The client’s challenge

The utility provider operates as a market leader in metering systems, data capture, data management, and field management. Although the organisation had an established internal hiring team, they were struggling to attract and hire engineers at the scale the organisation needed to meet their operational targets.

The main challenges the organisation faced included:

• A poor employer brand
• Unsuccessfully adapting to market changes fast enough

Not only were they struggling to attract candidates to join their workforce due to their negative reputation, but they were also not offering competitive salaries compared with similar companies and competitors.

These issues had compounded and built up over a period of a few years, until the organisation faced significant issues meeting operational targets due to their sizable skill gaps. This led the leadership team to decide that they needed external expertise from a recruitment agency to support their hiring team.

The utility provider discovered our recruitment agency through a Google search. After exploring our service offerings and client testimonials, the organisation reached out to our team to discuss how we could assist them in addressing these challenges.

Actions taken by VIQU Energy

After engaging our team for an initial 6-month exclusive partnership, our team took time and used extensive resources to understand the organisation’s needs and challenges. We allocated a dedicated team of delivery consultants and a relationship manager to support the partnership and deliver a tailored workforce strategy.

During the exclusive partnership, the VIQU Energy team:

• Conducted detailed market analysis to understand engineering talent availability and salary expectations
• Carried out proactive search activities to identify, approach and engage relevant engineers in neighbouring industries with transferable skills
• Implemented ongoing reviews of the process and streamlined communication to drive efficiencies and reduce time-to-hire

The outcomes

During our partnership, we worked closely with their internal recruitment team, enhancing their hiring processes and providing excellent market insights, helping them to secure a total of 81 engineers.

These new engineers allowed the organisation to meet demand and continue providing essential services across the UK. Due to our extensive assistance over this period, the organisation successfully filled many of their skills gaps. The organisation has since continued to engage our team for ad-hoc help for specialist and niche roles.