Talent Acquisition
Recruiting and hiring the people you need.
Talent is often the true constraint on strategy execution.
Cawan's Shoes 2026 talent plan — Portland performance-design center: • 40 hires in 6 months: 12 shoe designers, 10 biomechanics engineers, 8 materials scientists, 6 product managers, 4 leaders. • Cost per hire: $18,400 (agency 45%, referrals 30%, campus 25%). Total recruiting cost $736k. • Time-to-fill: 52 days avg (industry benchmark 68 days). • Quality of hire (90-day manager rating): 4.2 / 5.0. • Offer-accept rate: 74%. Comp band: $135k–$210k base + 15% target bonus + RSUs. Fully-loaded first-year cost of the 40-person team: ~$8.4M — expected to generate the AeroCush v3 platform launching 2027.
Slow or wrong hires stall product roadmaps and store openings.