Empowering animators: WildBrain Studios partners with Cegid HR to recruit, engage and retain top talent

Simplicity as Catalyst

When Daryl Chappell became Vice-President of Talent Management at WildBrain Studios, he recognised the animation company faced significant HR challenges. As an enterprise with ambitious talent strategy, WildBrain Studios had structured its HR function around an innovative concept: optimising internal recruitment through dedicated talent scouts—artists tasked with identifying and recruiting the most qualified animators from their database for upcoming projects.

Despite this forward-thinking approach, Chappell identified a critical strategic opportunity: accelerating recruitment velocity and operational efficiency while mobilising talent more effectively.

My mandate was to consolidate all talent activities, establish operational coherence, and optimise processes to create a meaningful employee experience, says Daryl Chappell. He emphasises the importance of centralising information and workflows in one integrated platform to consolidate learning histories, CVs, portfolios, expertise, career interests, and prior achievements.

That’s a significant part of what Cegid HR delivers for us, Chappell concludes.

With an extensive network of talent who had previously worked at WildBrain Studios, the team needed more than improved HR initiatives. They needed a way for their talent scouts to reconnect with former contractors and assemble project-based teams, leveraging their best artists based on specific skills and interests. And they needed to accomplish this without managing complex documentation or juggling fragmented, disconnected systems.

Many contract artists work with us for periods on specific projects. There’s considerable freelancer movement within the industry, driven by project timelines,” Chappell explains. For WildBrain Studios, deploying a purpose-built solution to manage and mobilise its contractor network became essential. “We needed an optimal platform to manage our extensive contractor base, enabling us to efficiently engage people who had already delivered great work for us.

The WildBrain Studios team also needed a solution to manage forward-facing talent relationships. It’s critical for us to recruit artists based on their own requirements, says Chappell. Through Cegid HR’s Skills Match function, contractors create their own profiles—similar to LinkedIn—and receive invitations to apply for projects aligned with their skills and experience within the company.

The platform also allows recruiters to customise how they evaluate upcoming projects, using an intelligent system that directly invites artists who best match project requirements to apply for specific open positions.

Through comprehensive digital transformation enabled by Cegid HR’s Recruitment and Training modules alongside its core HR platform, WildBrain Studios optimised its processes to amplify HR software impact, cultivate agile leadership, and prepare for the future of work. On this evolution, Daryl Chappell adds: I understand the concept of working from anywhere, but technology must enable it within our industry. He continues: Our team members can work from the studio or remotely. We value in-person collaboration and working together on-site. To make that appealing, we create a remarkable workplace environment where people want to be. We recognise that the physical workspace becomes optional in our new hybrid work model, so we must ensure our HR solutions and processes adapt to this evolving reality.