Case Study:
Safilo
Customer Profile
Founded in 1934 in Italy's Veneto region, Safilo Group is a major player in the eyewear industry in the design, manufacture and distribution of eyeglass frames, sunglasses, sports eyewear, goggles and helmets. The group designs and manufactures its collections, combining stylistic, technical and industrial innovations with quality and skillful workmanship. With a wide global presence, Safilo's business model allows it to monitor the entire production and distribution chain. Safilo Group ensures that each product is perfectly tailored and meets the highest quality standards. Safilo's products reach around 100,000 selected outlets worldwide. The portfolio includes the main proprietary brands: Carrera, Polaroid, Smith, Safilo, Blenders, Privé Revaux and Seventh Street. Licensed brands include: BOSS, Carolina Herrera, Chiara Ferragni, Dsquared2, Eyewear by David Beckham, Fossil, Havaianas, HUGO, Isabel Marant, Jimmy Choo, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, Levi's, Liz Claiborne, Love Moschino, Marc Jacobs, Missoni, M Missoni, Moschino, Pierre Cardin, PORTS, Rag&Bone, Rebecca Minkoff, Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Jeans and Under Armour.
Challenge
Safilo turned to Fast Forward Solutions after hiring a Country Manager in Poland. Safilo was keen to quickly and efficiently build a sales team from scratch. We met with Safilo's Country Manager and HR Business Partner EMEA in order to establish a recruitment strategy and learn what we expected from the candidates. After the meeting, we knew exactly what kind of candidates Safilo wanted to recruit and why the company's standalone recruitment effort had failed. In addition, the company wanted the team to be built in a short period of time (2 months) so that the team could launch commercially on January 1, 2022.
Action strategy and recruitment process
We started our work with:
Preparing the profile of the ideal candidate
Mapping the Polish market of Eyewear and Luxury companies that could employ experienced sales representatives working with premium brands, additionally speaking good English,
Develop and implement a communication strategy with candidates
Develop a sourcing strategy.
Initially, our sourcing strategy was based on reaching out to candidates using the Direct Search methodology identified on LinkedIn and searching for them in our unique candidate database in the Sales category created with the most modern recruiting tools available on the market today. We then prepared a recruitment campaign with specific parameters and email sequence. After the first week of the campaign, we found that the correctly identified candidates were not very responsive. As a result, we had to add new elements to our strategy and decided to use referrals (so-called referrals) while maintaining RODO standards.
Given the limited time of the project, our team of recruiters worked in recruitment sprints.
Effects
The results of the recruitment conducted by FFS were significant and quickly yielded the desired results. In one month, 10 candidates were successfully introduced, an impressive result considering the limited project time and the difficulty of finding suitable candidates in the Luxury/Eyewear market. By hiring 5 of them, Safilo quickly and effectively established a sales team in Poland, which positively impacted business development.
The FFS team engaged in the recruitment process, adapting the strategy to the candidates' labor market situation and using the best recruitment tools. It is worth noting that the use of referrals (referrals) allowed us to reach the right candidates and speed up the recruitment process
Number of candidates in the funnel
Number of interviews conducted
Number of candidates hired
Project duration in months
Customer review
We are very happy to recommend Fast Forward Solutions as a recruitment partner. In just one month they helped us build a strong sales department in Poland. Their professionalism, speed and efficiency are invaluable. We highly recommend FFS to any company looking for recruitment support!