Volume recruitment project - Personal Assistants for a global energy leader
An international energy company, the largest of its kind operating out of the Middle East, commissioned Cobalt to lead on a volume recruitment project for numerous Personal Assistants to relocate from the UK to join their Middle East operations.
The roles provided an outstanding, unique opportunity for experienced Personal Assistants to join a world-renowned business on a tax-free salary with amazing benefits and an excellent quality of life outside of work, providing the right person with the opportunity to further their career in a meritocratic environment where success is rewarded.
The Challenge
The challenge wouldn’t be so much ‘selling’ the opportunity – it’s a dream move for many, but finding the right people, at the right stage in their life, with the right attributes for the position, would be critical to the success of the project.
The client required PAs with at least 5 years of experience, with working knowledge supporting the C-suite and above on high-profile projects. They’d be required to undertake diary and calendar management – including international travel itineraries, develop agendas and produce data for presentations, and take meeting minutes (applying discretion where required), whilst building relationships with their peers and other staff internally and externally. The client was open on background (organisation type, public/private sector etc.), they just needed the experience and drive to succeed in such a unique opportunity.
Finding the PAs with the required experience and personality fit would be one part of the recruitment challenge, the second would be managing the processes and strict deadlines for cohort of opportunities with the client. This would include necessary, lengthy process candidates would go through, from initial application through the discovery, interviews, visas, and onboarding phases.
The Solution
Cobalt was selected as a preferred supplier for the recruitment project because of our excellent reputation recruiting for Personal Assistants and other support staff across the UK and globally since 2001, and Chloe’s vast knowledge built up across several years recruiting in the space – both at Cobalt and elsewhere.
These connections and relationships Chloe and Cobalt had would prove their worth during the project – knowing plenty of excellent ‘passive’ candidates who may not have their CVs on job boards or be ‘open’ on LinkedIn, but that would have the skills and desire to be interested in such a role.
To entice potential applicants, Cobalt created a bespoke candidate pack for the positions, detailing the role requirements and experience needed, and coupled it with various details and photos to showcase what life would be like whilst working for the organisation.
The job advert, and this pack, was distributed across specialist job boards for Personal Assistants, to our extensive database of business support professionals, and to specially targeted LinkedIn profiles using the premium package tools that come with our licenses for the platform.
The process involved various stages. From being submitted as part of a longlist of screened candidates to the client, candidates would then have to complete various challenges – with some of these being very new to prospective candidates! Our job was to coach the candidates through these processes and make sure that they were successful in getting through to the next stage.
Here, they’d attend a half-day workshop and interview process at this organisation’s London HQ before a final decision. It was critical that after this, we continued to have regular check-ins with all successful candidates while their relocation packages were finalised, before they could jet off into their new job!
Results
We were delighted to have placed 9 PAs across the cohort, receiving the following feedback directly from the client: “Well done Chloe - amazing effort on this workshop stage, we’re very impressed with the quality of candidates and would like to continue to use you as a main recruiter for their next round of onboardings as the quality was extremely high”.
Candidates also gave glowing feedback about the process and role, with one in particular saying of Chloe: “It’s been my dream for quite some time to make this move, and you have helped me from start to finish with this process - I could not be happier with the support so far. I was very nervous, but you have been nothing but by my side!”.
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At the time of writing, we’ve been commissioned to work on this client’s next volume project – another cohort of Personal Assistants to join them in the Middle East. To register your interest, message me here.
The critical support and structure for your business. Our Business Support and HR recruitment teams work with a wide range of organisations within real estate, property, construction and beyond across London, the wider UK, and Middle East.
Within business support, our unparalleled network of those with experience in real estate, property, construction, and other markets, in roles like personal assistant, executive assistant, administration, front of house, and office management capacities, is what sets us apart from the competition.
Within Human Resources, our knowledge accumulated over 23+ years' working specifically in our sectors is what gives us the understanding of what makes a HR business partner to a HR assistant an asset at what they do. Submit your recruitment requirement with us here.
