Case study
A boundaryless talent hunt
A global engineering company was looking for someone who understood talent. Someone who wasn’t bound by industries, geographies or demographics. Someone who could rise above it all and deliver volume hiring with creativity and passion. That’s why they came to PeopleScout.
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In candidate engagementThe challenge
The ask was for a global RPO solution to make 150 hires across 16 countries, covering Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
We had to succeed where their previous RPO provider couldn’t. Quell frustrations resulting from requisitions that remained open for over 500 days. Improve a disjointed candidate experience, resulting from managers taking ownership of the hiring process. Increase visibility between time-to-fill and cost-to-fill metrics across countries. All while helping to address a longer‑term concern: how to replace experienced engineers as they approach retirement.
And they weren’t just seeking to fill ordinary roles. What they sought was speciality talent with expertise in engineering and industrial design that would prevent a future skills gap. The kind that would help build equipment for processes related to chemicals, air and water treatment, mining, pharmaceuticals, marine, construction and other industrial applications. To add to that, each role had a varied language requirement that came with it, depending on the country it was based in.
The problem? Engineers are in high demand, with 63% of European manufacturers indicating a shortage of qualified workers. The ball was now in our court, where we had to attract these rare engineers and convince them to make a move. That’s where our unmatched experience in recruitment came in.
The solution
We delivered exactly what was expected of us – and beyond. The result was an end-to-end RPO solution crafted by our multicultural delivery team, where candidates were sourced, screened and evaluated in English, Swedish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese and Spanish.
The need for a competitive edge
The competition was intense. In some locations, there were as many as 200 open roles at once — all in similar fields and all targeting the same kinds of candidates. With so many employers trying to hire the same talent, the pressure for our client to gain a competitive edge was higher than ever.
Using research to shape the strategy
That’s where our in‑depth research across markets came in. It revealed that, despite all those open roles, the actual labour pool for engineers in the Czech Republic was small. With this insight, we expanded the geography of our search to include cross‑border Polish commuters. This shift in strategy resulted in higher productivity and the successful fulfilment of business‑critical automation engineer roles.
Global process meets local expertise
So that we could adapt to cultural nuance across countries, we worked with hiring managers at each site. We leveraged every resource possible – from databases to job boards – to reach the right candidates for the right role in each country. For example, while recruiting in smaller cities, we swapped out online marketing channels for bus stop ads to target blue-collar candidates.
Championing female engineers
That’s not all. Engineering fields across Europe saw underrepresentation of women – something SPX FLOW wanted to fix. Which is why our recruiters made it a point to reach out to female engineers through online groups, while also adjusting the language in job descriptions to make it more inclusive.
Results
We surpassed the initial target of 150 positions to deliver 245 total hires across 30 sites, with a quarter sourced through proactive search and engagement. In one instance, we were asked to source specialist inside sales talent, with specific requirements like IT experience, manufacturing experience and fluency in German.
The catch? Traditional advertising wouldn’t work here. Thanks to our existing talent pool that we built, these positions were filled in less than three days. The reality of the industry was that most engineers in Europe weren’t actively looking to change jobs. The only way to target this passive candidate pool? Proactive headhunting. By reaching out to them directly via social media, email and phone, a number of requisitions were filled, and future candidate pools were created. The overall time-to-fill was also reduced significantly. Our creative thinking led to us delivering above and beyond.
