Case Study
The Client
We were asked to work with a local food manufacturing business that supplies product to leading UK retailers.
The Vacancy
NPD – New Product Development Technologist
The Challenges
NPD (New Production Development) technologists are in extremely short supply, but that was just the start of the challenges that came with filling these positions. Salaries for this role have been driven up, and smaller food manufacturing companies are not able to compete against the larger food manufacturers. Plus, Sigma and other recruiters had already explored traditional methods of advertising, database searching and networking.
The Solution
Sigma Recruitment has built up an extensive internal database over the last 14 years, and we leveraged this database using a technique that we call “rearview mirror talent sourcing”. With this technique, we look at where candidates would have worked before taking their current role — in this case, becoming a product development technologist.
Our research showed that most NPD technologists were graduates of food science or food technology-related subjects. We then used our database to target graduates who had earned these degrees in the past three to six years. Then, we developed a digital marketing campaign to target these candidates with emails, SMS and letters.
The Results
A graduate from a local university had moved away to work with a major food manufacturer as an NPD graduate and progressed to being an NPD technologist. This candidate replied to one of our emails and was keen to return home. They were the perfect fit for our food manufacturing client!
Other assignments with the food sector have included manufacturing managers, bakery managers, first-line managers, engineering managers, maintenance managers, warehouse managers, supply chain managers, planners, buyers and development chefs.
About Sigma Recruitment
Since Sigma Recruitment opened for business back in 2005, we’ve developed an enviable reputation as one of the leading independent recruitment agencies. We’ve recruited for a wide variety of companies, from Fortune 500 firms with sales in the hundreds of billions to niche high-tech start-ups and everything in between, across the United Kingdom.
If you’re looking to recruit candidates with engineering, technical, supply chain, procurement, logistics, management, scientific or STEM graduates in the food 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 a food manufacturing recruitment agency, then please book a call with our founding director today!
