Ependys
The first UK hire for a European plastics trader
A European plastics trading company expanding into the UK needed a Country Manager — a first hire, made remotely from Germany, where a wrong appointment would have been the whole venture rather than one role.
When deciding to expand the business into the UK, it was imperative we recruited the right person not just for the role but for the culture of the business. The WasteRecruit assessment process enabled us to do exactly that. I had confidence in the information and evidence provided and it felt like a lot of the risk was taken out of the final decision.
Stathis Papadimitriou — CEO, Ependys
Situation
A European plastics trading company was looking to appoint a UK Country Manager to develop the local market potential. Based in Germany, the owner needed a recruitment partner and process he could place his trust in without having to meet in person.
Process
The process included touchpoints with the client to conduct a job analysis and shortlisting process. The job analysis identified key areas that were going to be important for the culture of the business, in addition to those areas important for success in the role.
We were able to assess these areas using the personality measure to establish candidate behavioural preferences and interview questions to examine past behaviour. It was not so much about establishing previous success in plastic trading, which all candidates could demonstrate, but more how the candidates approached key aspects of the plastic trading process.
Candidate reports were written with these key aspects in mind and at the interview “wash-up” it provided a clear structure against which to compare candidate performance.
Outcome
Hiring someone new to create a UK office is a risk. The client needed to have trust in this person and our evidence based approach enabled them to make an evidence based decision. It resulted in a placement of the right person who has to date excelled in the role.
The client has since engaged WasteRecruit to support them with roles in other European countries, as well as the USA, and the use of Teams has enabled candidate engagement and interviews to be conducted remotely. We are currently engaged to support the growth of the UK business through the recruitment of additional buyers. The process has remained the same and client feedback has continued to be positive.
Client work
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