Challenge:
Celebration Foods LLC, of New Britain, CT, is a national marketer, manufacturer, and distributor of frozen dessert products. Their desserts go to market through an expansive network of direct store delivery, third-party distributors, and warehouse programs.
Because Celebration Foods manages products that are temperature and handling sensitive, it is essential that all their products are effectively managed by their Route Sales Representatives. The company relies heavily on well-trained, experienced Route Sales Supervisors (RSS) to monitor and work with these representatives to guarantee the successful delivery of all their products.
Recently, Celebration Foods found difficulty locating an RSS to oversee the representatives in its Ft. Lauderdale, FL, market, which covers territory from Key West to Daytona. Sandy Spencer, the Director of Human Resources at Celebration Foods, sought our assistance.
According to Spencer, Celebration Foods was having difficulty finding that "true blue, hands-on manager who would ride along with, coach, and mentor the reps, as well as increase sales within the market."
Many of the previous RSS didn't work out because they worked remotely, coaching their reps from their home offices. This time, Spencer explained, Celebration Foods wanted an individual who could use his or her experience to take a more active role. They sought an individual with hands-on experience to supervise a team of eight to ten Route Sales Reps.
Solution
Following a thorough intake process, our recruitment specialists determined that a mixture of our RCI Talent Locator product and Career-Event Management services would be most effective in finding the winning candidate.
Project Manager, Kris Landry-Ross, interviewed members of Celebration Foods to get a clear understanding of the requirements for this difficult-to-fill position, and she implemented our two-fold RCI Talent Locator strategy — first, she directed our specialists to source and screen qualified candidates, and then she scheduled interviews for Celebration Foods' career event.
This integrated sourcing strategy consisted of finding the best-qualified candidates and inviting them to respond to the available opportunity.
Our researchers and sourcing specialists targeted resumes based on specific criteria for the RSS position, and strategically selected keywords that would identify experienced candidates on a wide-variety of online sources. Recruiters also contacted the potential candidates directly, using targeted and automated phone calls.
All of the sourced resumes and candidates were sent through our stringent screening process, and only those candidates who qualified were forwards to Celebration Foods for consideration.
Finally, we scheduled interviews with the qualified candidates to be hosted at Celebration Foods' career even in Ft. Lauderdale.
Result:
By using the unique sourcing and screening methods provided by the RCI Talent Locator framework, Celebration Foods found the unique candidate it needed — a proactive Route Sales Supervisor in the Ft. Lauderdale market. The career event attracted many qualified candidates, and Celebration Foods made their hire within three weeks.
"We uncovered candidates that Celebration Foods was not able to surface themselves," said Ross, "and unburdened them from spending an exhaustive amount of time recruiting."
This was Spencer's second time working with us, but her previous project only included RCI Talent Locator. Spencer says that she "intends to come back for this recruitment model in the future."