The Client's Hiring Challenges
The client needed several Procure to Pay staff and an Interaction Co-ordinator to be based in Warsaw which posed many challenges.
Competition for talent in Warsaw is especially high – with its central European location, Poland in particular is a very popular area for Shared Services businesses which meant the client needed to offer a strong employee value proposition.
The requirement was time-critical and becoming increasingly urgent as time went on – the client had already begun transitioning their staff from other European offices to the service centre, with a projection to make 100 transfers in less than 12 months. They needed to hire the positions as soon as possible to keep their payroll process running smoothly.
The skillsets required were niche – not only did prospective candidates need a strong financial background with prior experience of working within a shared services centre, they ideally also needed to have experiencing of managing staff transitions. Furthermore they needed to be multi-lingual; candidates needed to speak fluent English and Polish and be proficient in other languages such as French, Dutch and German, considerably narrowing the eligible talent pool.
Our Solution
We dedicated a specialist permanent hire consultant from our Warsaw office to lead the search. The nature of the positions meant we orchestrated a Direct Search activity across the passive market.
International connections
We were able to leverage the support of our wider European office network; we are already engaged with the client on a contract basis and could therefore quickly mine our existing talent pools and networks.
Integrity
Transparency and honesty has been key to our relationship. We offered consultancy to help the client to position themselves as a leading employer brand within the space, above the appeal of the competition.
Expertise
We demonstrated extensive sector knowledge through market mapping and salary benchmarking.
Extensive qualification
We ensured that candidates not only offered the right technical skillsets, but also had exceptional communication skills and were open minded to try new ways of working.
Communication
We held weekly video meetings with the client on an ongoing basis to keep key stakeholders in the loop.
The results of our support
We approached over 60 prospective hires initially, short-listing this to just 20 candidates for 4 available roles. We have successfully hired 4 placements so far:
- 3 Procure to Pay Specialists
- 1 Interaction Co-ordinator
These roles have been imperative in their finance department, ensuring invoices are correct and in managing documentation in other departments.
- Throughout the process we evidenced our broad European reach - the candidates short-listed were Polish, Ukrainian, French and Italian.
- Our quick time to hire was just 1 month, evidencing our unrivalled market access and optimal recruitment process.
- Our short-listing was so accurate that 90% of the candidates submitted made it through to a second interview stage
- Our success has led to further recruitment drives and we are now supporting the client with several senior-level management positions