In our recent collaboration with one of Denmark's fastest-growing cloud and digital consultancies, we successfully assisted in building a team of Azure-focused Cloud Architects. But how did we achieve this?

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Right from our initial discussions, it became evident that our client required a solution tailored precisely to their unique needs. With future projects already secured and a fully engaged team, they urgently needed to acquire talent without compromising on quality.

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Initially, the client had planned to engage with multiple recruitment agencies, believing this approach would yield the highest number of candidates in the shortest time frame. While this strategy has its merits, it also presented challenges. There were concerns about how the message would be communicated to candidates when interpreted differently by each agency, as well as uncertainties about the ongoing engagement beyond the initial phase. Additionally, questions arose regarding the priority level given to this project by multiple recruitment agencies.

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We conducted an advisory session with the client, where we presented them with various options and thoroughly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each model. Given their emphasis on both quality and speed, we mutually agreed upon a partnership solution that would provide them with an exclusive team until the project's completion.

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As part of the project initiation phase, we performed an audit, which included:

• Reviewing all previous talent marketing touchpoints to identify areas for improvement.

• Assessing supporting materials such as advertisements, job descriptions, and other collateral.

• Examining the engagement process, including candidate handling from identification to the final stages, such as interview structure, communication protocols between stages, feedback mechanisms, and offer management procedures.

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With recommendations and a detailed assignment brief established, the project was launched.

• We identified tier 1, 2, and 3 competitors as our primary targets and tasked our research team with creating a comprehensive talent map of all relevant targets.

• Leveraging our existing network, we initiated early-stage conversations before actively headhunting priority targets.

• A significant advertising campaign was deployed to bolster branding efforts and attract applications from the 'active job seeker' community.

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Within the first week, we provided our initial shortlist of candidates. By the second week, we scheduled 10 first-stage interviews while supplementing with 5 additional options engaged after the initial shortlist.

Within 4 weeks, the project was concluded with 6 successful hires and follow up meetings booked in with 3 additional candidates later in the year.

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Key Learnings:

• Recruitment processes can become unnecessarily complex. Keep it simple and start the conversation with one partner. If they are good, they will help you to understand the challenges and the most suitable solutions for you. This may yet turn out to be working with multiple partners!

• Always seek continuous improvement. You may have experienced success the last time, but don’t assume it will be plain sailing this time.

• Weigh up your opportunity cost. What opportunities will be missed or lost because of tasks that should be outsourced.

• Don’t be afraid to give recommendations, and be receptive to receiving them.

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