The Client
Commercial Firm
Our client is a multi-trade union that is affiliated with National trades and represents over 340,000 technicians across North America. As a service to their members, they provide premier training programs which include: five-year apprenticeship courses, extensive journeyman training, a comprehensive instructor training class, and numerous certification programs.
The Support
- Direct Hire Staffing
- Accountant
- Registrar Assistant
- Bookkeeper
- Blackboard Liaison/Administrator
- Communications Director
- Human Resources Manager
The Challenge
In 2015, a Senior Union Administrator reached out The Squires Group in search of professional talent acquisition and recruiting solutions for their accounting team. Lara Joy, one of our Senior Resource Managers at The Squires Group, took point on helping define their hiring needs, and ultimately led several highly successful search and placement efforts for a variety of senior level positions.
During the initial meeting, Lara discovered that the union had occasional hiring needs across their organization, but since they were lacking an in-house Human Resources team, they often struggled to find qualified candidates. To add to the challenge, they were in the process of converting from a paper-based environment to a digital one. This effort required hiring talent that had a strong understanding of IT systems and experience in digital transformations.
The Solution
To begin the process of defining direct hire staffing solutions for this client, Lara dug deep to understand their organizational structure, their culture, and most importantly, their vision. Through a variety of planning sessions, Lara learned that the union was very family oriented, offered excellent benefits, and boasted incredibly low turnover rates due in part to their 35-hour work week.
Over the coming months and years, our team would be called upon to develop a search strategy for a variety of key positions—all of which presented unique challenges.
By developing a one-on-one relationship with the hiring managers and listening intently to their needs, Lara was able to employ our IN THE PERFECT SPACESM (ITPS) methodology to find ideal candidates. As a result, we were able to recruit, pre-screen, and present candidates that met the specific requirements for position:
- Accounting Job Placement Solution: Key skills–QuickBooks, full-cycle Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivables experience, strong knowledge of Adobe and technical writing expertise
- Registrar Assistant Research: Key skills–post-secondary experience with admissions, database management and database records experience; ability to manipulate data using Excel, Oracle and/ or SQL. Strong communication skills for publishing internal materials; ability to think outside the box and be able to make things happen in a small office environment; expertise in handling confidential records and knowledge of FERPA guidelines.
- Bookkeeper Placement: Key Skills—A QuickBooks expert that could convert Excel files into QuickBooks and help the company get caught up since they were running a few months behind on reconciliation.
- Blackboard Liaison/Administrator Placement: Key Skills—A Blackboard expert was required since providing training is one of the main missions of the organization. This role was critical in helping the in-house trainers leverage the full potential of the Blackboard training tool. In addition to assisting users with accessing systems, accessing programs, and answering basic technical questions, this position also had the added responsibility of leading two other individuals in the Blackboard support roles.
- Communications Director Executive Search: Key Skills–This was a new position in the company. Our client needed a communications leader that could roll up their sleeves and implement the communication program they wanted. Prior experience working with C-Level Executives was critical to support the communications with internal staff, external customers, politicians, press, and drafting both speeches and newsletters. This position would also play a big role in expanding the company’s social media presence.
- Human Resources Manager Solution: Key Skills–This was a new position, and the key responsibility was to roll out new HR processes/ procedures. Since the current HR responsibilities were spread amongst many employees, the new hire would have to create a vision for the new HR role and work to consolidate the responsibilities into a single channel while implementing new processes and procedures. One of the most challenging aspects of this search was the fact that this position was being created in the midst of a pandemic. This stretched out the hiring process, and when our candidate was finally hired, they faced additional challenges in rolling out new processes and procedures while having to work virtually with all of their employees.
The Success
Defining a professional talent acquisition solution is key to any successful search. Once Lara and the team at The Squires Group identified the unique skills for each of the positions, our recruiting team could zero in on the best potential candidates for the job. As a result, the hiring managers could focus on conducting a limited number of interviews with a select group of highly qualified candidates. As an additional direct hire staffing service to our candidates, Lara was able to personally introduce each candidate to the hiring managers, and then immediately conduct our interview debrief with the candidate right after the interviews. Our process of getting immediate interview feedback from both the client and the candidate would help us further refine our searches.
This high-touch service, combined with our IN THE PERFECT SPACESM (ITPS) methodology, has allowed us to achieve our vision of becoming a trusted advisor to our clients and candidates. We are proud that our talent sourcing efforts have resulted in our team filling 100% of the positions that our client has engaged us in.
Client Testimonial
“Lara’s communication is incredible. She asks exactly the right questions to find out what is most important to us as a company when we are searching for a new hire. Each candidate presented to us hits the mark. They are always thoroughly vetted to make sure they are the best fit for our organization in skills, experience, and personality. I’ve enjoyed working with Lara over the years and will continue to rely on her when we have a job opening.”
Do you have a need for direct hire staffing services? Reach out to The Squires Group, a top specialized search and placement firm focused on accounting, IT and other professional talent acquisition solutions.
