The challenge

Our partner had a strong brand reputation in Scandinavia, but in Central and Western Europe the brand was largely unknown. They wanted to open offices in Munich initially, and needed assistance understanding the local culture and identifying candidates who would be able adapt to the specific mindset of the company. We needed to educate potential candidates on our partner, their values, and their reputation. This was a challenging role to fill as it was a niche area to source in, with a narrow and specific pool from which to highlight and engage suitable candidates. Our partner perceived themselves as being entrepreneurial in nature, with a ‘sleeves rolled up’ mentality, and wanted people with a similar work ethic.

The solution

The organisation partnered with us exclusively, which afforded us the opportunity to communicate a consistent message to the professional community. We worked with the business development director to educate the line manager on recruitment best practice which helped to align the interview process internally. This created an education piece around unique challenges in each location and managed expectations accordingly. We conducted market mapping across the DACH region, utilising headhunting tools such as LinkedIn Recruiter and Xing, and engaged with our legacy candidates. We utilised our multilingual capabilities by mobilising our team of regional clinical operations experts to connect with local networks, ensuring that candidates were spoken to in their own language. This created a smoother experience for both candidate and our partner. We submitted 3 candidates to our partner, 2 of which were interviewed.

The outcome

• Through collaboration with us, the successful hire was made through a recommendation from within our network
• We educated the market on our partner and their plans moving forward, building a talent pool of exceptional individuals for our partner’s future needs
• Based on the success of the initial hire, our team was asked to continue supporting the international expansion with a further 5 hires in Munich, and placements in the UK, Czech Republic, and Benelux