewal and revenue growth (NRR) within existing accounts.

• An in-depth understanding and experience within both scaling and scaled companies.

• HR Tech experience was desirable.

The Challenge

• HiBob had previously run an internal marketing campaign for this role; however, this wasn’t successful in attracting the right person with the required combination of skills.

• This was such an important hire that the CCO was willing to wait for the right person to come along.

The Results

• Oakstone took on the search and found 140 profiles that fitted the requirement of managing a customer success function of significant scale.

• Oakstone executed outreach and qualification to establish the best revenue-focused customer success leaders with the required experience.

• Six candidates were presented to the hiring manager.

• Three were shortlisted to the final stages.

• The successful candidate met all the desired criteria, including HR Tech experience.

More about Oakstone and HiBob

• Why do internal attraction efforts often fail in recruitment?

  Attraction campaigns within recruitment such as job adverts only target active candidates who are looking for a new role. These campaigns struggle to reach passive candidates who are not actively job-seeking. Executive search and targeted outreach are often required when looking for people with specific skills and experience.

• Why use executive search for Customer Success leadership roles?

  Executive search firms have the ability to target and reach out to passive Customer Success leaders with the desired skills and experience. They can then conduct a deeper assessment and qualification of leadership style, commercial mindset, and cultural alignment for introducing them to the hiring team. This speeds up the hiring process and internal workload.

• How does Oakstone approach Customer Success leadership searches?

  Oakstone International maps revenue-owned CS leaders across SaaS sectors, assessing candidates on renewal ownership, expansion performance, team leadership, and cultural fit. We then use this information and the brief specifications to qualify potential candidates before introducing them to the hiring manager.