Case Studies
ROLE: Director of Operations, UK
Sector: FINTECH
Organisation: Global financial services company
Finding rare fintech talent
The challenge
To maintain its market-leading position this client needed to set up a new product team in the UK to develop and
What we did:
- Identified a list of 80 potential candidates
- Assessed potential candidates’ relevant experience and motivations
- Gave the client a
longlist of 6 candidates for them to take through their recruitment process.
The result for the client
- Made the hire from the longlist
- Gained market insight and competitor intelligence.
ROle: Sales Managers, UK
Sector: MARKETINg
Organisation: Global marketing company
Overcoming a shortage of good active sales candidates
The challenge
This client had traditionally nurtured and promoted internal talent, but they needed to bolster their talent pool for junior and mid-level sales managers across the UK.
They were finding recruitment agencies time consuming, expensive and inconsistent because of the competition for any good active candidates. To compete for the best talent, they needed to be more proactive.
What we did
- Identified 200 target
organisations and 800 people to approach - Had detailed conversations with 600 of them
- Narrowed the list down to 100 strong candidates across the UK.
- The result for the client
- Easy access to 100 relevant and interested candidates open to joining the
organisation as roles become available.
ROLE: Board members, SPAIN
Sector: ENGINEERING
Organisation : Venture capital company
Assessing risk in a potential company purchase
The challenge
Our client wanted to add a Spanish civil engineering company to their portfolio. If the purchase went ahead they felt they would need to strengthen the company’s board. Although the target company was large, they operated in a niche sector and our client was worried there wouldn’t be the necessary talent available. They wanted to assess this before going ahead.
What we did:
- Identified and profiled senior management teams in different business functions at competitors in Spain and across Western Europe.
- Assessed the candidates’ likely depth of skills and narrowed the list down to create a target list that included candidate bios and our assessment of each.
The result for the client
Intelligence that informed their decision to buy or not.
ROle: Senior team, UK
Sector: TELECOMS
Organisation : National telecoms company
Ensuring future diversity
The challenge
Our client wanted to understand the diversity of their competitors at
BRS identified and engaged 100 candidates through career conversations. We assessed relevant skills and gained their perception of our client’s business and employer brand.
What we did:
- Identified and engaged 100 candidates through career conversations
- Conducted a salary survey
- Assessed relevant skills and gained their perception of our client’s business and employer brand
The result for the client
- Gained an understanding of the potential barriers of diversity candidates to
joining theirorganisation and what they needed to do to attract top candidates. - Built a talent pipeline of diversity candidates
- Gained insight into perceptions of their brand in the market.
ROLE: Area Managers for Hospital Drug Sales, UK, FRANCE, SPAIN
Sector: PHARMACEUTICAL
Organisation : Global pharma company
Multi-location headhunt
The challenge
Our client wanted to add a Spanish civil engineering company to their portfolio. If the purchase went ahead they felt they would need to strengthen the company’s board. Although the target company was large, they operated in a niche sector and our client was worried there wouldn’t be the necessary talent available. They wanted to assess this before going ahead.
What we did:
- Researched mid to large pharma companies in these locations to identify candidates with significant business development and contract negotiation experience within hospital care.
- Agreed target lists with the client then called candidates on the list to engage and assess them.
The result for the client
- Made 3 direct hires, filling the roles with no further outside assistance.
- Gained competitive intelligence in all 3 locations
- Filled their talent pipeline for future hires.
ROle: Managing Partner, JAPAN
Sector: CONSULTING
Organisation : Global technology consulting firm
Challenging headhunt for UK-based recruiters
The challenge
Our client wanted to hire a managing partner for their financial services consulting team in Japan. They needed to find candidates capable of reporting into an international business in English, and who had proven success at consulting for local and international banks in Japan.
The UK’s internal recruitment team had not succeeded using their usual search methods due to significant cultural differences in how candidates can be identified and engaged.
What we did:
- Took a highly sensitive approach to identifying and engaging candidates
- Provided a final target list of candidates.
The result for the client
- Hire made
- Gained a receptive network in Japan that was important for their talent pipeline
- Gained intelligence into competitors.
ROLE: Regional Vice President, SWEDEN
Sector: TECHNOLOGY
Organisation: Global enterprise software vendor
Senior management for software vendor
The challenge
Our client was seeking to appoint a new country manager responsible for enterprise clients across all their product sets. This individual had to have experience selling enterprise software solution, so it was likely they would need to be headhunted from another global software vendor.
What we did:
- Built a profile of senior sales leadership in the Swedish market
- Engaged candidates and presented a
longlist which our client used to manage the remaining recruitment process.
The result for the client
- Hire made
- Access to a real salary survey and competitive intelligence gathered during the process.
ROle: Senior Management, UKN
Sector: EDUCATION
Organisation : An FE college in London
Finding senior management for an FE college
The challenge
The college wanted to ensure that they identified all potential candidates for this role who were within a commutable
What we did:
- Identified all relevant candidates at director and manager levels
- Managed the advertising campaign
- Engaged candidates and assessed them against key criteria
- Provided a
longlist of candidates.
The result for the client
- Made a direct hire
- Access to a real salary survey and competitive intelligence gathered during the process.
ROLE: Programme Leader, EAST AFRICA
Sector: NGO
Organisation: Global NGO
Finding a programme leader for East Africa
The challenge
The
What we did:
- Identified candidates
- Engaged with the target list and assessed their relevance and interest
- Presented a
longlist of candidates to the client.
The result for the client
- Made a direct hire
- Gained competitive intelligence, including a real salary survey, that was gathered during the process.
ROle: HR, finance and trading roles, GLOBAL
Sector: FINANCE
Organisation : A commodity trading firm
Narrowing the candidate field
The challenge
The company’s internal recruitment team was struggling to meet demands that were being made on it. To be able to continue to make direct hires they needed support in narrowing down potential candidate lists.
What we did:
- Worked as an extension of their internal recruitment team
- Managed the initial telephone interviews to score and screen applicants
- Compiled executive candidate summary notes and a scoring grid for each candidate recommended for interview.
The result for the client
- Best applicants were identified, saving HR and hiring managers’ time
- The recruitment team could maintain their direct hiring policy and reduced the time to hire.
ROLE: HR roles, EMEA
Sector: FINANCE
Organisation : Financial payments company
A feasibility study to support skills relocation
The challenge
Our client wanted to establish a shared HR service for Europe, the Middle East
The final site needed to have skills across several role types and in various languages. The cost of these skills would also be a factor.
What we did:
- Interviewed the hiring managers, HR managers and people doing the jobs in question
- Interviewed local recruiters in each of the 3 locations
- Researched the talent available in each location, looking at the talent in existing HR outsource
centres , candidates available in the local market, and talent emerging from universities. - Built a profile of market conditions in the 3 countries.
The result for the client
- Gained a transparent view of the 3 talent markets
- Had the data to support their business decision
- Had the salary information they needed to attract top talent
- Had a list of candidates they could approach.
ROle: Regional CEO
Sector: SERVICES
Organisation: Global services company
Senior leadership search across three continents
The challenge
Following the internal promotion of the previous CEO, our client needed to hire the next leader for their Asia, Australia and
What we did:
- Undertook an extensive search across 3 continents.
- Presented the client with a longlist of 12 candidates, with 5 selected for
interview .
The result for the client
- Made a direct hire
- Filled the talent pipeline for other regional CEO roles
- Obtained a real salary survey and market intelligence.
ROLE: HR Multiple roles across divisions, NORTH AMERICA
Sector: ENERGY
Organisation : Upstream oil production company
Talent mapping to support a talent acquisition drive
The challenge
Having just bought a new production site in North America, our client wanted to undertake an aggressive talent acquisition campaign. To succeed they needed to identify talent within key competitors, as well as understand how their competitors were structured, and who was reporting to whom.
This was a particularly challenging project due to potential target candidates being based in the field, often in remote locations.
What we did:
- Mapped the company’s competitors
- Interviewed local recruiters in each of the 3 locations
- Researched the talent available in each location, looking at the talent in existing HR outsource
centres , candidates available in the local market, and talent emerging from universities. - Built a profile of market conditions in the 3 countries.
The result for the client
- Gained a transparent view of the 3 talent markets
- Had the data to support their business decision
- Had the salary information they needed to attract top talent
- Had a list of candidates they could approach.
ROle: Director of Casino Operations, EUROPE
Sector: LEISURE
Organisation: Global services company
Senior operations role
The challenge
Our client needed an experienced director for a new role overseeing their European casino operations. The candidate would need to oversee over 90 operations. They wanted to be certain that the best possible candidates were brought into the recruitment process.
What we did:
- Conducted competitor research to identify the best possible candidates.
The result for the client
- Direct hire made
- Built talent pipeline for future hires
- Gained access to current salary data.
ROLE: Operational and Engineering Directors, UK
Sector: AUTOMATIVE
Organisation : Large car manufacturer
Rare talent search saves client 81{a3614aa5f478a053f9330df02af0ebc0caac20c244f41775a6fea5a347eb20e4} of headhunting fees
The challenge
Our client wished to hire technical and operational leaders to set-up and run a new state-of-the-art division. They needed to bring talent from within a cutting-edge environment at a competitor brand. Identifying potential candidates for the roles was especially challenging as they were largely hidden. For the most
What we did:
- Mapped competitors across EMEA and the talent within them that had the potential skills and experience
- Engaged the
longlist of candidates to assess if they were motivated by the role and willing to relocate to the UK.
The result for the client
- Direct hires made – saving 81{a3614aa5f478a053f9330df02af0ebc0caac20c244f41775a6fea5a347eb20e4} on traditional headhunter fees
- Talent pipeline built for the future.
- Gained market insight and competitor intelligence, including salary data.
ROle: Senior leadership roles
Sector: BUSINESS SERVICES
Organisation: Financial services company
Gathering intelligence to inform succession planning
The challenge
Our client wanted research into their key competitors to benchmark their top-tier candidates for a succession planning exercise. At the core of the research was benchmarking salaries so that the company could compete for talent.
What we did:
- Researched competitors and identified talent relevant to the benchmarking exercise
- Approached those identified to assess their ambitions and their openness to our client as a potential future employer.
The result for the client
- Gained insight into competitors and salaries
- Promoted their brand to potential talent
- Filled their talent pipeline
- Had all the external intelligence they needed for effective succession planning.
ROLE: Multiple Senior Roles, UK
Sector: PUBLIC SECTOR
Organisation : East Sussex County Council
Assessing skills
The challenge
The council wanted to be identified as a leading employer and was looking for a search and selection company that could provide a cost-competitive service, give potential employees a positive experience, and add value to the recruitment process for several senior roles. BRS was awarded the tender.
What we did:
- Conducted a focussed search for potential candidates within local and national government and private sector
organisations . - Ran a small teaser advertisement on an online national jobs page and trade journal.
- Acted as the first port of call, filtering queries
- Created a
longlist of potential hires for the Council.
The result for the client
- Made direct hires for the roles
- Had a good understanding of candidates prior to their assessments.
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