Power Scale: Providing Scalable RPO For An Energy Giant 

The Dilemma

In the energy sector, severe volatility is very common across the entire industry. One day, demand for skilled professionals can be incredibly high, and then just weeks or even days later, workloads change and that demand vanishes. For one conglomerate working in the energy space, fluctuating needs meant they needed a total talent provider who could not only deliver the best engineers and technicians available, but one who could scale its operations up or down at any time to keep up with demand.

The Strategy

For a company with such unpredictable workforce needs, an end-to-end recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) program was the clear solution, both from a process and a cost-saving standpoint. But not just any RPO would help them overcome their challenges. A DZConneX (DZX)-managed program, one that’s specifically designed for scalability, is the only one who could handle such volatility. DZX installed a team of energy workforce experts that ranged from as few as 9 to more than 30 people depending on total talent needs. When demand was high, DZX scaled up to meet their needs within the specified timeframe. When hiring froze, the team easily scaled back, delivering immediate savings and program efficiency.

The Impact

DZX brought efficiency and cost savings to an energy division that needed a change. DZX introduced standardized roles, processes and talent tracking. With a DZX RPO, the client was able to do more with less, increase the quality of its talent, and keep costs as low as possible.

Energy Industry Fast Facts

3.64 million traditional energy industry employees¹

24 million American homes powered in a year by current installed wind capacity²

22% of the nation's energy production in 2016 came from renewable and nuclear energy³

32% of the 6.5 million employees in the U.S. construction industry work on energy or building energy efficiency projects¹

200,000 more jobs created in the solar industry than in the coal industry in 2016¹

^Sources

^{1 U.S. Department of Energy}

^{2 American Wind Energy Association}

^{3 U.S. Energy Information Administration}

In business, hiring needs change frequently. Whether it’s market forces, internal forces or the overall health of the business, demand for talent can fluctuate up or down for a variety of different reasons.

For one of DZX's clients, the energy arm of an international conglomerate, talent volatility was just the beginning of their challenges. For internal HR teams and hiring managers, working through periods of high demand without the help of a partner meant jobs would go unfilled for weeks, months or even longer. Conversely, having a partner on board when demand is much lower means treasured budgets are spent supporting more resources than necessary.

So, what did this energy and power division do when they needed significant help from a total talent partner to manage their talent acquisition process? Specifically, they needed one who could scale up to support the business at times of high demand, and scale down significantly to manage costs during hiring freezes. They called on DZX'’s RPO team with the knowledge and experience to meet their total talent needs relative to market demand.

Up Scale

With a DZX RPO program, scalability is their specialty. While at times DZX may be covering only a small percentage of a company's talent needs, the program has the ability to scale up drastically to handle any hiring surge. In one such instance, DZX augmented the client's recruiting team and played a critical role during the surge in the company’s recruiting needs, scaling up to take 65-70% of the overall volume and helping the company reach their goal of 100% coverage across all of the business’ requisitions. To fill these wind technician, engineering and senior-level managerial roles, DZX needed to boost its own team almost four-fold in a matter of just a few months.

What was once just a 9-member team grew to 23 and eventually 30 talent acquisition specialists and associates, many of which had prior engineering recruiting experience to properly source these difficult-to-place engineers and technicians. And as the client’s total talent needs continued to expand, so too did the DZX team. Only because DZX boasts such an expansive roster of recruiting professionals was the RPO team able to add these recruiters so quickly, ensuring talent never fell behind and the client’s needs were consistently being met.

During this growth period, DZX’s talent acquisition team also introduced custom standardized job posting and onboarding processes. DZX built a back-end infrastructure to regulate job descriptions and writing styles. Plus, DZX managed everything from the offer through the onboarding process, including candidate assessment and screening, candidate tracking, systems introductions, and administrative support for both internal and external hires.

Because of this process standardization, the client now had an infrastructure that made it easy to scale its RPO team up or down without anyone—DZX, the client or the new talent—missing a beat. And thankfully this new system was implemented, because a talent scale down came much sooner than expected.

Down Shift

Not more than five months after DZX’s increased role within the company, the energy division encountered a hiring freeze and needed to scale back its recruiting. Market volatility forced the client to reduce its open positions from 1,300 down to just 400. However, because of DZX’s insight, anticipation and prior planning with the client, this scale back was made quickly and efficiently.

DZX reduced its RPO support from 30 down to 9 team members, redeploying the others across different areas within this company’s business or to other clients across the country. Remaining DZX talent experts were deployed where they were needed most and where their specific skills fit best. This reduction in RPO spend allowed the client to save during a time when the business was cutting budgets significantly throughout the company.

Before, during and after this workforce decrease, DZX was holding weekly calls with HR leaders across the organization to identify where reductions could be made effectively without affecting day-to-day operations. Redeployed DZX team members were kept on call in the event staffing needs would increase again. And knowing the volatility of this industry, they almost certainly will.

This ease of scalability gives HR the peace of mind to know that no matter what the division’s talent needs are, DZX’s RPO team can handle it. When demand is high, DZX delivers talented engineering recruiters on call. When it’s low, DZX delivers cost savings by quickly reducing its RPO footprint.