Following on from the blog section my colleague Jon Rose wrote earlier this week – How do we understand our clients and tell their story in the market? I’ll be explaining the fundamentals behind how Hyperion finds hidden talent and how we build relationships with the best candidates.
I’ll be covering how the team embrace the cleantech drive through learning as well as providing an online presence sharing news, opinions and content such as our very own podcasts & interviews; this is an essential part of building relationships within our industry. We then utilise our wide network of professionals from the team’s decades of experience from learning and working in solar, hydrogen, energy storage, e-mobility, and of course recruitment. Bringing together these fundamental aspects allows us to find that hidden talent and provide the best candidates to the best companies.
Building relationships with our candidates.
Effectively building relationships with our candidates is a key element to properly determine whether they are a suitable fit for our client. We spend a lot of time getting to know the individual, focusing on their ambitions and drive, their personality and whether they would fit into the company culture. We ensure they move for the right reasons and have the ability to help our clients achieve their growth objectives. Taking the time to get to know a candidate allows us to make a mutually beneficial placement for greater long term success.
Most of the candidates we place come from within our network, this talent pool is filled with ongoing relationships enabling us to act quickly and introduce high quality candidates to our clients.
· Case study: When we recruited the UK Country Director for sonnen, the candidate that we successfully placed had been in our network for the previous two years. When we speak to rockstar passive candidates in our network we make it clear that it could be a week, a month or a year before the perfect opportunity for them arises. It can take time but when the perfect role come up we can move quickly to make a successful introduction.
Here at Hyperion, we utilise one major tool… our network!
Our network is established from years of experience working within the cleantech sector, fully embracing the market and interacting each and every day with like-minded professionals who have a passion for the clean energy transition.
The Hyperion team regularly attends and speaks at events, conferences and workshops around Europe where we meet and network with people within our niche, we’re also very active online where we post opinions, comments and regularly speak and catch up with the community that works within the cleantech sector.
· Case study: The Hyperion team have met hundreds of cleantech rockstars at tradeshows and industry events over the years. It was at one of the many Intersolar shows in Munich that we met the candidate we later placed as Head of Utility Sales EMEA for energy storage leader LG Chem.
This allows the team to have an unmatched first-class network to work with, filled with executive level professionals making the search for the perfect candidate both streamlined and effective.
By successfully utilising this asset, we have the upper hand in finding the best people, for the best companies, to achieve the best results for the best possible future of the clean energy and mobility transition.
One thing many companies struggle with in today’s rapidly changing market is filling candidates for roles which previously haven’t existed – for instance, not many individuals have 5 years’ experience in Business Development exclusively in the residential battery storage market. We then begin to research and analyse the current market, finding the links and connections which uncover the perfect candidate with the appropriate and transferable skills. This can often bring a new vision to what the client was initially expecting.
· Case Study: Utility-scale battery storage is a nascent sector. We frequently place roles that have not previously existed but where we have found candidates with the right transferrable skills to be successful in new sector. When we placed the Head of Trading for Arenko, the candidate had a strong background in trading natural gas and coal power generation assets but had the flexibility, skills and desire to thrive in a new sector.
Building that rapport allows us to offer an honest, real and consultative guide to each candidate we put in front of the client. Doing so gives a true candidate representation, and not just a CV; we supply our interview notes, summary of suitability, full details of current compensation and a résumé.
We believe it’s key for the team to truly understand the bigger picture in which Hyperion plays a part; to not only provide the best companies with the best talent but to encourage a cleaner more sustainable way of living. To achieve this, we want to provide the companies that make that change happen with the best people to do that job.
In part 4, my colleague Wolfgang Kick talks about How we manage senior-level searches? He will be going into the details of our process and how our value is added.
