ES: As a specialist recruitment agency serving energy, renewables, engineering, and power, what key strategies has ersg implemented to stay at the forefront of the industry?
We are a truly global business, following developments in the market and expanding into new locations where we see potential for growth in the industry.
RPO’s and specialised solutions such as ‘ersg on demand’, which are solutions tailored to the specific needs of the clients, combining Resource Process Outsourcing (RPO), Managed Process Outsourcing (MPO) and Managed Service Provider (MSP), and more.
Our business operates within specialised verticals that allow us to go above and beyond in our service delivery. This allows us to be extremely specialised in the roles we place and aware of the skills demanded by the market. We are continuously monitoring our business to stay on top of industry trends and improve our service offerings. We recently hired a Global Accounts Director to improve our account management to meet the standard we currently hold with our deliverables and vertical markets.
ES: With a vast network of specialist recruiters and offices across the US, Europe, and Asia, how does ersg ensure it maintains a deep understanding of the unique demands and trends within each market?
We have a team dedicated to monthly in-depth market research, ensuring we stay on top of the industry trends and insights, telling us what the market needs.
Our 15 global offices put us in a unique position to provide specialist understanding of local projects. Our local office managers are fully compliant with the regional laws and procedures and therefore able to source talent locally and give specialised client care.
For example, we provide specialised bid and tender assistance through our understanding of the significant differences between a European and US market; we partner with clients to ensure accurate labour pricing, due to the increase in insurance costs, overtime law and other aspects that are often not thoughts of by European developers looking to make a footprint in the US market. This ensures a more accurate bid and tender process, fair rates of pay and benefits, so that the best talent is not lost.
ES: Could you share some examples of innovative resourcing solutions that ersg has developed to address the evolving needs of clients in specialised sectors such as renewables and engineering?
Our vast and expanding client base requires us to be flexible with our resourcing solutions. Last year, ersg won a project to provide volume resources for a particular client. Because we were building the factory with limited employees to 1000+, we had to be creative in our talent attraction strategies. Our team met weekly to discuss headcount against the plan and what other ideas could generate candidates. Some of those initiatives included Billboard advertising on local roads and adverts on local buses. We also met with the local employment office to inform candidates about the available roles.
ES: ersg emphasises quality service through its Quality Charter, including candidate engagement surveys and compliance audits. How does ersg ensure that its recruitment processes meet the highest standards while serving clients in specialised sectors?
The renewable market is highly competitive and therefore ersg goes above and beyond to ensure we are the “Recruiter of Choice” for our clients and candidates. All our services are underpinned by our ISO accreditations and processes. We are audited annually by an external assessor to ensure quality is maintained and exceeded. With these robust structures in place ersg is able to monitor services to meet the highest of standards. We also have a team dedicated to providing personalised service to our clients, including appointing account managers to ensure all the client’s individual needs are met.
ES: With a focus on combating climate change, how does ersg leverage its position as a specialist recruitment agency to contribute to sustainability initiatives within the energy and renewables sectors?
The Renewable Energy sector is key to achieving carbon reduction targets globally. As an ambassador for renewable energy, we provide the talent to build solar, onshore and offshore wind capacity, moving the world towards NetZero targets to tackle the ongoing climate crisis.
We have greatly reduced the carbon footprint of our business by reducing the number of flights required for our internal staff. This is through utilisation of technology to conduct meetings and cut back on the need for face-to-face communications among our global offices.
Our D&I practices include our partnership with OneTreePlanted, wherein we commit to planting a tree for every candidate placed, going towards neutralising our carbon footprint. To date, we have planted 5057 trees, on-track for our goal of 10,000 by 2026.
We recognise that the climate crisis is affecting the world’s most socio-economically vulnerable, and so we support charities worldwide, our support ranging from donating to orphanages in Taiwan and Peru, to sponsorships in our local community.
ES: ersg has undergone significant expansion geographically. What opportunities and challenges has this expansion presented for the company?
Global expansion is a major opportunity not only for the company, but for the renewable energy industry as a whole. By expanding globally, we are able to upskill workers from locations with developing Renewable Energy capacity.
However, this comes with a challenge, as moving into new territories means there is a local requirement for hiring local talent. This is not always possible, as this creates a skills shortage among areas that have new or developing wind farms.
The solution revolves around balance and upskilling of local workers. When we launched in 2008, the skills available to build offshore wind farms mainly came from Denmark, with some UK experience in the limited number of wind farms built by then. That skills transfer from the Danish to the British, facilitated by our scouring and recruiting workers, resulted upskilling British workers, who were then exported to Europe to upskill local workers there. Now, the newly skilled workers are travelling to places like Taiwan, South Korea and the US. By hiring local talent alongside foreign workers, we can train talent globally as the market grows.
ES: Looking ahead, what are ersg’s plans for further expansion into hot spots like South Korea, India, and Vietnam? How does ersg envision its role in shaping the future of specialised recruitment in these regions?
We are currently in the process of opening a new office in South Korea, where there is an emerging renewables market. Some of our biggest clients are already operating there, including our biggest client who we are already working with to provide white collar staff to South Korea via an RPO.
We have explored opening in India and have already worked in projects in Vietnam, so they are both target locations for us to open in the future. We are always looking for new sectors to expand into as renewable energy technologies continue to innovate and grow.
