Loop lowers the volume and speeds up their hiring

When you think of ear protection, what comes to mind?

Maybe you picture tiny pieces of malleable, neon foam. Or oversized eyesores that weigh heavy on your head. Whatever you imagine, it’s likely that they’re uncomfortable and unfashionable — and likely overpriced, too.

This is why earplug pioneer Loop decided to reinvent ear protection, with the Belgian company developing stylish, reusable earplugs that encourage customers to be proactive with their hearing health.

But to continue to reach new markets and spread the value of “living life at your volume,” Loop needs to recruit the best talent, no matter where they reside.

To do this, the company required a global EOR partner that could move fast to onboard and manage workers, protect valuable IP, provide an evolving self-serve platform, and forge a solid communication channel.

Here’s why Loop chose Remote to fulfill all these needs, and be its trusted global HR partner.

Loop at a glance

• Headquarters: Belgium

• Founded: 2016

• Number of employees with Remote: 40 (across the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Italy, Spain, and the UK) 

• Industry: Ecommerce

Like many great products, Loop’s stylish, effective earplugs were born out of necessity. The company’s founders, Dimitri O and Maarten Bodewes, “live life loud,” and in their quest to make ear plugs that “don’t suck,” they created a hit product that protects ears from lifelong damage.

However, despite promising beginnings, the COVID-19 pandemic had a disastrous impact, leading to a 90% decline in sales. After looking more closely at the remaining 10%, the company decided to pivot its marketing efforts, targeting parents, light sleepers, and remote employees working from home.

The results were instant. “We ended 2020 with $1 million in sales,” says Bas Moeyaert, Loop’s manager of people and culture. “And we thought, if we can do that in a year with COVID, then we have something really special.”

Driven by this new lease of life, the company broadened its target markets even further, generating galactic levels of growth. “We finished 2022 with a turnover of $42 million,” says Moeyaert, “and we want to reach $100 million by the end of 2023.”

To continue to support such rapid global growth, Loop needed a global workforce to match.

For top talent, speed is everything

Loop has evolved beyond a purely B2C company, and for Moeyaert and his people team, this means looking beyond Belgium’s borders for the best talent. But without the legal means to quickly hire and onboard them, Loop was at risk of missing out.

“The best people often want very, very fast recruitment processes,” explains Moeyaert. “You don't want to be the one at the end of the process that says, ‘we would love you to join our team; now just wait while we discover how to employ you in, say, Italy or Spain.’ You literally have one or two days to come up with an offer for that person.” 

With speed in mind, Moeyaert consulted his network and identified Remote and one other competitor as viable solutions. However, the choice was clear.

“I felt good with Remote,” he says. “They understood how quickly we had to scale, and the information was fast and accurate. That’s how the collaboration got started and it took less than two weeks to sign our first employee with Remote.” 

Loop was now able to increase the speed of its onboarding process, reducing the chances of missing out on the best talent.

• Remote offers a flat pricing structure and no hidden fees when hiring contractors

• Remote’s quick, self-serve platform makes life easier for employers and contractors alike

• Remote’s global, on-the-ground employment and compliance experts give Loop the confidence to onboard talent globally

Building trust with the little things

When a company experiences exponential growth like Loop, it’s easy to overlook employee lifecycle basics, such as salary, insurance, probation periods, and severance pay. This can lead to compliance risks, and negatively affect employee happiness — something that’s not lost on Moeyaert and his people team.

“We are outsourcing the things that are so precious to us: communication, guidance, and the care of our people,” he explains. “That’s super important and it means you need to trust your partner a lot. If something goes wrong, our colleagues don't see it as a relationship with Remote; they see it as a relationship with us.

“That’s why our partnership with Remote has to be a true collaboration, and we are happy that it is.”

For Moeyaert, the success of this collaboration is in the details, often beyond the basics of what a good EOR service should provide. 

“For example, from the beginning, I saw that our Remote contact was referring to our employees in a very gender-neutral way,” he says. “They used the pronouns, ‘they/them.’ Seeing Remote approach our employees without making assumptions was a little detail that caught my eye. It made me confident that our employees were in good hands.”

An evolving EOR platform

Loop lives for innovation — after all, it’s what separates its hearing protection from others in the space. So naturally, the company requires a growth partner with a similar mindset towards its own product. Since working with Remote, Moeyaert has found that the platform has grown impressively.

“The platform is easy to use and everything is there right in front of us,” he says. “The way it integrates with our software is really valuable, because everything comes together and we’re not having to update different sources. That helps us be more efficient, which is so important in a scale-up.”

Moeyaert also appreciates the level of engagement. “I love that they listen to our feedback,” he says. “I’ve seen concrete examples of our suggestions being implemented on the platform, and it’s great to see that they value our input.”

To borrow a pun, Loop definitely feels heard!

What’s next for Loop?

Loops revenue goals this year are ambitious, but for a company that has previously turned crisis into opportunity, they appear well within reach. The company is currently hiring to support this growth, although Moeyaert is keen not to lose sight of what’s driven Loop’s success so far.

“I love stepping back and looking at what we’ve achieved in the last three years,” he concludes “If you look back at it, it's insane. But we did it step by step with the right people and partners, and surrounded with the right energy.”

By providing top-tier onboarding, management, benefits, and compliance for Loop’s global contractors and employees, Remote will continue to cut through the noise — allowing Loop to keep safeguarding our hearing in new, fashionable ways.

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