Co-option, a recruitment method that has proven its worth at Orinox

From the beginning, Orinox involves its employees to attract new talents. While recruitment has become a major issue in the course of 2020, employees are more than ever requested to find new profiles. Thanks to the testimonials of Marina GAUDIN, a recruitment officer, and of a duet of a co-opting person and a co-opted person, Emna ZITOUNA and Noussaiba ROBBANA, let’s discover the secrets behind co-option, a recruitment method which has increased in the past 2 years.

Co-option is when an employee recommends someone he knows (former colleague, classmate, etc…) in order to make him join the company to a position he thinks that he has the required skills.

If co-option has always existed at Orinox, « it has been reinforced for the past 2 years with the implementation of a process » according to Marina GAUDIN. As Orinox is positioning itself on jobs with rare profiles, co-option involves mission officers and their wide network to offer consistent profiles. Therefore, co-option is more effective than a simple job advertisement. Marina explains : « Our employees are our best ambassadors to inspire people to join us. They are the best placed to talk about their/our job, our clients’ important projects, our values and the well-being at Orinox ». The list of advantages to co-option is long : reliability of co-opted profile, facility of integration, knowledge of missions and their opportunities, and the importance of training programs. Last but not least, this method of recruitment also allows to save money and time.

Co-option truly involves the employee and it also means that he/she understood the stakes and needs of his company

As such, Emna, application engineer at Orinox since December 2018, did not hesitate for long : « I decided to co-opt Noussaiba mainly because I know her skills and her enthusiasm. We made our final school projects and reports together, so I did it because I know what she is capable of ». Beyond the co-option’s bonus that co-opting persons get when the trial period of the co-opted is confirmed, Orinox wants to enhance these initiatives which prove that the company really trusts its employees.

So, how does co-option works at Orinox ?

« Co-opting employees send to the recruitment department : the resumé and a co-option form in which he/she explains the reasons why he/she recommends the candidate » explains Marina. Then the candidate is integrated into the recruitment process as Noussaiba ROBBANA tells us : « Marina called me and we discussed about my goals. She also told me about Orinox activities. Then she sent me a link to the online platform to take technical tests ». Noussaiba then had three interviews : a technical one on Aveva PDMS software, a psycho-technical one and a last one in English. She received positive opinions for those three interviews and it led to the signing of a contract. Noussaiba now occupies the position of CAD application engineer since February 2019.

However, co-option may include some limits

For Emna, the risk of co-option is that « employees start to send-in inappropriate profiles to obtain the co-option bonus or just to refer a friend. In both cases, the trust between the company and workers is broken ». Moreover, Marina believes it is important to diversify the sources of recruitment and not to use co-option as « an only source of recruiting, which may lack objectivity ».

Co-option was a successful experience for the two of them : « I made the right choice recommending Noussaiba, she did a great job all along the recruitment process and she proved that she deserved her place at Orinox » (Emna). « I am grateful to Emna because she allowed me to have a beautiful experience integrating Orinox and then also because I discovered the real world of industrial digitalization » (Noussaiba).

Given the encouraging opinions received from employees and the 16 hired co-opted people in 2019, Orinox hopefully expects higher recruitments through co-option !