Case Studies

 

ROLE: Director of Operations, UK
Sector: FINTECH
Organisation: Global financial services company

Finding rare fintech talent

The challenge

To maintain its market-leading position this client needed to set up a new product team in the UK to develop and adapt US products for the EMEA market. They needed an experienced operations director to build and lead the team. They asked us to identify relevant next-generation product skills in fintech startups.

What we did:

  • Identified a list of 80 potential candidates
  • Assessed potential candidates’ relevant experience and motivations
  • Gave the client a longlist of 6 candidates for them to take through their recruitment process.

 

The result for the client

  • Made the hire from the longlist
  • Gained market insight and competitor intelligence.

ROle: Sales Managers, UK
Sector: MARKETINg
Organisation: Global marketing company

Overcoming a shortage of good active sales candidates

The challenge

This client had traditionally nurtured and promoted internal talent, but they needed to bolster their talent pool for junior and mid-level sales managers across the UK.

They were finding recruitment agencies time consuming, expensive and inconsistent because of the competition for any good active candidates. To compete for the best talent, they needed to be more proactive.

What we did

  • Identified 200 target organisations and 800 people to approach
  • Had detailed conversations with 600 of them
  • Narrowed the list down to 100 strong candidates across the UK.

  • The result for the client 
  • Easy access to 100 relevant and interested candidates open to joining the organisation as roles become available.

ROLE: Board members, SPAIN
Sector: ENGINEERING
Organisation: Venture capital company

Assessing risk in a potential company purchase

The challenge

Our client wanted to add a Spanish civil engineering company to their portfolio. If the purchase went ahead they felt they would need to strengthen the company’s board. Although the target company was large, they operated in a niche sector and our client was worried there wouldn’t be the necessary talent available. They wanted to assess this before going ahead.

What we did:

  • Identified and profiled senior management teams in different business functions at competitors in Spain and across Western Europe.
  • Assessed the candidates’ likely depth of skills and narrowed the list down to create a target list that included candidate bios and our assessment of each.

The result for the client

  • Intelligence that informed their decision to buy or not.

ROle: Senior team, UK
Sector: TELECOMS
Organisation: National telecoms company

Ensuring future diversity

The challenge

Our client wanted to understand the diversity of their competitors at board and sub-board levels, with an eye to increasing the diversity of their own talent pool across all key functions.

BRS identified and engaged 100 candidates through career conversations. We assessed relevant skills and gained their perception of our client’s business and employer brand.

What we did:

  • Identified and engaged 100 candidates through career conversations
  • Conducted a salary survey
  • Assessed relevant skills and gained their perception of our client’s business and employer brand

The result for the client

  • Gained an understanding of the potential barriers of diversity candidates to joining their organisation and what they needed to do to attract top candidates.
  • Built a talent pipeline of diversity candidates
  • Gained insight into perceptions of their brand in the market.

ROLE: Area Managers for Hospital Drug Sales, UK, FRANCE, SPAIN
Sector: PHARMACEUTICAL
Organisation: Global pharma company

Multi-location headhunt

The challenge

Our client wanted to add a Spanish civil engineering company to their portfolio. If the purchase went ahead they felt they would need to strengthen the company’s board. Although the target company was large, they operated in a niche sector and our client was worried there wouldn’t be the necessary talent available. They wanted to assess this before going ahead.

What we did:

  • Researched mid to large pharma companies in these locations to identify candidates with significant business development and contract negotiation experience within hospital care.
  • Agreed target lists with the client then called candidates on the list to engage and assess them.

The result for the client

  • Made 3 direct hires, filling the roles with no further outside assistance.
  • Gained competitive intelligence in all 3 locations
  • Filled their talent pipeline for future hires.

ROle: Managing Partner, JAPAN
Sector: CONSULTING
Organisation: Global technology consulting firm

Challenging headhunt for UK-based recruiters

The challenge

Our client wanted to hire a managing partner for their financial services consulting team in Japan. They needed to find candidates capable of reporting into an international business in English, and who had proven success at consulting for local and international banks in Japan.

The UK’s internal recruitment team had not succeeded using their usual search methods due to significant cultural differences in how candidates can be identified and engaged.

What we did:

    • Took a highly sensitive approach to identifying and engaging candidates
      • Provided a final target list of candidates.

 

The result for the client

  • Hire made
  • Gained a receptive network in Japan that was important for their talent pipeline
  • Gained intelligence into competitors.

ROLE: Regional Vice President, SWEDEN
Sector: TECHNOLOGY
Organisation: Global enterprise software vendor

Senior management for software vendor

The challenge

Our client was seeking to appoint a new country manager responsible for enterprise clients across all their product sets. This individual had to have experience selling enterprise software solution, so it was likely they would need to be headhunted from another global software vendor.

What we did:

    • Built a profile of senior sales leadership in the Swedish market
      • Engaged candidates and presented a longlist which our client used to manage the remaining recruitment process.

 

The result for the client

  • Hire made
  • Access to a real salary survey and competitive intelligence gathered during the process.

ROle: Senior Management, UKN
Sector: EDUCATION
Organisation: An FE college in London

Finding senior management for an FE college

The challenge

The college wanted to ensure that they identified all potential candidates for this role who were within a commutable distance, and that these candidates were all made aware of this vacancy.

What we did:

    • Identified all relevant candidates at director and manager levels
      • Managed the advertising campaign
      • Engaged candidates and assessed them against key criteria
      • Provided a longlist of candidates.

 

The result for the client

  • Made a direct hire
  • Access to a real salary survey and competitive intelligence gathered during the process.

ROLE: Programme Leader, EAST AFRICA
Sector: NGO
Organisation: Global NGO

Finding a programme leader for East Africa

The challenge

The organisation needed to source candidates specialising in political governance in East Africa. These would likely be people working in the region, either for departments of Western governments or for other major NGOs.

What we did:

    • Identified candidates
    • Engaged with the target list and assessed their relevance and interest
    • Presented a longlist of candidates to the client.

     

    The result for the client

    • Made a direct hire
    • Gained competitive intelligence, including a real salary survey, that was gathered during the process.

    ROle:  HR, finance and trading roles, GLOBAL
    Sector: FINANCE
    Organisation: A commodity trading firm

    Narrowing the candidate field

    The challenge

    The company’s internal recruitment team was struggling to meet demands that were being made on it. To be able to continue to make direct hires they needed support in narrowing down potential candidate lists.

    What we did:

      • Worked as an extension of their internal recruitment team
      • Managed the initial telephone interviews to score and screen applicants
      • Compiled executive candidate summary notes and a scoring grid for each candidate recommended for interview.

       

      The result for the client

      • Best applicants were identified, saving HR and hiring managers’ time
      • The recruitment team could maintain their direct hiring policy and reduced the time to hire.

      ROLE: HR roles, EMEA
      Sector: FINANCE
      Organisation: Financial payments company

      A feasibility study to support skills relocation

      The challenge

      Our client wanted to establish a shared HR service for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. They needed evidence to support the viability of 3 potential locations so that a decision could be made as to the most suitable.

      The final site needed to have skills across several role types and in various languages. The cost of these skills would also be a factor.  

      What we did:

        • Interviewed the hiring managers, HR managers and people doing the jobs in question
        • Interviewed local recruiters in each of the 3 locations
        • Researched the talent available in each location, looking at the talent in existing HR outsource centres, candidates available in the local market, and talent emerging from universities.
        • Built a profile of market conditions in the 3 countries.

         

        The result for the client

        • Gained a transparent view of the 3 talent markets
        • Had the data to support their business decision
        • Had the salary information they needed to attract top talent
        • Had a list of candidates they could approach.

        ROle: Regional CEO
        Sector: SERVICES
        Organisation: Global services company

        Senior leadership search across three continents

        The challenge

        Following the internal promotion of the previous CEO, our client needed to hire the next leader for their Asia, Australia and Middle East regional business. They needed to find candidates who had experience of achieving fast and sustained growth of large businesses across multiple geographies.

        What we did:

          • Undertook an extensive search across 3 continents.
          • Presented the client with a longlist of 12 candidates, with 5 selected for interview.

           

          The result for the client

          • Made a direct hire
          • Filled the talent pipeline for other regional CEO roles
          • Obtained a real salary survey and market intelligence.

          ROLE: HR Multiple roles across divisions, NORTH AMERICA
          Sector: ENERGY
          Organisation: Upstream oil production company

          Talent mapping to support a talent acquisition drive

          The challenge

          Having just bought a new production site in North America, our client wanted to undertake an aggressive talent acquisition campaign. To succeed they needed to identify talent within key competitors, as well as understand how their competitors were structured, and who was reporting to whom.

          This was a particularly challenging project due to potential target candidates being based in the field, often in remote locations.

          What we did:

            • Mapped the company’s competitors
            • Interviewed local recruiters in each of the 3 locations
            • Researched the talent available in each location, looking at the talent in existing HR outsource centres, candidates available in the local market, and talent emerging from universities.
            • Built a profile of market conditions in the 3 countries.

             

            The result for the client

            • Gained a transparent view of the 3 talent markets
            • Had the data to support their business decision
            • Had the salary information they needed to attract top talent
            • Had a list of candidates they could approach.

            ROle: Director of Casino Operations, EUROPE
            Sector: LEISURE
            Organisation: Global services company

            Senior operations role

            The challenge

            Our client needed an experienced director for a new role overseeing their European casino operations. The candidate would need to oversee over 90 operations. They wanted to be certain that the best possible candidates were brought into the recruitment process.

            What we did:

              • Conducted competitor research to identify the best possible candidates.

               

              The result for the client

              • Direct hire made
              • Built talent pipeline for future hires
              • Gained access to current salary data.

              ROLE:  Operational and Engineering Directors, UK
              Sector: AUTOMATIVE
              Organisation: Large car manufacturer

              Rare talent search saves client 81{a3614aa5f478a053f9330df02af0ebc0caac20c244f41775a6fea5a347eb20e4} of headhunting fees

              The challenge

              Our client wished to hire technical and operational leaders to set-up and run a new state-of-the-art division. They needed to bring talent from within a cutting-edge environment at a competitor brand. Identifying potential candidates for the roles was especially challenging as they were largely hidden. For the most part they worked within engineering sites of 20,000+ employees and had little or no online presence.

              What we did:

                • Mapped competitors across EMEA and the talent within them that had the potential skills and experience
                • Engaged the longlist of candidates to assess if they were motivated by the role and willing to relocate to the UK.

                 

                The result for the client

                • Direct hires made – saving 81{a3614aa5f478a053f9330df02af0ebc0caac20c244f41775a6fea5a347eb20e4} on traditional headhunter fees
                • Talent pipeline built for the future.
                • Gained market insight and competitor intelligence, including salary data.

                ROle:  Senior leadership roles
                Sector: BUSINESS SERVICES
                Organisation: Financial services company

                Gathering intelligence to inform succession planning

                The challenge

                Our client wanted research into their key competitors to benchmark their top-tier candidates for a succession planning exercise. At the core of the research was benchmarking salaries so that the company could compete for talent.

                What we did:

                  • Researched competitors and identified talent relevant to the benchmarking exercise
                  • Approached those identified to assess their ambitions and their openness to our client as a potential future employer.

                   

                  The result for the client

                  • Gained insight into competitors and salaries
                  • Promoted their brand to potential talent
                  • Filled their talent pipeline
                  • Had all the external intelligence they needed for effective succession planning.

                  ROLE: Multiple Senior Roles, UK
                  Sector: PUBLIC SECTOR
                  Organisation: East Sussex County Council

                  Assessing skills

                  The challenge

                  The council wanted to be identified as a leading employer and was looking for a search and selection company that could provide a cost-competitive service, give potential employees a positive experience, and add value to the recruitment process for several senior roles.  BRS was awarded the tender.

                  What we did:

                    • Conducted a focussed search for potential candidates within local and national government and private sector organisations.  
                    • Ran a small teaser advertisement on an online national jobs page and trade journal.
                    • Acted as the first port of call, filtering queries
                    • Created a longlist of potential hires for the Council. 

                     

                    The result for the client

                    • Made direct hires for the roles
                    • Had a good understanding of candidates prior to their assessments.

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                    BRS Global 49-50 North Street Brighton BN1 1RH United Kingdom

                     

                    +44 20 7399 8676

                     

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