Background
- Location: Reading
- Size: 200+ employees
- Vero HR Engagement: Early 2024
Challenge
The senior team had been struggling with their in-house HR function for a while. They had hired a couple of team members who joined and then subsequently left the business in a short space of time – first an HR Director, followed by a replacement HR Business Partner. Clearly, their existing recruitment setup wasn’t enabling them to find and secure a long-term employee in this area. After realising the amount of time wasted on interviews and onboarding and the money spent on costly recruitment agency placement fees, only to have to start from scratch as their new hires left, the business turned to Vero Recruit to help them find a better-fit candidate who would see them a return on their people investment. The business had already been using Vero HR for its core HR service since early 2024, so taking advantage of their exclusive in-house recruitment offering with an average placement fee of just 11% was an obvious solution to try.
Solution
HR Business Partner
The first vacancy brought to Vero HR was an HR Business Partner. It was clear from initial conversations that the CEO wanted as little to do with the process as possible due to other priorities and trusted the Vero Recruit team to take the lead. A kick-off meeting was held in mid-October with the CEO to gather details about the role, taking just half an hour of their time. It was then over to the Vero Recruit team to draft, publish, and promote the advert and find a wide, but relevant, pool of potential candidates. From there, 5 first-stage interviews were undertaken by the Talent Acquisition Manager at Vero HR, followed by four second-stage interviews with the client’s dedicated Vero HR contact, an HR Business Partner Director. Then, final stage interviews for two shortlisted candidates were conducted with the CEO – each lasting no longer than an hour and a half. Just three weeks after the initial kick-off meeting, an offer for an HR Business Partner was accepted.
HR Advisor
Once the new HR Business Partner had settled into their new role, they recommended hiring a second resource – an HR Advisor – to help deal with the day-to-day HR tasks while they managed the higher-level, more strategic tasks. Having experienced the candidate side of Vero HR’s recruitment process and already connected with the team, the HR Business Partner was more than happy to work with Vero Recruit again to fill this new role. The kick-off meeting took place in mid-November, this time with the HR Business Partner instead of the CEO. After advertising the vacancy on various platforms, the Vero Recruit Team identified four strong candidates in less than a week. As the screening interviews began, the first candidate was such a perfect fit that the team passed them on to the client for a final interview before screening the remaining three. The HR Business Partner was delighted with the first candidate, resulting in an accepted offer just two weeks after the kick-off meeting.
Results
HR Business Partner
As a result of using the Vero Recruit service, the client was able to secure a best-fit HR Business Partner in just three weeks, without spending half the time they would have if recruiting themselves, and half the money they would have if using a recruitment agency. Vero HR’s existing relationship with the client meant that the team already had an understanding of the business and, therefore, knew exactly what to look for to find candidates that would be a great organisational fit along with having the relevant skills. In terms of cost, using the Vero Recruit model for an HR Business Partner on a senior professional salary, the total cost of recruitment came in at 8% of the base salary. Using an average agency model with a placement fee of 20% of the base salary, the cost would have been much higher. What’s more, the whole process took no more than five hours of the CEO’s time, which included the kick-off meeting and two final stage interviews. This would have been substantially more if they had managed the entire process themselves, screening the hundreds of CVs that came through and undertaking all first and second-stage interviews, too.
“The total cost of recruitment came in at 8% of the base salary. Using an average agency model with a placement fee of 20% of the base salary, the cost would have been much higher.”
HR Advisor
The HR Advisor role was successfully filled with an offer accepted by another great fit candidate in two weeks. And this time, it took just two hours of the HR Business Partner’s time. The total cost of recruitment for the HR Advisor role with a mid-level salary came in at 8.6% of the base salary. Again, using an average agency model with a placement fee of 15% for this slightly lower-level role would have been much more costly. Other benefits the client gains from using the Vero Recruit service include: a free candidate replacement if someone leaves within the first 3 months; confidence in leaving the Vero HR team to their own devices to make the right people decisions due to the existing business relationship; and a more thorough screening process to ensure only qualified candidates are progressed to the next stage, rather than putting through anyone who ‘could’ do the job just to fill vacancy numbers.
“The HR Advisor role was successfully filled with an offer accepted by another great fit candidate in two weeks.”
