Market Mapping & Talent Engagement Project

The Project

We were engaged to deliver an international talent mapping and engagement project for a Director level role that we were briefed on after two separate agencies had tried to fill the position without success.

The Solution

We conducted a global search, which involved mapping the talent market across Australia, NZ, USA, Canada and the UK to identify all key individuals with the appropriate background and experience for the position, targeting specific institutions, skillsets and research areas of interest. This confidential process identified the best talent in the market for this position. Given the size of the pool and the requirements, although the role was pitched as a level D/E, we also provided some level C candidates, given some of these individuals were matching most of the key requirements of the brief, which served as a basis for comparison.

We also provided insights, providing a holistic picture of the current talent landscape & insights relating to talent availability, volumes & gender ratios, top locations and institutions, along with additional observations. The insights revealed that there may be some level C’s that could potentially match the majority of the core requirements of the position. The University agreed and we subsequently engaged a variety of talent across levels C-E.

Through this engagement, we ultimately found that the position was pitched at the wrong level and that the level of this position should in fact be a Level C/D, not a level E.  Additionally we found through our market engagement that the 3 year contract offered was too short in duration to be attractive to prospective candidates.

We provided information on these recommendations back to the University that the role should potentially be amended and regraded.  We also provided a suitable, fully qualified longlist of candidates that we had spoken to that would potentially suit a revised role.

Result

The University agreed and they were able to use the insights we had provided to regrade the role and extend the contract duration. The position was restructured to be more aligned to the more common structure and level of the position across other universities. Subsequently, the University appointed one of the candidates we had identified, engaged and recommended.