Blog

Regional Construction & Civils Group — Construction & Design

A construction group was declining tender opportunities because it could not staff them. Site managers and quantity surveyors were the binding constraint, and a reputation for demanding schedules meant local candidates were reluctant to engage despite competitive pay.

Erdobar addressed the reputation issue directly, since no amount of sourcing overcomes a market perception problem. We worked with the client to document genuine changes to rota structure and project resourcing, then briefed candidates on those specifics rather than offering generalised reassurance. Sourcing extended to returning expatriate professionals seeking a move home, a pool the client had never targeted.

We placed candidates in cohorts so new arrivals joined alongside peers rather than individually into established site teams. The approach also gave each new manager an immediate professional network and a shared understanding of how the group’s sites were expected to operate.

Outcome: 26 site management and commercial appointments in five months, tender capacity increased by an estimated £40m annually, and first-year attrition down from 34% to 9%.

B2B SaaS Business — Software & Technology

A software company parted ways with a Chief Revenue Officer nine months after appointment. The cost was substantial, but the more damaging issue was that the board could not explain what had gone wrong, which made a confident second attempt impossible.

Erdobar began with a structured review of the failed appointment rather than a search. It emerged that the role had been specified around enterprise sales leadership while the business actually operated a product-led model with self-service adoption — two fundamentally different disciplines that had been conflated in the original brief.

We rewrote the specification around product-led growth, then assessed candidates on their experience converting free usage into commercial contracts. Three of five shortlisted candidates had done precisely this at comparable scale. Final interviews used the client’s live conversion data rather than hypothetical questions, giving the board a clear basis for comparison.

Outcome: Appointment completed in 8 weeks, net revenue retention up 18 points within four quarters, and the diagnostic approach adopted as standard for all subsequent executive hires.

Private International Education Group — Education

An education group committed to opening four international campuses within eighteen months, each requiring a principal, heads of department and full teaching staff. Accreditation depended on demonstrating qualified faculty before doors opened, meaning hiring had to complete well ahead of revenue.

Erdobar ran a sequenced recruitment programme, appointing each principal first so they could participate in selecting their own department heads, who in turn shaped teaching appointments. This cost slightly more time upfront but produced leadership teams with genuine ownership of the staff beneath them, which materially affects retention in education where mid-year departures are disruptive and difficult to cover.

Qualification verification, apostilled documentation and visa sponsorship were managed centrally across all four jurisdictions, removing an administrative burden the group had no internal capacity to absorb. We maintained a reserve shortlist for every department so late withdrawals did not reopen a search.

Outcome: 78 academic appointments across four campuses, all accreditation submissions approved first time, every campus opening on its published date, and first-year faculty retention of 91%.

National Government Agency — Government & Public Sector

Following a directive to establish an internal cybersecurity function, a government agency needed fifteen cleared specialists. Public sector pay bands sat 30 to 40% below private market rates, security clearance added months to onboarding, and the agency had never recruited in this discipline before.

Erdobar built the proposition around what the public sector can offer that the private sector cannot: mission significance, genuine autonomy over architecture decisions, and formal certification pathways funded by the employer. We targeted practitioners at career inflection points rather than those motivated primarily by compensation, and ran clearance processing in parallel with assessment to compress the timeline.

We also advised on a revised job architecture that allowed specialist technical progression without requiring a move into management. That change made the roles credible to experienced practitioners who would otherwise have seen a public-sector move as a career ceiling.

Outcome: All 15 roles filled within budget across nine months, average clearance-to-start reduced by seven weeks, and 13 of 15 still in post at 24 months.

International Freight & Logistics Operator — Transport & Logistics

A freight operator lost its entire regional sales team of nine to a competitor’s aggressive recruitment campaign within a single quarter. Revenue pipeline visibility collapsed, key accounts were unattended, and the remaining commercial director was managing 60 accounts alone.

Erdobar treated this as a rebuild rather than nine replacements. We mapped the competitor’s structure to understand what had made the approach attractive, then designed a proposition around territory ownership and a transparent commission model rather than simply matching salaries. Candidates were assessed on account development capability, not just closing history, because the immediate need was retention of at-risk clients rather than new logo acquisition.

Hiring was sequenced deliberately so the first three appointments could stabilise the largest accounts while the remainder were recruited, which meant revenue protection began in week three rather than at completion. We also advised on a retention review of the wider commercial function, since a departure of that scale rarely has a single cause.

Outcome: Nine commercial appointments in 10 weeks, 94% of at-risk accounts retained, and pipeline value restored to pre-departure levels within two quarters.

Northern European Renewables Developer — Renewable Energy

A wind and solar developer had reached financial close on projects in three countries with no local delivery teams in place. Contractual penalties for delay were significant, and each jurisdiction carried different employment, permitting and language requirements.

Erdobar deployed a talent sourcing programme covering project management, grid connection engineering and land acquisition across all three markets in parallel, with a dedicated country lead for each. Compliance was handled entirely by us: work authorisation, local contract structures and payroll registration were resolved before candidates signed, which is where cross-border hiring usually stalls.

We also built a contractor bench so the client could flex capacity between sites as construction phases shifted, rather than over-hiring permanently against uncertain schedules. Every shortlisted professional was tested against the same delivery milestones, ensuring local teams could collaborate from the first project meeting.

Outcome: 31 appointments across three countries in 14 weeks, all projects reaching construction on schedule, and zero compliance findings in the subsequent lender audit.

Multi-Site Private Healthcare Group — Healthcare

A private healthcare group operating eleven sites was losing consultant candidates to competitors during a hiring process that averaged 94 days. Vacant clinical posts were being covered by agency locums at roughly three times the cost of permanent staff, and the finance director could no longer absorb it.

Erdobar audited the process end to end and found the delay was not in sourcing but in scheduling: candidates waited an average of 23 days between application and first interview. We introduced pre-agreed weekly interview windows, consolidated three separate approval stages into one, and took first-line screening in house so that only clinically verified shortlists reached panel.

Alongside the process work, we sourced across Ireland, Poland and the Philippines with full credential and registration verification. Weekly reporting gave the board visibility on every shortlist, declined offer and bottleneck, replacing anecdotal updates with decisions based on evidence.

Outcome: Time-to-hire reduced from 94 to 31 days, 22 permanent clinical appointments in seven months, and a 61% reduction in locum spend year on year.

Family-Owned Industrial Manufacturer — Industrial Manufacturing

After thirty-one years, the founder of a precision components manufacturer decided to step back. The board needed a successor, but any hint of the search reaching customers or the 400-strong workforce risked destabilising both. Two family shareholders also disagreed on whether the next chief executive should come from inside the industry.

Erdobar conducted a fully confidential retained search in which the client’s identity was withheld until final-stage conversations. We began by facilitating a structured alignment session with the board to convert competing preferences into an agreed specification, which removed the deadlock before candidates were ever approached. Assessment focused on judgement under ambiguity and the capacity to hold a long-established culture while modernising operations.

The appointed chief executive came from an adjacent sector, bringing automation experience the business lacked.

Outcome: Succession completed in 19 weeks with zero market speculation, unanimous board approval, and 14% operating margin improvement in the first full year.

Leading European Fintech Scale-Up — Financial Technology

A Series B payments business had raised capital on the promise of shipping a new merchant platform within a year, then discovered it had no senior engineering leadership to build it. Three previous hires had declined at offer stage, and the internal team was carrying delivery risk it could not sustain.

Erdobar ran a retained executive search across four markets simultaneously, mapping 140 engineering leaders who had scaled payments infrastructure through comparable growth stages. Rather than advertising the roles, we approached candidates with the technical problem itself, which changed the conversation from a job description to an engineering challenge worth moving for. We also rebuilt the client’s offer structure after benchmarking revealed their equity package sat in the bottom quartile for the market.

A VP of Engineering, two Staff Engineers and an SRE lead accepted within eleven weeks.

Outcome: Four senior appointments in 11 weeks, the merchant platform delivered a month ahead of the investor commitment, and all four hires still in post two years later.