• Publish Date: Posted 5 months ago

Danone Nutrica Case Study

Client: DANONE-NutriciaCore Talent Specialist TeamEngineering & ManufacturingRoleShift ManagerMarket SectorsMedical & Pharmaceutical, Consumer & White Goods divisionClient BackgroundDANONE are one of the world’s most valuable Consumer & Specialist Nutrition businesses turning over in excess of €20 Billion per annum. Nutricia is DANONE’s Medical Division and Europe’s largest medical nutrition company supplying high quality feeds to patients and consumers.  Core Talent have worked closely with Nutricia since 2015 and after a number of high profile placements Core Talent secured a place as primary partners Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing & Supply Chain recruitment.Situation/ChallengeAn ambitious target was announced for the Nutricia to double output within a few years. This created a number of opportunities across manufacturing, primarily from moving from a 2 shift to 3 shift system. Nutricia always look to appoint internally, but wanted to look externally for the first time in 5+ years.The business was unsure of appropriate salary or best recruitment process to ensure they secured the ‘best’ person on the market, which is the aim for a business of their stature. The ‘best’ candidates for this type of role are difficult to find, as they are passive and rarely active in the marketA quick turnaround was required for this process.​ProcessAfter a detailed consultation with the hiring manager and HR, Core Talent were able to draw on their experience of recruiting Production Management positions since 2007, across multiple industries, benchmarked the requirements against similar roles we had recruited in similar markets for Kellogg’s, PZ Cussons & Heineken and in our divisions – Transport, Print & Packaging.  The Salary band was then agreed.​Core Talent’s aim is to talent pipeline candidates for all of our clients, if they are of the right calibre and/or skillset. A recruitment drive had just been completed for an FMCG client local to DANONE and an ideal candidate from this process was put on the short list.​Core Talent also mapped out target industries and specific organisations that bred the traits and skills required for the role. As part of our standard process we ran campaigns via social media most significantly LinkedIn, generating recommendations through our network, yielding excellent results.  A two stage interview process was suggested, the initial interview would be a relaxed chat evaluating cultural fit with competency based questioning around managing through people and the DANONE principles.  The second stage would consist of a substantial assessment with a worktop exercise and presentation.   Core Talent suggested a ‘Nightmare Shift Scenario’ for which we provided an example brief and gave recommendations regarding personality profiling with examples of where we felt it had and hadn’t worked with other clients.Solution/ResultsOver a process of 10 days, Core Talent we were able to create a shortlist of 6 candidates all of whom were working with high-profile businesses and were not actively interviewing elsewhere. Although the availability of the line manager was limited due to the ambitious production target, DANONE made time for the interviews knowing through previous work with Core Talent that the progress was rigorous and ask the consultant to pick their choice of the strongest 3 to run with for 1st stage.​Of those 3 interviewed, two were advanced to second and one offered with the proviso that the other would be of real interest if another role came up.​