A Greenfield Project - sonnen

Posted on 31/10/2018 by Breeanna Noske

9th September, 2018: German energy storage giant sonnen announce plans to establish an Australian headquarters in South Australia. The announcement comes one day after the South Australian government’s announcement of a $100 million home battery storage scheme.  

10th September, 2018: Entrée Recruitment Lead Recruitment Consultant Rebecca Ramsden and her Support Officer receive a brief to staff the HQ’s Call Centre Sales team and Technical Support team.  

​The objectives? 

• Attract a large enough pool of applicants to fill the vacancies. 
• Devise a method of bulk recruitment and assessment – a feat which, to this extent, was new to Entrée Recruitment. 
• Learn the technical aspects of solar batteries, included understanding the definition of Photovoltaic systems and AC/DC coupling! 

Our actions 

• We commenced a marketing campaign, consisting of written job advertisements placed across all conceivable online job boards, a video advertisement created by Entrée Recruitment’s Marketing Specialist utilising footage provided by sonnen (see below), advertisements in newspapers local to the site, advertisements within a number of social media private job-seeking groups, and paid social media campaigns. 
• We developed and facilitated Selection Centres: group applicant appointments consisting of computer skills testing, written testing and a one-on-one Consultant interview. 
• Lead Recruitment Consultant Rebecca Ramsden learned the technical aspects of solar battery storage – just ask her! 

The numbers 

• Over 2,000 sonnen job applications 
• Immeasurable phone screening 
• 113 face-to-face interviews 
• 24 placements within one month of receiving the brief 

The Entrée Recruitment difference 

Lead Recruitment Consultant Rebecca Ramsden used her understanding of sonnen’s requirements to identify needs that the business themselves hadn’t yet. And her demonstration of her understanding of sonnen lead to the placement of an Executive Assistant, a Human Resources Assistant, a Service Administrator, an Installation Coordinator and a Service Team Manager in addition to the Call Centre Sales and Technical Support teams. 

Not only was it our task to staff a Greenfield Australian sonnen manufacturing headquarters, but the project also meant Entrée Recruitment had to utilise a Greenfield approach to our advertising campaign and recruitment process. 

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