Case Studies
Client
Market leader in chemical development
Services
- Organizational & Talent Assessments
- Recruiting
- Selection
- Onboarding Support
Results
- Built a sales team of innovators and problem-solvers
- New hires able to contribute quickly to client success with reduced risks of early mistakes that could derail job success
- Smoother client internal hiring process with senior management aligned on needs
“By far and without any compromise to a process this has been the fastest we’ve ever built a team of great talent. I’ve hired people for many years. The candidates delivered to us have been exceptional. PlazaBridge’s care of the candidates even more so. Every candidate has shared what a great experience it’s been to work with the PlazaBridge Group team during the screening and interview process. Our company’s brand and values were well represented through their efforts. Their process for building a full team of growth minded, curious talent that understands complex systems is outstanding!”
Challenge
The company is a market leader in chemical development with a unique value proposition. The company creates intellectual property, in the form of a chemical compound, on behalf of their customers and manufactures the unique chemical for sale. The nature of the sale requires an exemplary degree of innovativeness and problem solving. Each member of the sales team must contribute insight and inventive solutions to help the company achieve their ambitious sales goals. The requirement to staff a sales organization of exceptional talent brought the client to PlazaBridge Group.
Companies are increasingly seeking individuals that can plan and implement “Concept to Commercialization” initiatives. Equally important, companies are wanting to determine if their existing employees can meet the challenges and demands of the future, which is increasingly reliant on innovation and creativity at all levels of the organization. PBG has a unique talent assessment process for innovators. This process employs a combination of “soft” assessments based on the collective pedigrees of PBG senior managers and quantitative assessments derived from years of leadership training including an engagement with the Center for Creative Leadership.
The client’s senior management needed to hire unique talent for a variety of sales positions. They wanted more than simply great salespeople. They wanted salespeople with skills consistent with inventors, innovators and creators. The “creator” salesperson must be identified by a variety of methods. PBG proposed a proprietary process of candidate salesperson identification and engagement. The process borrowed from a variety of core competencies in PBG that merged past engagements in leadership, collaborative ideation and innovation processes and talent recruitment of scientific and engineering skills.
Engagement Goals
PlazaBridge Group was tasked to vet and present five salesperson candidates to the client’s senior management team. The presentation on each candidate needed to include a summary assessment, expectations of success, compatibility with client’s culture and recommendations of how the client might best proceed with further interviews and assessments.
Engagement Process & Results
Conducted initial client meetings to discover the following:
- Assessment of client senior management needs and desires
- Consultations on key performance expectations
- Ranking and weighting of skills
- Assessment of client company culture
- Assessment of diversity needs
- Mapped interdepartmental collaboration requirements with associated dotted line responsibilities
PBG recognized our client’s needs and correlated to countless other clients with similar needs. The challenge, as is the case many times, was to match the personality of the candidate to the client’s culture without sacrificing on skill excellence.
RESULTS: Secured agreement with senior management on our interpretation of their needs and under what prism we would be judging candidates.
- Wrote job description to include key requirements
- Developed a comprehensive questionnaire for candidate down-selecting
- Scripted interview questions and developed scoring mechanism for anticipated answers
- Conducted review with client senior management
RESULTS: A well-written job description attracted the types of candidates the client desired and the funnel of candidates was considered high quality, providing client with multiple quality choices of who to interview internally in the company.
- Postings in key sites
- Consultations with site representatives to determine best posting parameters
- Performed quantitative analysis on responses to optimize placements and response ratios
- Adapted site concentration based on quality of respondents
RESULTS: By working closely with representatives at job posting sites we generated a large volume of quality candidates with the right skills.
- Scored resumes for skills, experiences, past company types among other criteria
- Ranked candidates for initial screening interview
- Multiple screening interviews and video conferences further down selected ideal candidates
- Collaborated with client on candidate pool for further selection efficiency
RESULTS: Created a substantial pool of quality candidates with the right cultural and character matching to client’s needs. Ratio ended up being 400 resumes to 1 initial call with 10% remaining for presentation to the client senior management team.
- Conducted on-line interviews
- Used a proprietary character assessment of “growth-oriented” traits
- Measured individual growth initiative and innovation-minded problem-solving skills
- Quantitative scoring allowed candidate comparison
RESULTS: Client received a comparison of candidates on important character traits that were used in making final offer decisions
- Constant dialogue with client to ensure recruitment consistent with needs
- Delivered number of candidates within time and resource constraints of client
- Frequently changed scoring weights to match continuous learning process for client in ideal candidate selection
- Assisted in senior management team consensus building of hiring needs and character trait priorities
RESULTS: A smoother client internal hiring process with senior management aligned on needs. Also, allows PBG to more efficiently and effectively deliver a high-quality funnel of candidates.
- Supported transition of final hire
- Counseled hire on initial job functions and best practices of new employee team transition
- Delivered professional training on sales management function to ensure rapid benefits on new hire; focused on marketing and sales functional integration strategies
RESULTS: New hire able to contribute quickly to client success with reduced risks of early mistakes that could derail job success.
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