The Client

A leading distributor of plumbing and HVAC products, the Client has branches and showrooms across the United States. Partnering with leading brand manufacturers, the Client’s 2,600+ employees work to distribute products to their 40,000+ customers.

The Situation

Having recently unveiled plans to develop an e-commerce platform and Android and iOS mobile applications, the Client needed to double the size of its IT team to support its digital transformation. Seeking a partner to develop a greater recruiting presence, the Client sought out Acara to help fill 50 technology professional positions using a hybrid approach of an internal talent acquisition (TA) team and external hiring efforts.

The Challenge

To successfully engage IT candidates, Acara’s team of expert recruiters would be required to overcome the following challenges:

• Tapping into proper candidate markets to discover culturally aligned professionals with specialized IT skill sets was no easy task. The positions—such as full-stack developers and designers— were difficult to fill and high-demand IT roles and the Client was having difficulty attracting talent.
• The budgeted compensation for these technology roles was— on average—10%-15% less than comparable positions in the market.
• The Client was a five-day in-office workplace organization and had to create a schedule to meet the IT professional candidates’ demand for remote and hybrid work environments.
• Having never partnered with a staffing firm before, the Client needed to obtain budget approval from senior management before starting the engagement.

The Solution

We began working on this recruitment initiative by gaining a comprehensive understanding of the skill level and experience required for each information technology role. Using that information, the Acara team identified unique differentiators to share with IT candidates to build excitement. Weekly meetings— that included the Client’s hiring managers, two dedicated Acara recruiters, and Acara management—were held to review all open job requisitions including:

• Backend Developer
• Business Analyst
• Data Scientist
• Help Desk Technician
• Project Manager
• UX Developer

Acara’s program team facilitated a full-scale compensation analysis to create uniformity around pay rates. By leveraging our suite of wage and compensation analysis tools, we uncovered positions where the Client was paying below market rates—hindering the success of talent attraction efforts.

The Conclusion

The Client understood and was committed to doing what it takes to win top talent in a candidate-driven market and has remained engaged throughout the entire process. Their willingness to work collaboratively and in partnership with the Acara team was crucial to our success. Since starting the project in July of 2021, the following results have been achieved:

• 50 high-quality candidate profiles submitted
• 2.5:1 submit-to-offer ratio
• 19 direct hires

Thanks to our rapid response times and commitment to excellence, other IT teams and departments within the Client’s organization have asked Acara for assistance with attracting and hiring top IT, customer service, and account manager talent.