Beyond fire fighting: securing recruitment strategy for longer term

The client

Our client is a market leader in the $100 billion global fire protection and security solutions industries. Its 57,000 employees take great pride in knowing that they make a difference in the world: their work helps protect and safeguard people and property.

The challenge

Our client worked with Ireland’s inward investment agency, IDA Ireland, to set up a new global services centre in Cork, one of the best equipped office spaces in the country. They needed a fast and cost-effective solution to meet its immediate recruitment targets but also wanted to put robust processes in place for the long term. The world leader in fire protection and security was seeking professionals across a wide range of disciplines including IT, R&D, finance, HR, legal, procurement, environment, health & safety (EHS) and project management office (PMO), but lacked the necessary insight into the local employment market. An additional challenge was that many of the roles demanded skills in emerging areas of technological innovation, in particular around the internet of things (IoT).

The solution

They chose M3S to deliver a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solution because of our global vision and reach, our track record in RPO, as well as our expert knowledge of all of the local markets and specialist disciplines. M3S implemented a best in class recruitment solution, increasing the speed to hire by, for example, reducing multiple rounds of interviews to a structured three-stage interview process. M3S supported vetting transformation and a new hire process rollout. M3S also implemented a new consolidated invoice and review process, which allowed them to track payments more efficiently. There was a strong focus on continuous improvement: M3S shared its experiences and knowledge on best practices for the recruitment process with other offices globally. This included usage of the Oracle cloud-based Taleo talent acquisition system.

The benefits

The immediate client benefit lay in M3S’ access to talent not merely on the market, but in the market, including hard-to-find specialists with skills in emerging technologies such as the IoT. M3S was well placed to support this endeavour thanks to its longstanding relationships with passive candidates as well as active job-seekers. This met the immediate need to ramp up operations in a new geography. Longer term, our client was able to put world-class recruitment processes in place in Ireland, many of which have now been adopted as global standards. The benefits extended well beyond the original remit: for example, M3S supported them with a hiring drive in the United Kingdom, at very short notice.
“We implemented a controlled and efficient recruitment process, bringing about a smoother transition from beginning to end. As well as providing local expert knowledge of the market and salaries, we networked on behalf of our client, introducing the employer brand to a wide audience of passive candidates who were unfamiliar with it. And we further improved brand awareness through blogging and social media marketing,” reports M3S Programme Manager