Case Study
Successfully delivering the talent needed to support a surge in growth while also improving gender imbalance.
The Situation
Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation consultancy on a mission to improve companies’ operational effectiveness, using a unique fusion of strategy, consulting, experience and engineering – with an enduring culture of problem-solving creativity.
Having secured multiple new client projects, they identified the need to grow their team – with new hires varying in seniority across User Experience, Visual Design and Design Strategy.
With the recent departure of two internal recruiters, Publicis Sapient engaged with SyncD to support them with sourcing the talent they needed that could work in the demanding world of a digital consultancy.
- Successfully deliver multiple permanent hires across UX, Design and Strategy
- Reduce the reliance on the freelance resource being used
- Ensure key people agendas were achieved to support a diverse and inclusive working environment across the studio
- Optimise and manage the end-to-end hiring processes to give time back to internal stakeholders
Our Approach
Due to the urgency of these appointments, SyncD deployed an Account Director, three Talent Partners and two candidate sourcing specialists.
In collaboration with Publicis’s in-house Talent Manager, the embedded SyncD team initiated the project by meeting with all key stakeholders and interview panels to understand the role requirements, expectations, and skillsets of the talent needed.
To ensure the D&I targets were being met, the SyncD Talent Partners reviewed over 7,000 candidates from Futurehead’s candidate database, alongside a detailed LinkedIn analysis of potential talent working for Publicis’ competitors.
This resulted in the creation of a D&I talent pool list of over 2,000 candidates ready for us to approach and engage with.
In order to create an authentic social attraction campaign on Publicis’ inclusive working environment, the Account Director ran a series of discovery workshops to identify what Publicis currently do well and what more they could do regarding work-life balance and flexible working.
Hires
month project
Account Director & 3 Talent Partners
UX, Design & Design Strategy
Our Results
- Successfully delivered a social attraction campaign on social media promoting Publicis’ D&I initiatives
- 14 vacancies filled across UX, Visual Design and Design Strategy departments
- 64% of the total hires were identified as female, bridging the gender gap within the teams
“Due to a surge in growth across the Publicis Sapient business, we had to scale our hiring team quickly to meet demand in experience, visual design and strategic hiring.
The volume of roles, short delivery timescales, and our business’s complexity meant we favoured a more hands-on, embedded model rather than a traditional contingency relationship.
We needed a partner with credibility, access to top talent and a track record of delivering in the experience, product, UX and strategy markets.
Over four months, the team delivered permanent hires from senior to director levels. The pipeline and ratios of candidates to interviews and offers remained consistently high whilst adapting well to changes in business needs. They also proactively helped us to meet our targets on gender-balanced shortlists and diversity through targeted sourcing, talent market mapping and creating marketing content.”
Mark Hothi
Talent Manager
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SyncD – A Futureheads Company | Registered in England and Wales under the company registration number: 06981893 | Member of The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) 102390