Quantum Motion

Talent Acquisition

Winning scarce talent as a smaller brand

solution

Scaling Innovation

deliverables

Talent acquisition

Decode

Only a handful of people in the world can build a quantum computer, and they’re in high demand from big companies, with big budgets.

Quantum Motion had grown from 3 people to 60 in 5 years, and needed even more talent, but hiring was proving very difficult. Academics felt the research at a scale-up would lag behind their own. Engineers wanted to work on something they could ship.

The company also couldn’t match big tech in competing for either group. It needed to look at talent acquisition holistically to solve the problem.

Humanize

Interviews with the Quantum Motion team and potential hires showed that candidates were worried about joining a young company, sceptical about commercial research, and didn’t feel they knew much about its technology or leaders.

Cultural and category analysis showed the ideal hires were humble, collaborative and put off by anything that felt like tech-industry ego.

So, we positioned Quantum Motion as a return to the shared spirit of early quantum labs: a team working on hard problems together. We then turned that proposition into a content strategy and a practical plan for how to communicate, hire, and retain talent.

Activate

Insight report

Cultural and category analysis that showed tech’s shift from collaborative labs to founder-led companies and the barriers that presented for candidates.

Audience profiles

Two talent groups, academics and engineers, mapped and profiled.

Content strategy

Brand, cultural and audience truths leading to a talent proposition, of Radical Difference, built on emotional intelligence and technical brilliance.

Action plan

Short and long term tactics across marketing, media, hiring practices, and the establishment of a university program.