The client’s challenge

As a membership organisation, our client is naturally positioned between the UK Government, that is setting the policies, and the members that they represent and support. This makes recruiting for strategic roles for this organisation more complex, as new hires must be able to manage stakeholders on both sides, while also bringing strong technical expertise to the table.

We had been supporting this membership organisation with key roles for the past four years when they approached us with a need to hire four new employees for hard-to-fill roles.

Two of these roles were Technical Lead positions that required a particular combination of niche skillsets and experience within connections and DSO, which is less common in the market.

Additionally, the client required two Project Management professionals. While the skillset needed for these roles was not particularly complex, both roles were Fixed-Term Contracts (FTCs), making the opportunity less attractive to potential candidates.

Actions taken by VIQU Energy

Alongside conducting an outreach campaign, our team supplemented the search to identify and secure suitable candidates by carrying out several headhunting activities.

In order to secure the best, we mapped out the companies that were operating in the same niche areas as our client, identifying several appropriate candidates to approach regarding joining the organisation.

We then contacted each of these professionals to assess their interest in a potential move and evaluate their suitability. From this, we were able to draw up a shortlist for each role for the client, which contained professionals who had both the necessary skillsets and experience in complex stakeholder management.

The outcomes

Thanks to our extensive headhunting activities, we identified seventeen strong candidates across the four roles. The client was very satisfied with the quality of these candidates when the shortlists were presented and sixteen were invited to interview.

From the time our team was briefed on the vacancies to job acceptances, one position was filled within four weeks. Talented professionals were placed in the other three roles within eight weeks.

Given the complex nature of these positions, our team and the organisation were both very pleased with the reasonable timeframe we delivered within. Our proactive actions and market knowledge resulted in four fantastic energy professionals joining this membership organisation, allowing them to push forward in meeting demands from government policies and their membership base.