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Employers
Job title: 1 Catering Manager, 1 Catering Supervisor and 4 team leaders
Location: Sinai, Egypt
Sector: Catering
Function: Team leader to Management
Level: Team Leader
Search duration: 3 months
Consultant name: Jean-Claude Hedouin
We were approached in March 2017 by an individual from an International Security Organisation who was enquiring into the types of candidates which Ex-Mil could supply for their operations in Sinai. Their enquiry was led by the fact that the organisation was moving from their current supply of contract employment, therefore were to bring this function in house.
This initial enquiry was followed up a month later by the organisation’s HR Director, who requested a meeting at our offices in Maidenhead. We were to discuss how Ex-Mil operates as a company, as well as highlighting the excellent potential candidates we could offer them, both in the short and long term. Throughout this meeting, it was mentioned that the company were seeking support staff for their operation, i.e. Vehicle Mechanics, Generator Engineers and construction personnel for the more management level roles, as they employ Egyptian Nationals for their roles.
The client was experiencing an issue with their current supplier, a US manpower supply company, meaning the contact between them was not going to be renewed. Following the contract termination, the client was now looking to replace some key personnel within their organisation.
So in June 2017, we was approached to source several candidates to join the catering team for the client. The current personnel which they had in place were not of a standard that they wanted, the client was seeking to transfer the desired individuals across to internal contracts and therefore needed replacement to take over their posts in September 2017.
We started a search and recruitment drive to source the required personnel and within 3 weeks, we had identified 15 excellent candidates who could potentially fill the roles for the organisation, with over 50% of the candidates being able to fill more than one role.
After a series of telephone interviews between the client’s representatives in Sinai and the 15 potential candidates, 12 were selected to attend an interview in London within two days in July. There were to be three rounds of interviews throughout the day, with the interviews being staggered an hour apart.
Ex-Mil’s founder, Jean-Claude, was present at the interview day, acting as a concierge and liaising with representatives to deal with any issues that arose. Such as travel – there was serious issues on the M4, which caused some of the candidates to arrive significantly late, but with others arriving on time, Jean-Claude managed to sway people around with little or no delay for the interview panels.
After all of the interview were held, the client selected the Manager and Supervisor candidate, as well as five team leaders, as they had lost one of their personnel during the interim period. The client was highly impressed with the service Ex-Mil provided and the quality of candidates which we presented – so much so, that they would have taken them all the candidates on if the roles had been available. After passing their vetting and medicals, all of the candidates started working for the client before the September deadline and have improved the catering facilities across the board.
After the recruitment drive, the client proudly stated that this was one of the easiest programmes which they have undertaken for quite some time and that they would use Ex-Mil again in the future. Subsequent to this initial recruitment project, we have placed a further five personnel within the organisation in very differing roles, from Vehicle Mechanic to Stores Manager, amongst others.
The candidates feedback was all very positive, with one saying that we briefed him every step of the way, and described the role, organisation and the whole process of the recruitment drive thoroughly. Which made the candidate feel like they knew exactly what they were getting into, having all the correct facts and information needed to help them do their own research. While another candidate who did not get the role, felt that we had done such a good job, that he came back to us to help him find some personnel for his organisation a month later.
This was an interesting recruitment drive, as the client was seeking a number of personnel within a restricted time frame and operating across three countries and time frames, but the biggest problem was trying to source the number and quality of military chefs for them. But I enjoyed the challenge, and enjoy the fast balls that the client seems to like throwing my way on a regular basis.
