Recruitment Case Studies

From November 2016 – January 2019, Sky Executive Procurement Recruitment Consultant (EPRC) was involved in the recruitment of a global procurement transformation in a Fortune 500 global energy company in 15 countries from fully decentralized globally to setting up a global procurement organization with a focus on developing procurement capabilities, performance measurement, people, strategic sourcing, working collaboratively in the wider organization, and setting up a new successful organization.

In this role, we introduced the core procurement processes and the related functions, which were globally implemented. This included standardized function profiles with relevant competencies, a function house and first set of training sessions to create a common language, to bring newcomers up to speed and to adjust the level in core procurement practices.

The incumbent population showed a large diversity in terms of professional levels and was characterized by a focus on transactional activities.

This all formed the basis of recruit procurement leadership (#22 people) in the different countries in 2017, including China. Which allowed to strengthen the organization and to bring in knowledge from external and young talents.

The recruitment was supported on the newly agreed function profiles, the competence framework and a mandatory last round involving the Sky EPRC to assure recruitment of the right procurement managers.

In the second year of the program it was decided to move to a global procurement organization and to recruit a global procurement director, global category managers and a complete procurement excellence team with business intelligence, contract management, high level functional excellence managers and a master data department (#15) plus #2 heads of procurement in two different countries in 2018.

The base organization would be strengthened when it would operate in a ‘business as usual’ mode with another 8 people in 2019. After approval of the plan by the Management Board, the recruitment campaign was initiated and lead by the Sky Executive Procurement Specialist jointly with the HR function of the company in June 2018.

From the beginning and at the core of the campaign was an employer value proposition and it was decided to use different recruitment channels such as LinkedIn, personnel networks, WeChat, and a partnering recruitment company. Via an online workflow, considering personal data protection and privacy of data and restricting access, the recruitment process was efficiently designed and allowed real-time updates and accurate reporting on the campaign. Within 3 months 60 specialized procurement professionals were selected from a much larger number by initial screening on personal presentation in a call, resume content, remuneration wishes, diversity, and mobility.

All candidates have interviewed a minimum of 2 times after which 15 finally were appointed. Most of the 60 initial interviews were executed by the Sky EPRC before they moved to the second round in which HR with other procurement professionals were involved. The final decision on the candidates was made after the second interview. Weekly review/planning sessions guaranteed the whole recruitment process was on track and completed on time.