Our client is a financial services company with a global footprint, providing information that is relied upon by financial institutions and traders around the world. The business employs 2,500 employees worldwide with 450 in its London offices.

Recruitment had previously been outsourced to a large RPO firm. Delivery was acceptable and targets were hit, however, the client felt that they were not important to their RPO partner, whose clients were typically much larger. A higher touch solution was needed. The cost was also a concern, but other areas were more important, such as creating a Talent Warehouse so that frequently needed or rare skill sets were continuously sourced, and reducing reliance on agencies in a couple of key areas of repeated hiring.

We designed a solution which embedded Talent Warehousing from the outset, implementing a larger delivery team to give recruitment the breathing space to look for candidates speculatively rather than just responding to open vacancies. This involved a thorough needs analysis based on historic hiring patterns, understanding which roles were repeated frequently or were hard to appoint, and discussions with hiring managers about their future plans. We appointed highly experienced recruiters who could talk strategy with the business, not just fill roles, and our account director was onsite frequently to check that everything was working as the client needed it to. A key goal was to reduce agency reliance, particularly in sales, so redefining and restructuring the PSL was essential.

The PSL was analysed in detail, with breakdowns of performance in a number of key areas, including adherence to process. Poorly performing agencies were exited and a two-tier system has been created. The Talent Warehouse is delivering candidates for hard to fill roles within days of a vacancy being approved, almost eradicating agency use in all but the most specialist areas. Hiring Managers are delighted with the results. We are introducing profiling to create further efficiencies across the Warehouse. The ATS is well-embedded and the team is finding new ways to improve its efficiency all the time. Reporting metrics are improving on a monthly basis. Our reporting responsibilities are expanding to encompass global recruitment functions and the HR team is delighted with the results. We will always have room for improvement, but the VP HR Europe now has a strategic recruitment partner he can rely on to make his life easier.