Case Study
The Client
For nearly 13 years, Sigma has worked with a well-established, tier-one automotive parts supplier as an exclusive recruitment partner. We collaborate with the team’s large global group to find talent in all areas, including hires for permanent and fixed-term jobs.
As a leading manufacturer who supplies products to most of the world’s top OEM automotive manufacturing companies, the client routinely requires multiple fills in a range of roles spanning the UK, Europe and North America.
The Vacancies
Some of the required roles included:
- Production supervisors and managers
- Shift managers
- Quality engineers and SQA engineers
- Quality managers
- Setters
- Injection moulding technicians
- Engineering managers
- Maintenance technicians
The Challenges
The client had a unique set of challenges, including:
- Retention problems: because their salaries are roughly 12% below the market rate for the area, staff sometimes move on to higher-paying opportunities.
- Specialised experience: the majority of roles require specific automotive sector knowledge.
- Staffing struggles: a period of understaffing, an unfortunate lay off of temporary workers, and complications with an existing manager hurt the company’s reputation with potential candidates.
The Solution
Sigma Recruitment combined its network resources, deep industry experience and extensive research to recruit 35+ talented staff over the course of just one year.
- We built an excellent rapport with the site and their senior management team to understand the company culture and necessary skills.
- The team closely tracked company news to pitch candidates with success stories, new business wins and industry awards.
- For each role, we undertook a detailed qualification call with the client to determine the key essentials for every job description.
- We applied SEO postings across a wide range of job boards for a bigger reach to compensate for the salary gap.
- For a senior management position, we leveraged the opportunity for both professional growth and relocation.
- We utilised a sourcing plan to thoroughly search our own internal database, as well as online candidate databases.
- We developed individual marketing campaigns for each role to drive traffic and generate interest.
- Our team didn’t stop with calls: we reached out to candidates via text messages, emails and answerphone messages.
- We undertook thorough screening calls with all candidates to ensure they would be qualified to interview for the client and took extensive notes to add to their CV’s.
- We sent each interested candidate a job information pack with details on the role, the company, the salary, the benefits package, the location, the working hours, the commute and the take-home pay, before confirming their interest.
- For senior-level roles, we created candidate questionnaires in agreement with the line manager. Each candidate’s answers were included on the front sheet of his or her CV.
- We identified other industries that could be considered for certain jobs and expanded our reach to find high calibre candidates from other industry backgrounds who were a great fit.
- We pitched the company’s sophisticated Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement tools and techniques to inspire candidates with the potential to develop new, desirable skills.
The Results
Sigma Recruitment successfully recruited 35+ staff for the client over a seven-year period, ranging from administrative/support roles paying circa £20,000 up to senior management roles paying £60,000. We continue to find high-calibre matches across the board, and some of our talented hires have become key team members and senior on-site managers.
About Sigma Recruitment
Since Sigma Recruitment opened in 2005, we’ve developed an enviable reputation as one of the leading independent automotive recruitment agencies. We’ve recruited for a wide variety of companies, from OEMs to smaller tier 2 suppliers, and can recruit across the United Kingdom, including locations such as Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Gloucester, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Reading and Swindon
If you’re looking to recruit candidates in the automotive manufacturing sector then, Sigma Recruitment is ideally placed to help you find the elusive high-calibre talent you’re business needs. If you’re looking for an automotive manufacturing recruitment agency, then please book a call with our founding director today!
