The Client

Founded over 15 years ago, the Client is a permanent employee and contract worker recruitment agency.

The Situation

A Master Vendor Program (MVP) solutions provider, the Client’s internal talent acquisition team was faced with filling 80+ positions, many of them niche and hard to fill, and outsourcing became a necessity. The Client sought a sub-vendor partner with international experience that could provide consistent direct placement end-to-end recruiting support. Acara was selected due to our proven track record of delivering top-notch services—including high-quality candidate profiles—to our worldwide clients at a reduced cost.

The Challenge

To successfully meet the Client’s needs, the Acara team focused on identifying and attracting sales director, regional director, and mid and senior-level IT talent while overcoming the following challenges:

• Several of these roles had been in the pipeline for an extended period, while others were urgent.
• The closed-natured Japanese labor market and cultural and language barriers added to the already complex recruitment process and presented obstacles to accessing potentially qualified candidates.
• An essential requirement for many roles in Japan, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) hindered finding candidates who met the required JLPT level for each position and were willing to work in a specific location due to having a remote work preference.
• In a highly competitive job market with a lengthy recruitment process like Japan, counter offers from candidates’ current employers are typical.
• Japan has a significant population of individuals over 60 applying for jobs. However, some Client positions had an age restriction making it challenging to attract the right profiles from the relatively smaller pool of younger age groups.
• Slow Client feedback created delays in candidate selection and hiring.

The Solution

To be successful, the Acara team would need to work collaboratively with the Client to understand their requirements—including job descriptions, skill sets, and location preferences. Acara assigned a dedicated program team consisting of two recruiters who gained a thorough understanding of the local market and networked extensively to overcome cultural and language barriers to deliver the following solution:

• Conducted targeted sourcing to identify high-quality candidates with the necessary skills and qualifications before other vendors or consultants approached them.
• Built a strong talent pipeline by increasing the volume of candidates in our database. To accomplish this, Acara used job portals and networking sites, posted jobs on relevant job boards, and leveraged our referral networks of industry professionals to identify passive candidates.
• Reviewed all applicant’s resumes to identify transferable skills suitable for other open Client positions. In cases where a candidate’s skill set was ideal for multiple positions, Acara coordinated with the Client to determine the best fit to accommodate the profile for all open positions.
• To identify best-fit candidates and narrow the pool, conducted initial screening calls to evaluate each candidate’s skills, qualifications, work eligibility, salary expectations, availability, and level of interest in the role.
• Strived to submit the top relevant profiles, according to priority and deadline date, to the Client for further evaluation within a week of receiving the job description.

The Conclusion

Since our partnership with the Client began, Acara has successfully met set deadlines and submitted top talent to drive their business forward. In the first ten months, Acara achieved the following results:

• 50+ candidates screened
• 12 candidates presented to the Client
• 12:2 interview-to-hire ratio
• 4 additional candiates in the pipeline
• 2 hires