Optimizing Marketing Recruitment for Defense Technology Leader
About Our Client
Our client is a purpose-driven, passionate and innovative defense technology leader. Their defense products heighten the security capabilities of US and allied governments in nearly 100 international markets.
Additionally, a division launched in late 2018 offers a wide breadth of defense related services ranging from pilot training programs to aerospace consulting. Unlike their defense products, the suite of consulting services are specifically designed to meet the evolving needs of private sector clientele.
After over a year of R&D work, the defense leader recently completed development of a new, cutting-edge aviation consulting platform. If embraced by the market, the service would improve profitability in substantial, sustainable ways. All that was left was recruiting a marketing executive who had the skills, capabilities and drive to bring it all to market.
Tackling Key Marketing Recruiting Challenges
The importance of the new launch and how it was embraced by the marketplace made hiring a top marketing manager – a high-stakes endeavor. However, there were substantial challenges when it came to finding, gaining interest and choosing the best applicant.
To optimize their marketing recruitment strategies and increase applicant numbers, they contracted KAS. Specifically, they would work with our team of dedicated defense industry marketing recruiters.
Defining the Marketing Job
KAS’ marketing recruiters understood that hiring a highly specified marketing director was essential. KAS’s marketing recruiters played a critical role in defining the hiring processes. The recruiting process kept the end-goal in mind.
KAS had extensive experience recruiting defense sector marketing leaders. We had a high expertise in recruiting overseers of new product launches. Specifically, this meant recruiting a marketing leaders who could map out and execute each phase. Up until this point, traditional staffing approaches failed.
- High specificity in candidate background
- Limited applicant pool
- Robust salary demands
- Extensive demand by industry companies to hire
“Prior to solving any recruitment issue, it is necessary to accurately pinpoint the root cause.”
Hiring Hurdles
Often, companies have trouble managing an interview process in a way where the candidates stay engaged from beginning to end. Frequent candidate withdrawal loses applicants which has a negative impact on morale, efficiency and efficacy. Our marketing recruiters identified the drivers behind candidates attrition, which were:
- Prolonging the interview processes
- Including too many decision makers
- Judging candidate aptitude based on irrelevant aspects
- Lacking a clear-cut prioritization of necessary marketing skills
- Presenting an outdated, uncompetitive compensation structure
- Incorporating questions that fail to reliably assess candidate ability
The Solution
KAS’s marketing recruiting experts helped the defense technology leader by:
- Understanding the nature and purpose of the job
- Prioritizing the marketing skills necessary to succeed in the role
- Defining a standardized interview process
- Establishing interview questions that accurately predict performance
- Sharing communication strategies that improve engagement
- Formulating an industry competitive compensation structure
- Identifying any changes that are expected to affect the job task
“HR initiatives need to be organized with a goal of defining the process, perceived priorities. Also, it’s imperative to increase recruiting accuracy while decreasing time to hire.”
Tangible Success in Marketing Recruitment
The newly hired Vice President of Sales increased productivity, increased employee satisfaction, decreased turnover, and lastly increased new client acquisition by a substantial margin.
70%
REDUCTION IN TURNOVER
90%
REDUCTION IN CANDIDATE ATTRITION
8 MILLION