Over the past year, we have sourced several new employees for Astrid Claasz Coockson, Human Resource Manager at Mission Produce. We asked about her reason for outsourcing the recruitment and selection process.
Mission Produce is a global leader in the production, distribution and marketing of fresh avocados. With the construction of ripening chambers in Europe, we can now distribute a consistent volume of the world's best avocados to customers in the European markets year round. To properly meet demand, our office in the Netherlands is continuously growing.
"Initially, I took care of recruitment and selection myself," says Astrid. "We were still a small office, and I usually found candidates through word of mouth. For the position of Sales Manager, the head office in America decided that we needed to enlist an agency's help, as it is an important position for us. We usually have plenty of time to find someone and get them up to speed, but in this case, we needed someone who could help us, right off the bat. We didn't want to waste any time—the job was too important for that. We predicted that an agency with an extensive recruitment process would reach the right target group faster. The head office already had an agency in mind, which I contacted, but they weren’t right for us; they were too focused on corporate business.
Nevertheless, I saw the benefits of working with an agency, and we started looking for a better alternative. Our Sales Coordinator, Nikoletta Kiss, recommended Velde. She had encountered your agency as a candidate in the past and was very positive about it. My first look at your website confirmed what she told me. It is very accessible and clearly explains why and how you do what you do, which really appealed to me. The initial contact further reinforced that feeling. There was a click and a very personal approach.
Today, I can safely say that our cooperation is working out wonderfully. The structure of the procedure was much more professional than I was used to. Where we previously used lengthy, two-page job descriptions with a detailed list of the duties and tasks, your job descriptions focus on presenting the most important information to the target group in the most attractive way possible: the essence of the job, easy to scan texts, lots of images and a short video about the job. I must admit, I was a bit nervous getting in front of the camera at first.
The procedure itself surpassed all my expectations. Every conversation was worthwhile; I never felt like we were wasting our time. The result was that we hired a new sales manager, Dave.
Your services are not cheap. Although we were extremely satisfied with the cooperation during the procedure for Sales Manager, when a less demanding position came up, we decided to try it ourselves again. That was a mistake. It took a long time to meet with candidates, they were not the right fit, and the extra administration and follow-up took a lot of time.
Luckily, you were able to quickly step in to reach and trigger the right candidates, and the position was soon filled to our satisfaction. We notice that we are getting increasingly used to each other. You know the company, what we are looking for and which candidates fit our organisation.
The cost of the service is relative to the result; Dave has been with us for a year now, and his arrival has taken Mission Produce to the next level in terms of growth, which has also required expansion in Operations, for example. We have hired five new employees since Dave's arrival.
Things are going very well for Mission Produce—we are busier than ever. Coronavirus did not change that. That's why we had no doubts about advertising vacancies during coronavirus. An additional advantage to the current situation is that you can learn a lot about the candidates from their video application. How does someone present themself? How do they deal with technical problems? We can assess stress resistance by observing instead of asking about it. Video calls with America have always been common in our work, even before the coronavirus pandemic. With coronavirus, video calling has become an additional selection criterion, one we will probably continue to use when live meetings become commonplace again.
At Velde, our motto is For Great Ambitions. The better our candidates and clients' ambitions match, the more they both stand to benefit from the relationship.
For more information about our recruitment and selection process, contact Roy van Eijk.
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