Northlands

A close, enduring partnership

Our relationship with Northland Controls shows exactly how and why an exclusive managed service partnership can yield excellent results when critical talent is scarce. Here’s the story.

Zitko started working with renowned systems integrator Northland Controls in 2014. This coincided with the California company establishing their EMEA operations, headquartered in the United Kingdom.

Originally, we joined a roster of three other recruitment providers, but within six months we had been appointed preferred supplier purely on the strength of our industry knowledge, candidate network and the results that followed.  

In 2016 we took the relationship further, becoming sole supplier under our managed service model. This saw one of senior consultants embed within the company, working alongside the in-house HR team to plan and manage resourcing activity.

Today we resource all of Northland Controls’ EMEA technical and managerial roles. Since 2014 we’ve placed over 75% of the workforce.

A close partnership

Our managed service model adds a highly experienced recruiter to your HR team. Senior Zitko Consultant, Nadine Jones, works on Northland Controls full-time and is frequently at their premises to attend management meetings and discuss requirements.

With the knowledge gained, Nadine’s able to begin the conversation with qualified candidates months in advance of requirement. This produces excellent shortlists, even in fields such as Lenel and C-Cure, where the competition for people is exceptionally high.

Cultural fit is a priority for the business. Northland Controls needs people who are professional, inquisitive, adventurous and willing to do what it takes to look after customers (‘as a bear would its cubs’). 

We worked with them to develop selection methods that identify these traits and as a result we’ve recruited people who not only join but stay. Since 2016 we’ve achieved an average retention rate of 80% among technicians and managers.

Along with talent research and management, Zitko runs the recruitment and selection process for Northland Controls, including:

• enquiry and application management; 
• selection through to detailed shortlist recommendations; 
• employer branding and marketing; 
• role advertising; 
• metrics.

This has created considerable cost and time savings for the client, while delivering industry-leading standards of candidate care.

The Covid-19 experience

The pandemic has created new challenges for employers. 

We collaborated with Northland Controls to create a remote onboarding process that provides joiners with the reassurance, orientation and training required.

Naturally, this relied heavily on the internet, but alongside this we made sure that recruiting managers were aware of the programme and how they could enact it.

The initiative was extremely well-received by new employees and has since been adopted by other employers. You can read the full story here. 

Northlands USA

In autumn 2020 Zitko was appointed to provide a full RPO service to Northland Controls’ USA business. This marks a very significant expansion of our partnership and we will be adding to this case study as things progress.

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