Challenge
An international, multi-billion dollar manufacturing company was seeking to redevelop its Research & Development team in Toronto, Ontario. The plan was to merge global design and engineering under one location to support the company’s various global business operations. Through this initiative Toronto would become the centre of excellence for design and engineering worldwide. The mandate required hiring more than 100 engineers of varying degrees of capabilities and seniority in a 4-month period through three separate phases.
Approach
The company was not interested in working with a mass volume search firm as they felt they would not have a deep understanding of the organization, which they believed was crucial for success. They wanted a partner that understood the company, its culture and strategic direction.
At the time of the assignment, OCI had worked with the company for several years in an executive recruitment capacity building its executive leadership and senior engineering ranks. They wished to take advantage of our executive search processes and knowledge of the company in order to fulfill the mandate.
In order to do this a global delivery model was created combining on-shore, near-shore and off-shore resources. An off-shore international team of 18 engineers was created to act as first stage screening and recruiting with final short-listing interviews handled by a focused team in Toronto to assess fit. More than 900 local, national and international candidates were screened and interviewed.
Result
Over a 4 month period through 3 hiring phases, 104 engineers were hired for the Design and Engineering Centre in Toronto. The program resulted in a 60% reduction in the amount of time required to hire each position and a 50% reduction in the cost of hiring.