(Due to this being an on-going partnership, the client discussed in this case study has asked to remain anonymous.)
The Client
The client is a tier 1, Audio-Visual Integrator. A business with over 1,000 employees in various international office locations, that provides solutions including video conferencing, audio-visual integration, cloud solutions and unified communications.
The client installs the teleconference systems works of some of the world’s largest organisations and offers provide on-site support to ensure they run smoothly: Allowing these businesses to seamlessly conduct business on an international scale.
When delivering projects and such an integrated service to world leading organisations, it’s essential to the business to have the right people, at the right time.
The Background
The client works with businesses to understand their technical needs, designs a technical solution individual to their business, and then offers managed on-site support.
This ‘on-site, managed support’ comes in the form of an Audio-Visual Technician to remain on the customer site and be their on-site technical support.
This was a service and demand that was brand-new: Nobody had done it before. We asked our client about what this change in the market and clients’ needs meant for them:
“That demand didn’t exist initially. It was a new sort of thing and something that we were asked to provide, and we needed those recruitment skills to support us. There was no one else doing it at the time, so it was difficult to compare: It was a brand-new area.
We were trying to recruit ourselves and we worked with local agencies, and we just weren’t seeing results.
And this was a demand. It wasn’t like, oh we’d like someone extra on the team to help out. The customers had the need, and we need someone here to deliver a service. They needed someone quickly: We didn’t have time to wait around.”
The client’s initial brief was for permanent Audio-Visual Technicians, to support them across multiple short-term engagements.
But they struggled to find and attract appropriate candidates. They needed something different…
The Challenges the Client Faced
The client faced multiple challenges in their recruitment process over the years, which the team here at Dynamic has assisted and addressed.
- The client needed to be able to offer on-site support to their client. Which meant they needed to hire the right people, quickly.
- Their own internal recruitment efforts and the other agencies the business worked with weren’t seeing the results they needed.
- As the client was entering a new market, they initially struggled with managing salaries and salary expectations: Both for candidates and within the business.
- And as the client grew, so too did the projects that they won. Their project engagements changed from short-term to long-term. This meant that their hiring needs changed, and their hiring strategy need to change with them.
- When hiring for more technical roles, other agencies the client worked with didn’t have the technical understanding of the market or industry that the client needed.
The Complete List of Roles Filled with the Client
What started as helping the client to fill contract Audio Visual Technicians when needed, has developed into a multi-year recruitment partnership. The team at Dynamic has so far filled the following vacancies for the client:
- Pre-Sales Architects.
- Technical Architects.
- Solution Architects.
- Sales Account Managers
- UC Installations Engineers.
- Commissioning Engineers
- Service Engineers
- AV Engineers.
- AV Technicians
- AV On-Site Support.
- AV Subject Matter Experts.
- Cover technicians.
- Service Delivery Manager.
- Project Manager.
- Live events technician.
- Field Engineers.
- Lead installation Engineers.
The Approach
Principal Consultant Mark Humphreys took the lead on the relationship with the client.
With his experience working in both contract and permanent recruitment, as well as his expertise in the Audio-Visual recruitment space, he was the perfect man for the job.
Mark worked closely with the client to establish a hiring strategy that was better suited to their needs by:
- Working with the client to re-evaluate their recruitment needs.
- Identifying gaps in their hiring strategy with permanent and contract recruitment.
- And identifying the client’s benefits that set them apart from their competitors.
Here’s how he did it…
How Dynamic Solved Their Problems
After discussion with Mark and the Dynamic team into what would be best for solving the recruitment problems they were facing, the client refocused their efforts from hiring on a permanent basis, to contract recruitment. This meant building the client an individually tailored contract solution that worked for them.
At the beginning of the partnership, the Dynamic team went to market to find freelancers for the client and address their urgent, short-term hiring needs as needed.
But as the client’s need developed into long-term engagements and long-term employment, the Dynamic team head-hunted from the businesses direct competitors by marketing the benefits of working for the client: Instead of simply out-pricing or out-bidding the competition.
Additionally, working with the client to focus on hiring people who had a lower level of experience, but allowing them to train and develop their own technical specialists.
And as the client transitioned to searching for permanent employees, they required industry and job market insight on realistic salary benchmarking. Which meant the client knew what the market was demanding, could set better expectations with the customer, and within the business.
The Result
The client was so satisfied with the speed and quality of the service that Mark and the Dynamic team provided, that what initially started as support with hiring for several smaller contract positions, has developed into a multi-year partnership with over 30 vacancies with the client, in over 15 different roles within the business.
What Did the Client Say?
We spoke to the client and asked them what working with the Dynamic team meant for their business:
“Working with Mark and Dynamic just made the process of seeking, interviewing, and hiring candidates, much easier: With a lower failure rate, because the candidates we see are a higher quality.
I can have a call with Mark, explain the kind of candidate I am looking, and he can raise any questions straight away. We can say to Mark this is our budget for the role: And he can get the best possible talent at that level.
He can take that away and, in a week, latest, he’ll be back with candidates. I don’t have to chase it, I don’t have to push it, I just know it’s going to happen.”