Business Type: International Classification Society

Location: Global - Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas

RPO Type: RPO Project

Key Stakeholders: Global Human Resources Director, Global Head of Resourcing, and Regional Vice Presidents

Positions Recruited For: Senior Commercial Leaders, Global Account Managers, Segment Directors, and Technical Specialists.

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​When one of the world’s largest classification societies set out to transform and expand its global commercial and technical teams, it needed a strategic talent partner.

Having previously partnered with Faststream Recruitment for permanent recruitment, they turned to us again to deliver a bespoke RPO solution.

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The Challenge

Our client was undertaking a major transformation of its global commercial organisation and technical operations, a strategic move requiring the recruitment of senior-level professionals across multiple continents. The roles were highly specialised and often structured as standalone positions, making candidate identification and engagement especially complex.

Key challenges included:

Niche talent pools

Many of the ideal candidates were already in senior roles, not actively seeking new opportunities, or unfamiliar with opportunities within classification societies. Others were working for direct competitors and required a discreet, relationship-led approach to initiate conversations.

Global scale, local nuance

The client needed talent across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas, all within a tight delivery schedule. This required simultaneous sourcing across geographies, time zones, and markets, with tailored strategies for each.

High urgency

The timeline for delivery was ambitious, with many roles requiring fast turnaround to support the client’s growth plans. Speed had to be balanced with quality, consistency, and compliance.

Evolving role definitions

As the teams were being built, role briefs shifted, and stakeholder input evolved. This demanded flexibility, strong communication, and a consultative approach to ensure alignment at every stage of the hiring process.

Multiple senior stakeholders

Managing input from a global Human Resources Director, Global Head of Resourcing, and Regional Vice Presidents added complexity to the recruitment process, requiring clear coordination and agile working practices.

Together, these challenges created a dynamic environment where conventional recruitment methods would fall short. A strategic RPO approach, powered by a dedicated team, embedded processes, and global reach, was essential to success.

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The RPO Solution

To meet the scale and complexity of the hiring project, we delivered an RPO solution, led by an Account Director. This approach allowed us to embed a dedicated Faststream team directly into the client’s talent acquisition process, operating as a true extension of their internal function.

Key elements of our solution included:

• Dedicated RPO delivery team: A specialist team was assigned full-time to the account, responsible for managing the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle across all global regions.

• Global sourcing, local expertise: Leveraging Faststream’s global talent network and deep maritime specialism, we sourced passive and active candidates across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. Our consultants drew on local market knowledge to engage talent who were otherwise unreachable through traditional means.

• Client-branded recruitment marketing: A bespoke careers page was created on faststream.com, supported by targeted digital campaigns and outbound marketing to position the client as an employer of choice and drive candidate engagement.

• Weekly collaboration and agile delivery: We held regular video and in-person meetings with key stakeholders to ensure alignment, adapt to changing requirements, and maintain process momentum. Agile working practices allowed us to respond quickly to feedback, update role profiles, and reprioritise searches as the campaign evolved.

• Market intelligence and benchmarking: We provided ongoing insights into candidate availability, salary trends, and competitive activity to support informed decision-making by the client’s leadership team.

• Customised SLAs and performance tracking: Service Level Agreements were built into the engagement to ensure consistency, accountability, and clear metrics on delivery and time-to-hire improvements.

• Flexible and competitive pricing model: The client benefited from a tailored pricing structure that reflected the scale and scope of the project, offering long-term value and cost-efficiency.

This highly collaborative and data-driven approach enabled us to deliver fast, consistent, and high-quality hiring outcomes across multiple global locations, while giving the client full visibility and control throughout the process.

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The Solution

Our RPO solution delivered clear, measurable outcomes that exceeded the original scope of the partnership:

• 50+ mid to senior-level placements were made across commercial and technical disciplines globally, significantly improving the client’s leadership bench strength in key maritime hubs.

• Time-to-hire was notably reduced, with streamlined processes, active engagement, and weekly check-ins improving recruitment velocity across all regions.

• The partnership was extended twice, ultimately delivering more than triple the originally forecasted headcount, a clear sign of trust, value, and performance.

• Many of the individuals placed have since progressed into senior line management roles and now represent the client at industry-leading conferences and events, underlining the long-term impact of the hires.

Beyond the numbers, the client gained a recruitment partner who offered both scale and specialism — blending the pace of a campaign with the care of executive search.

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​Conclusion

In a competitive and highly specialised industry like maritime classification, securing senior talent at scale and with speed is no small challenge. Through our RPO solution, we became a strategic partner to the client’s global HR and resourcing teams, providing the tools, insight, and people needed to deliver transformation through talent.

This partnership highlights what’s possible when RPO is delivered with deep industry knowledge, global reach, and a genuinely embedded approach.

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​What next?

​Find out more about our RPO Solutions:

RPO Solutions

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Speak to an RPO Expert

Call one of our RPO experts or complete your details in the form below:

Americas +1 281 3464005

Asia-Pacific +65 65327201

EMEA +44 23 8020 8708

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