Alexander Hill

Needle in a haystack

Our client, the UK head office of an American owned marketing company, were recommended to Alexander Hill Recruitment as they needed help to recruit a number of high calibre graduates for its prestigious offices in Reading.

In the current climate is has become increasingly difficult to spot talent in the graduate arena and clients are often inundated with candidates for entry level roles. Additionally, due to headcount issues the client was only able to offer temporary opportunities with the prospect of permanent conversion in the long term so the challenge was on to find the best possible candidates who would still offer a long term commitment.  We met with the Managing Director to take a detailed analysis of the roles and then agreed timesecales for the recruitment. It was evident we had to consider the culture fit for this office, which has a warm family feel; this was as  important as previous vocational experience and the candidate mindset. 

Then the work began.  This involved volume sourcing through referrals, our candidate networks and of course online job boards.  We find that some clients can feel recruiting directly is the best option in what is considered a full candidate pool, sadly this can involve high volumes of responses a majority of which are not suitable for the role in hand, which in turn can involve a lot of time with sifting and responding.  Alexander Hill relieved the client of this pressure and reviewed candidates in line with the detailed specification and our in depth knowledge of the client.  This involved a great deal of telescreening candidates to assess their wants and needs. Successful candidates were offered to an interview where we conducted a competency based interview against the core requirements of the role.  Our skill lay in the ability to assess at interview stage the right personality fit and aspirations of the candidates concerned, matching these closely to the clients requirements.  This has culminated in a number of placements within this company and a quarter of their workforce is now working onsite via Alexander Hill.

Over time, the client has come to rely on Alexander Hill recruitment and can relax in the knowledge that they will always receive a considered and relevant shortlist from which they are able to appoint a new hire and subsequently we now enjoy an exclusive working relationship with our client.

Safe pair of hands

In December 2010 our client, a leading national FMCG company based in Reading, approached us explaining that due to a period of unprecedented growth in their customer base and aggressive expansion plans for 2011, they were looking to recruit a new administrative and customer service team.

It was a high volume request and the hiring manager needed to feel comforted that as a smaller, independent consultancy it was something Alexander Hill could manage in such a short space of time. They needed the new twelve person team in place for the first day of the New Year, and there was no room for error as they would lose customers if they did not have the right support in place.

Acting as Account Director, Laura Hopkins met with the client in order to gain an understanding of how the dynamics and strategies of the existing teams may have changed since the last recruitment phase that she had assisted with. It was important to capture exactly what was required.

Through intelligent questioning Laura built a full picture of the profile of their customers and how they attracted them and crucially, understanding what the company vision was for 2011. The people they required needed not only outstanding administrative and customer service skills, but also the kind of tenacity and drive necessary to succeed in a target driven environment. Added to this, it was essential that they held a passion for the company’s products – a tall order!

It was crystal clear that due to the specialist nature of the roles, advertising these on existing job boards and working with existing networks wouldn’t generate the calibre or volume of candidates required. This was communicated to the client and a plan of action was put in place to include the expansion of resourcing tools, such as specialist job boards & membership to the industry’s Association, as well as search and selection methods.

The Reading team went straight to task, creating accounts with industry specific job boards and researching the client’s competitors. Prospective candidates were contacted discreetly, often out of hours, to complete an initial telephone interview and invited to meet with a member of the Reading team in person. The search was relentless.

The response to adverts posted on the industry’s association page also generated a fantastic response. Our creative methods of sourcing had ensured that we were able to cherry pick the very best candidates in the market to introduce to the hiring manager.

The result was that on the first day of business in 2011 our client had a full complement of staff in situ, every one of which met the original brief fully and even a number of candidates who exceeded all expectation in terms of experience!

Since this time we have enjoyed a continued relationship with the client, going on to recruit staff in a variety of roles including new junior management hires. All of the original teams members are continuing to impress, develop and progress in their roles.

Every role counts

In any one year, many businesses are acquired. The reasons for acquisition vary but often it is because the groundwork of the business is up and running, a market for the product or service will already have been demonstrated with existing employees in place. There may be established customers, income and reputation as well as the opportunity to expand into new regions or countries.

Alexander Hill was approached by one such company recently. We had been working with their London office for many years providing secretarial and support staff on both a permanent and temporary basis. This particular client had expanded into a new region with a new product to their portfolio and they required an office manager. This individual needed to be hired through the London HR department and was to be based in a different location working in an environment where morale was low and the business adjusting to a new identity and structure.

This was not the first time Alexander Hill had worked on such a project to such tight timelines but this time we were working with a new region and therefore needed to gain an understanding of candidate availability and suitability quickly. First we researched to understand the area and worked closely with our London client to build a picture of how they were integrating with the business they had acquired.

This process was a challenge for both ourselves and the client as this was their first acquisition and the pressure to get it right was paramount to the integration process. As experts in the secretarial market we felt confident that we could work with our client and ensure a successful placement but were concerned about the speed at which the individual needed to be secured.

We worked with all our resources including our candidate network, put together bespoke advertising working with existing job boards and those that were specific to the area our client is based in. We ensured that a thorough interview processes took place so that a considered and relevant shortlist was delivered to our client. We worked closely with our client to ensure all candidates had the required skills but would also match the culture and environment both that of today and the future as perceived by the client. We suggested an interview process that included inviting candidates to both locations so that insight was achievable. We ensured a successful placement!