Case study

From reactive recruitment to a globally connected talent acquisition strategy

A global design and engineering consultancy partnered with Wilson to create a more connected, data-led talent acquisition model across multiple regions. By aligning recruitment processes, strengthening sourcing capabilities, and improving candidate support, the partnership helped the organization improve hiring performance while supporting its growth, inclusion, and workforce planning goals.

Challenge

Talent acquisition is about more than filling roles.

For a global design and engineering consultancy, recruitment plays an important role in supporting growth, delivering complex projects, and building the capabilities needed for the future. But managing hiring across multiple regions can create challenges when processes, systems, and recruitment capabilities are not connected.

The client’s recruitment model had become increasingly fragmented, with inconsistent processes, uneven candidate experiences, and a high reliance on external agencies. Hiring was often reactive, making it difficult to plan ahead, move quickly on critical roles, or maintain consistent performance across regions.

The organization wanted to create a more coordinated recruitment model that could scale across geographies while reflecting its purpose-led culture and local business needs. It also sought to improve efficiency, strengthen diversity outcomes, and bring greater visibility to workforce planning.

Wilson initially partnered with the client to support experienced hiring in the UK. As the partnership developed, the scope expanded into India and Africa, followed by Europe, Australasia, and the Americas. Early careers hiring was added to the UK scope in 2024.

The client needed more than additional recruitment capacity. It needed a partner that could bring together global coordination, recruitment expertise, data, and human support to make talent acquisition work better across regions.

Solution

The answer was to connect the recruitment function, without losing sight of the people and markets it served.

Wilson partnered with the client to develop a data-driven, human-centered talent acquisition approach spanning recruitment delivery, sourcing, candidate experience, and early careers hiring.

Creating a more connected global recruitment model

Wilson embedded cross-functional delivery teams across the client's regions, aligning with local business structures while maintaining global standards.

Together, Wilson and the client developed a unified hiring framework supported by centralized dashboards, toolkits, and KPIs. Global coordination hubs, standardized intake processes, and SLAs helped improve visibility, strength recruitment delivery, and support more consistent performance across markets.

In the UK, Wilson formalized intake processes, strengthened stakeholder engagement, and introduced candidate insight reporting for experienced hiring.

Strengthening sourcing where it mattered most

The sourcing model was also adapted to meet the needs of different markets and hiring challenges.

In Australasia, dedicated sourcers focused on hard-to-fill technical roles. In Europe, a sourcing support request system was introduced to streamline requisition intake and resource deployment.

Tools including HireEZ and Wilson Analytics supported sourcing activity and helped teams bring greater structure and insight to recruitment across regions.

Supporting a more inclusive candidate experience

Improving recruitment performance also meant making the hiring journey more accessible and consistent for candidates.

Wilson and the client developed hiring training covering bias mitigation, accessible interviewing, and equitable candidate evaluation. Job advertisements were reviewed using inclusive language software, and the client’s Disability Forum helped inform global guidance on reasonable adjustments and accessible communications. Video assessments were also introduced as part of the early careers process.

Together, these changes helped the client strengthen candidate support while building a more consistent approach to inclusive hiring across regions.

Results

A more connected recruitment function, supported by measurable improvements.

The partnership helped the client improve hiring performance across global markets while strengthening recruitment capabilities, candidate experience, and inclusion.

Hiring delivery

Supported ~3,000 hires and nearly 200,000 applicants annually.
Expanded the team from 42 to 85+ professionals to meet growing scope across 25+ countries.
3,800+ recruiter submissions completed across the client’s global operations.
30% increase in interviews, while maintaining SLAs and candidate satisfaction.
Filled critical roles across MEP, Sustainability, Rail, and Advisory portfolios.

Efficiency and sourcing

Reduced agency reliance from 80% in 2017 to less than 10% today.
Time-to-shortlist reduced from 11.4 to 9.7 days in Australasia, improving turnaround for hard-to-fill technical roles.
3.6/4 average CSAT score, reflecting candidate and hiring manager satisfaction across the recruitment experience.

Inclusion and sustainability

32% of early careers offers went to candidates from diverse backgrounds, supporting the client’s diversity and inclusion objectives.
187,000 kg of estimated CO₂ emissions reductions over four years, achieved using virtual early careers assessment centers.

Together, these results show how a globally coordinated RPO partnership can help transform recruitment from a reactive, fragmented process into a more connected talent acquisition function.

By combining recruitment expertise, data, technology, and human-centered support, Wilson helped the client improve hiring performance across regions while supporting its broader goals around inclusion, workforce planning, and growth.

25+

countries supported

3,000

annual hires

30%

increase in interviews

I want to take a moment to recognise the Wilson team working on early careers with me. I’m really proud of the way we are working together, it feels like true partnership on a global level, so thank you. The support the team have afforded me while I work through building our internal team is something I have really valued.”