NES Fircroft has been supporting our client with staffing and global mobility solutions for several years, including working with them throughout their re-brand which saw them sell their oil and gas assets to become a renewable energy business, quickly becoming the biggest offshore wind utility company in the world.
The Client's Hiring Challenges
Our client has a global operations base and therefore often has projects in locations where they do not have an entity. This can pose complex logistical problems for the client when trying to hire and manage personnel, both in terms of the legislation the client faces and in terms of mitigating the local landscape on a cultural level.
Offshore wind is renowned as the world’s most competitive energy source. In addition to navigating the numerous compliance hurdles, the nature of the client’s business means that securing talent with the right level of technical expertise can be extremely challenging, and candidate attraction can be difficult.
Our client needed a workforce solutions provider with local expertise and yet who could deliver global personnel into their offshore wind projects in a rapid timeframe, and one who could manage all the practicalities associated with a global mobilisation and cross-border paperwork.
Global hiring scope
Through our continued and demonstrable success our relationship has grown from initially just supporting the client in Singapore and Taiwan, to now also include projects spanning the UK, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and the USA. The logistical set-up varies considerably from country to country; in all locations we offer a combination of local and practical expertise to drive their projects forward.
Snapshot of roles supplied
- Offshore Termination & Joint Inspector
- Client Rep Foundations for Grouting & Walkdown
- Site Assistant
- Site Secretary
- SCADA Engineer Representative
Our recruitment solution
Our geographic footprint complements our client’s numerous projects and through our local strategies, backed by our global office base, we have been able to provide a blend of local, national and international consultancy to find the right people for our client’s projects.
Through leveraging our established talent networks we have delivered both contract and permanent staff. Our footprint means that our teams work in local timezones, communicate in local languages and have a comprehensive understanding of what it means to work in the vicinity.
Each Hiring Manager is given one point of contact for each recruitment drive, streamlining the process for them. Our team works around the clock to ensure we are available as and when our client needs us and pro-actively communicates updates in real-time
Our award-winning payroll teams ensure that we pay in the local currency and apply all applicable taxes, including social security considerations for US citizens. Our secure online timesheet system is accessible 24/7 via any mobile device and drastically speeds the process of submitting and approving timesheets whilst decreasing the risk of human error.
Our recruiters are backed by assignment support professionals with years of experience in supporting personnel with obtaining the correct visas / work permits – we know all about the relevant immigration requirements and assist workers according to obtain the correct paperwork in a timely manner.
Our travel team are on hand to assist with all flights, transport and accommodation to get personnel to the project site – this includes orchestrating rotational flights and transport. Through taking care of the logistical requirements, we leave the client free to concentrate on the business at hand.
Our compliance team ensures that no one starts work at our client’s site without being completely compliant – this involves extensive background checks against candidates’ qualifications and employment histories, and we have also orchestrated medicals.
We offer a range of insurances to ensure that contractors have sufficient medical and evacuation coverage should the worst happen. Our client rests assured that we have public liability insurance in the event of any workplace incident.
Our global set-up means we are able to navigate legal compliance matters, but also means that we have a genuine appreciation for the locality which we can leverage to empathise with prospective candidates. Our on the ground experience, extensive communication and transparency ensures that contractors enter their assignments with realistic expectations and that permanent staff are a sustainable fit for our client’s organisation.
To ensure our client’s projects meet their milestones we go above and beyond to implement solutions that mitigate hiring barriers and demonstrate in-depth knowledge of local employment laws. For example, in Korea, the employment laws mean that you cannot hire a contractor through an agency. To overcome this, we employ the consultants ourselves and outsource the consultants to our client. Before our support, the client had determined that the only way to proceed in-region would be to sub-contract to an EPC which would have been considerably more expensive. Our solution is fully compliant and enables an efficient, cost-effective local infrastructure.