Organizations thrive by identifying and recruiting people who don’t just bring the right skills but the right culture and work ethic to the job. Building a team of passionate, driven contributors is as important as any element of operations or production.
The right hire goes beyond checking boxes and actively seeks out ways to grow the value and efficiency of your organization.
This is why we want to highlight Nathan, a talented engineer who had an immediate impact on the business that hired him.
Obstacle
Our client, a cheese packaging company, was looking for an Automation Controls Engineer to help meet its growth goals. However, this highly technical role was difficult to fill for several reasons:
- In-demand skillset: The set of engineering skills they needed were both hard to find and highly in-demand, with a lot of recruiting competition from other organizations.
- Rural location: Their operations were in a remote area, which shrunk their hiring pool significantly.
- Compensation equity: In order to maintain internal compensation equity, they couldn’t match the packages offered by some competitors.
- Internal hire challenges: The client had initially hoped to elevate someone internally to fill the role, but this hadn’t worked out, lengthening the time-to-hire.
Many of these issues were structural and inherent to the organization, so a solution would need to work around these constraints without compromising on skills or aptitude.
Solution
Our solution started with an in-depth strategic consultation that provided the Hughes team with the necessary information to develop a suitable strategy. Through conversations with both HR teams and organizational leaders, we gained comprehensive details of their needs, extending beyond job requirements to include company culture and overall hiring philosophy.
Upon analyzing their challenges and the local talent pool, we opted to expand our search to also include candidates open to relocating for work. In addition to our extensive local network, we used digital recruiting tools to expand the available talent pool. We knew that the client was looking for someone collaborative who would also be interested in a long-term opportunity to learn and grow. By highlighting the people-first culture, we built a list of qualified candidates and began vetting them.
Our efforts paid off, thanks both to our recruiter’s work and the trust our client had in our process:
“We connected with 56 candidates, invited 77 to apply, and submitted four strong profiles. Even after a counteroffer setback, we kept pushing until we found the right fit. The client’s trust in our process was key to making this hire successful.” -Kira Jaghama, Professional Search Manager at Hughes Recruiting
After our first few conversations, one candidate in particular stood out. Nathan not only had an impressive educational background in automation and engineering but was also eager to find opportunities to learn and develop hands-on, practical experience. As a recent grad, he was willing to relocate, and he had the knowledge to contribute and add immediate value.
He was also excited about the opportunity for a long-term placement that would allow him to develop his skills and collaborate with a successful engineering team.
Impact
After accepting the offer, Nathan was able to offer the client value from day one. He tackled ambitious automation projects and increased organizational efficiency. As an eager learner, he fearlessly took on technically complex projects.
“Nathan is still developing his technical skills, but his enthusiasm and adaptability have made him a strong addition to the team. His trajectory is very positive.” -Bob, Project Manager
The addition of a new graduate from outside the organization also helped foster positive changes to the status quo, as he was able to suggest new approaches and address long-term issues from a fresh perspective.
Outcome
What was once a long and frustrating hiring process turned into a remarkable success story, one that helped address the client’s immediate production goals but also made a lasting impact on their approach to hiring.
“Many of our recent hires, including some hard-to-fill roles, have come from Hughes. Kira is incredibly thorough, professional, and easy to work with. I genuinely appreciate our partnership and the value it brings to our hiring process. Their level of thoroughness is unmatched, and I’ve even started looking at ways to implement some of [Hughes’s] practices internally (like the weekly updates) for our own hiring managers.” -Adriana B., HR Supervisor
We’re proud to have helped an organization like this grow, and to help driven contributors like Nathan find a place to start a rewarding career. We were able to expand our client-focused model to a nationwide search, all without compromising on what the client needed and expected of their new hires.
What ultimately won the client over was our understanding of the challenges they had struggled with and our ability to come up with a novel and successful approach:
“Absolutely, we would recommend Hughes. Their personalized approach to recruitment helped us fill a highly specialized role that we had struggled with for months. They understand the challenges of technical hiring and deliver candidates who are both skilled and a cultural fit.” -Adriana, Senior HR Generalist.
Make sure each new hire is a success with Hughes Recruiting & Consulting
We believe hiring success stories start with strong relationships, which is why we work to understand each client. By adapting our process to each client’s unique situation, we can ensure that even challenging situations like this one turn out well for everyone.
Whether you’re looking to bring one person on or several, we’ll connect you with new hires who contribute right away.
