Situation Synopsis:
Ensuring team cohesion; tight coupling with Client in-house recruiting; Flexible account management.
Our initial engagement with the client required the delivery and construction of temporary project teams for time sensitive work. We knew that team chemistry would be paramount to expedite the project ramp up and minimize attrition. We employed a recruiting strategy that first identified a few key leaders from the pool of available contractors we had successfully worked with in the past. We then asked these initial contractors to recommend people they had previously worked with successfully on different projects. From our trusted candidate recommendations we sourced and recruited additional team members to fill out the project teams.
Challenges:
As the volume of the client’s contract use expanded and more suppliers were engaged to support temporary hiring needs, the client’s human resources elected to play a more direct role in the hiring of contingent workforce personnel. Black Diamond traveled to the client’s Midwest headquarters to meet with key HR administrators, to build better understanding and rapport, and map out a plan for meeting their expectations — the result has been a tightly coupled partnership that cooperatively works to solve account issues and improve results.
Actions:
Because of the partnership described above, we were able to determine that our initial Black Diamond account manager assigned to the client, while doing a commendable job of coordinating our service efforts to meet the client’s technical resource needs, was not the one best suited to strategically carry the account forward into the future. As a result, we executed a seamless transition from the then account manager to one more ideally aligned with the new account service dynamics and goals. This account manager has been successfully guiding our service efforts with the client and has won praise from the HR staff.
Throughout the duration of the project, we lost only two contractors off the project teams during the course of the assignment. All projects were brought in on time and at budget.
