A new candidate you want to present with enthusiasm deserves both speed and care. But at Kayak, that process often stalled on something nobody enjoyed: creating CVs. What should have been a simple business card for the candidate turned into a time-consuming, error-prone task. Hours disappeared into Word documents, shuffling text around and hoping the formatting would stay intact. It slowed the work and drained energy that should have gone into conversations with clients and candidates.
Today, we’re speaking with Willem Heutink, Head of Operations at Kayak, who explains how they overcame this challenge.
From student schedules to smart automation
What is now naturally automated used to be a time-consuming and stressful manual task.
"In the past, we worked a lot with students. They converted the CVs, and it operated like a semi-oiled machine," Willem shares. "But as soon as there were exam weeks, others had to take over the work. That led to stress, a lot of coordination, and formatting CVs in Word sometimes took up to an hour. It was error-prone, unenjoyable work, and often a full-time task for someone."
Sleek, error-free and professional
With Spadework's CV Transformer, that is a thing of the past. No more separate schedules, no reliance on student workers, but directly a sleek, error-free and professional CV that fits Kayak.
"Spadework has mainly saved time, costs, and energy. You no longer need to train people to create CVs in a certain way. It just looks good, always."
The impact
From ±60 minutes to a few minutes per CV.
No more dependency on student workers or schedules.
Faster and more consistent candidate proposals to clients.
"The convenience and speed are really the greatest gains. You can make an introduction to clients directly, without chaos or time pressure. That brings peace and professionalism."
Why Kayak chooses Spadework
What Kayak values the most is the collaboration.
"The way of working is very nice. We have fine-tuned a lot, and Spadework responds quickly. Everything is picked up, and the product just works well. Compliments on how smoothly everything goes. Sometimes we are almost afraid that competitors will start working on it too."
In conclusion
Kayak helps professionals invest in themselves. Thanks to Spadework, they can do this without being distracted by time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks.
Curious about what Spadework can do for your organization?
