Challenge
Like most businesses, fresh produce company, The Montague Group, continually faces the challenge of recruiting excellent leaders in its expanding business. Montague has a several divisions and operations across a wide geographic area. Knowing in advance who might be available for roles at various sites and grooming good people for leadership positions is a continual focus for the leadership team.
Montague realised it needed to take a proactive approach to the recruitment of its executives and make time to meet candidates, well in advance of when they are actually needed in the business. Getting guidance from a recruitment company made a lot of sense in achieving its goals.
The Montague Group also had a specific challenge on its hands to find a senior manager with excellent operational and people skills at Allansford, Victoria, one of its fairly remote but important cold storage facilities. The chosen person needed to instill in others and live and breathe Montague Cold Storage’s continuous improvement ethos and commitment to client service.
Solution
Montague engages Staff Australia on an ongoing basis as a talent scout who can identify potential supervisors and managers who might suit and excel in its business. Through its extensive database and broader networks, Staff Australia keeps abreast of up-and-coming stars, people who might be looking for a move, or might perfectly fit the profiles required by Montague.
Staff Australia also fulfills specific executive search briefs for Montague. A stand out example is the executive search conducted in its Allansford distribution centre. The site had operational issues and the team was demotivated. Finding someone with superior people, operational and client servicing skills to relocate and work somewhere quite remote was made easy with Staff Australia’s help.
Staff Australia knew the ins and outs of the role and relevant businesses in the sector and even geographic area. It used recommendations and its broader networks to identify several people that met the mapped key criteria and were put forward to the client.
Results
Staff Australia has identified, screened and introduced a number of excellent candidates to Montague (similar to a talent scout for major sporting teams) and almost half of which have been taken on by the business.
Twelve month’s on, the appointment of the senior manager in Allansford has been a great success for all involved. The manager has thrived in the role and the site moral is high, productivity has turned around and retained clients are satisfied. From a personal point of view the appointed manager’s family are happy with the move and he is very pleased to be closer to his beloved boat on the nearby coast.
The Montague Group is continuing to grow and the process for hiring senior managers will be so much smoother because great people are already in the pipeline.
“The way we work with Staff Australia just works. They are a key strategic partner for us who make one of the most difficult and critical parts of our business – hiring great leaders – easier. Staff Australia understands our industry and our culture and we can trust them to find terrific managers for us whether they are needed yesterday, today or tomorrow,” said the General Manager and Senior Operations Manager, Montague Group.
