Carillion Recruitment Case Study
Carillion PM is a £650m division of Carillion Plc, specialising in hard and soft facilities management services for a broad blue chip client base across the UK. Initially a small private enterprise, t/o £170m, the organisation was acquired by Carillion Plc and set up as an autonomous division in 2005 enjoying significant growth due to several strategic acquisitions including Mowlem and McAlpine which have created a significant impact on the profile of the organisation.
Carillion plc acquired the McAlpine business creating a large volume of new positions within their Facilities Management division Carillion PM. Harcourt Matthews were invited to tender and were successful as a preferred supplier to work on the project of recruiting nationwide accounting personnel within very tight timescale.
To provide high volumes of part qualified, recently qualified and experienced senior qualified finance personnel - replacing temporary & interim staff and filling newly created vacancies across the UK. We were required to work closely with the project team and line managers nationwide to understand each role requirement and to provide strong high calibre commercial accountants to the business working to the Carillion project deadlines.
With the project team we identified the sequence of vacancies that needed filling from the most to the least urgent. We also had to introduce ourselves to each senior line manager recruiter and quickly built rapport gaining operational knowledge at the "coal face" of this complex business. Harcourt Matthews established a recruitment campaign and candidate sourcing processes encompassing:
- Accessing HML network & CV database - accessing existing contacts and gaining new referrals/recommendations
- Accessing several jobsite CV databases which HML subscribe to covering the active UK candidate market
Advertising in several online jobsites - Using our internal and several 3rd party outsourced research businesses contracted to identify and to supply scarce candidate resource
- Specific sector headhunting campaign complementing the above approach
Candidates were sourced, preselected and interviewed across the UK and presented to Carillion project team and line management. Ongoing communication was essential throughout as certain vacancies were changed and reiterated as divisions were reorganised and management priorities altered - we adjusted to their business processes
Harcourt Matthews developed a strong partnership with several key senior line Managers which has enabled swift success, filling critical roles early on. During this time we have broadened our reputation within the wider Carillion group and have been recognised as a contributor to their meeting key business integration targets from the McAlpine acquisition.
