Published on the 20/02/2015 | Written by Clare Coulson
The rapidly-growing electronic road user charges and transport services company Eroad (NZX:ERD), is offering a NZ$10,000 signing bonus to new software engineers who join the firm…
Founded in 2009, the listed New Zealand company has already modernised New Zealand’s road user charges regime for trucks and light diesel vehicles and implemented the world’s first national GPS/cellular-based road charging system. Its rapid growth landed it on the Deloitte Fast 50 (NZ) for the first time in 2011. Last year it made its second appearance on the list, this time at number 35, with 248.35 percent growth, having turned its attention to the USA.
“Their blockbuster moment happened in April this year [2014] when they became the first approved electronic Weight-Mile Tax service provider in North America,” says Deloitte.
Despite the international focus, the company says it is dedicated to building a global technology company based on its highly successful New Zealand reference site and all of its products will continue to be manufactured in New Zealand. But finding critical staff with the right skills to support this expansion remains a challenge.
The company says it added 50 staff during 2014, mostly in research and development roles at its Auckland headquarters. It also added new staff in its Portland, Oregon office.
“We were very successful with recruitment last year, through using new channels such as sourcing talent from overseas and our employee referral bonus scheme,” says Eroad engineering manager Jarred Clayton.
“This year we need to accelerate our efforts as we scale up internationally. Many of the roles we need to fill are highly specialised so we decided to add extra incentive to attract staff.”
Engineering staff who join Eroad before 1 May 2015 will be paid a $10,000 signing bonus. Recruits will be paid $5000 gross at the end of their first three months employment, and the remainder will be paid on their first anniversary.
Eroad is competing for talent against the likes of other listed companies Xero, Vend, Serko and Orion Health which have all recently completed capital raising initiatives and are able to offer competitive salaries to software developers. Xero is also known to have offered signing bonuses of $10,000 in 2013 and $15,000 last year.
Signing bonuses are a well-established tool in the white hot Silicon Valley recruitment market for scarce software engineering talent. Bonuses are frequently in the US$50k++ category.
