The client’s challenge

An energy consultancy business faced hiring limitations after their acquisition and quick growth outpaced their internal hiring capabilities.

The business wanted their internal HR team to focus on managing the acquisition and the integration of teams and departments, so they required the support of a recruitment agency that could take over their recruitment processes.

After a successful pitch highlighting our track record in the energy sector, including our fast time-to-hire rates and extensive expertise in specialist energy roles, we were invited to work with the organisation to support their fast growth and talent needs.

Actions taken by VIQU Energy

After our initial conversations, we conducted a full audit of the organisation’s recruitment processes. Through extensive examination, we found multiple areas and processes that needed to be optimised and improved in order to attract the right talent.

After presenting our findings to the organisation, we agreed where our consultants could take control of administrative and hiring tasks so that their HR team could concentrate on the acquisition.

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  Our Account Manager was consistently present onsite with the organisation at least once a week in order to become more immersed in the company culture and curate a deeper understanding of the organisation’s requirements. Their personal interactions and experiences with the team allowed our Account Manager to accurately assess the cultural fit of each candidate.

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  Our colleague carried out all first stage interviews to relieve pressure off the internal HR team and senior management by assessing candidates on their cultural fit and soft skills. Doing so ensured that the management team only saw carefully selected candidates we genuinely believed would fit into the team well. This way when the organisation conducted interviews, they could focus on hard skills, with the knowledge that each candidate’s soft skills had been thoroughly assessed.

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  With our colleague being onsite regularly, they had direct contact with all stakeholders, including hiring managers and the HR team. This was key to developing a long-lasting relationship based on trust and honesty. As the relationship developed, our colleague was granted full visibility of all key stakeholder diaries within the organisation, which further supported our team in creating a smooth recruitment process that delivered against the organisation’s goals.

The outcomes

Due to our direct involvement in the recruitment process, we were able to speed up the recruitment process and reduced the organisations time-to-hire from 32.8 to 10 days on average. This allowed the organisation to secure great candidates, who had previously been lost to competitors due to delays and lengthy processes. This improved candidate experience, and further boosted the organisation’s employer brand too, which was key to help support the business acquisition.

Additionally, as the Account Manager was onsite at least once a week, they got to know the team, the hiring managers and stakeholders, as well as their key requirements so that they could carefully select only the most suitable candidates for the role. This meant that 75% of the candidates that were put forward to interview were placed in the organisation.

This careful selection and fast recruitment process facilitated an improved recruitment process and gave the internal HR team the opportunity to focus on the acquisition.