A mid-market business in the agricultural products/service industry had a restructure and expansion plan impacting multiple business units so needed a recruiting partner that could support them on multiple positions.

The situation:

Our client initially came to us when they were restructuring some divisions and expanding in others. At first, M&B was tasked to support them in hiring two Finance Directors for two of their divisions. This then expanded to other divisions of the business and in multiple departments, some outside of our typical specialty areas.

Our process:

The Director of Finance searches included new location to our firm, so we created a recruiting plan tailored to what was important to the CFO who was the hiring manager through our discovery process. These initial searches were successful due to the open communication that the CFO had with our team. This allowed for a consistent message to potential talent keeping them engaged in the hiring process. Also, these searches were at the beginning of Covid so navigating the interview process in unexpected circumstances called for finding the best way to approach interviews so that talent were comfortable with the process.

The next searches included a regulatory manager, plant manager, biologist, quality control specialist, business development manager and two marketing specialists. With this group of roles we expanded our relationship with a new management team in another company division. Getting up to speed on the technical nuances of their products and marketing approaches allowed us to have a successful go to market strategy to access talent. Again, the close communication with the leadership team throughout the recruiting , interview and offer stages were crucial to our success.

Our approach included expanding our network in the agricultural industry that was launched from our existing base of contacts. One of the key challenges was the location of some of the positions that were based in a rural area which is always difficult to access talent especially in niche skill sets. Through our referral network and developing relationships with professional organizations in the industry allowed us access to talent for each hire.

Our results:

The results we gained in placing talent in all of these diverse positions allowed our client to build a base of experienced talent that supported the executive leadership team in being able to travel less, expand their client base and stay on top of the compliance that is required in this industry.