The Client
The Client is one of the most well-known fitness brands in the UK. It is a sports fashion, merchandise retailer and an events company.
The client holds an annual EXPO, which is among the most well-attended fitness events in Britain. More than 90,000 health and fitness enthusiasts attended the event in 2016.
The Challenge
The Client’s website was being hosted by an external company, who also owned the code. The Client’s IT Director wanted to bring the website in-house in time for the 2016 EXPO at Birmingham’s NEC.
He also wanted to improve the capacity of the website, so that the brand’s growing following could continue to browse and shop on the website without interruption.
To achieve this he wanted to add two Web Developers, with skillsets which included PHP and My SQL, to his team. He wanted to make two permanent appointments as large changes needed to be made to the website.
However, The Client’s show was only five weeks away…
The Strategy
IT recruitment consultants
Sinead Clayton and Andy Basham, from Crimson’s Permanent and Contract Recruitment teams respectively, met with the IT Director to discuss his staffing requirements.
It was decided that Sinead would source the long-term permanent members of staff. Meanwhile, due to the tight deadline and candidate notice periods, Andy was asked to find a short-term contract candidate to help with the initial delivery of this urgent requirement.
Due to the current state of the recruitment market, candidates with these skillsets had been difficult to find. To combat this issue Andy and Sinead conducted a 360-degree search, utilising Crimson’s fulfilment delivery function, and delving deep into their personal networks to source the right candidates for The Client.
ROI
The permanent recruitment of two suitable candidates was successfully delivered over a period of two months. This involved sourcing the right calibre of candidates, The Client’s appraisal of the CV’s, first stage interviews, and offers made through to start date.
The fixed-term candidate was appointed within a week of Crimson receiving the brief from the IT Director. The candidate was given a four-week assignment and successfully helped the IT Director and his team to reclaim The Client’s website.
The role was then handed over to the permanent team and the website upgrade project is now being managed well from within the company.
Client Quote
The IT Director said: “Crimson acted swiftly to deliver three great candidates to us. They understood the urgency of this project and came up with a strategy to help us achieve our objectives quickly. What’s more, the fixed-term candidate did a great job considering he stepped in at short notice.”
Consultant Quote
Andy Basham, IT Recruitment Consultant at Crimson, said: “This was a tricky job for us based on the specific technologies and the timescales involved but we were able to tap into our network and find three ideal candidates for The Client.
“The result of this search shows that open and frank conversations between a client and their recruiter can yield quick results.”
Crimson is an IT consultancy, an IT solutions provider, an IT recruitment agency, and a Microsoft Gold Partner with offices in Birmingham and the City of London.
