Client background
Our client is an International outsourced manufacturing organisation with factories in China and offices around the world including one in the UK and HQ in Denmark. They provide design and consultancy services to a broad range of companies with either pre-production or with existing products. We had recruited twice for this company before.
The requirement
The Managing Director of the UK office contacted us directly to help him and the Danish CEO recruit his replacement as he neared retirement. They were in need of someone with a strong background within engineering and manufacturing with experience of working overseas particularly in China.
Our solution
Our director Louis Leppard has previous experience of recruiting executive directors and put together a proposal to the client which made an effective solution. This involved the following: Deadlines for applications, arranging 1st stage Teams interviews of which Louis would also attend, shortlisting for 2nd stage where Louis was required to feedback to the CEO in Denmark his opinions on the candidates. Psychometric assessments were also arranged for the final candidates with a trusted vendor. Louis attended the second stage face to face interviews at the UK HQ where he asked questions along with the retiring MD. There were weekly Teams meetings between Louis, the MD and CEO in Denmark to go through progress and challenges.
The challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for the CEO from Denmark to travel to the UK due to travel restrictions and initially all interviews were held via Teams. The other issue from a hiring perspective was to attract someone with enough overall engineering experience who had worked previously in China and who was at a level suitable to become an MD. My client being a smaller organisation in the UK, “selling the vacancy” remotely during COVID was challenging as the client’s office staff were all working from home.
The outcome
The client was extremely happy with the progress being presented their new MD with the help of Louis. Due to the nature of the role there was a lot of negotiating with regards to the final offer but everyone was delighted with the outcome and the new MD settled into his role very quickly and has since used Quay Recruitment to source a Mandarin speaking project engineer for the UK office.
