How a Global Shipping Company Built its New UK Team and Saved 34% on Recruitment Costs
Business Type: Global Shipping Company
Location: New UK office
RPO Type: RPO Project
Key Stakeholders: Senior Vice President and Head of People
Positions Recruited For: Vessel Manager (x4), Marine Manager, Crew Manager, Purchaser (x2) and Executive Assistant
A global shipping company was preparing to open its first UK office and needed a trusted maritime recruitment partner to help build the team and navigate an unfamiliar talent market. Over a six-month project, Faststream recruited nine professionals, provided local market and compensation insight, supported the company’s employer positioning, and helped take the recruitment workload away from its overseas team. The result was a successful office launch and an average 34% saving on recruitment costs compared with a traditional contingent approach.
The challenge
A well-established global shipping company was preparing to open a new office in the UK.
The business was highly recognised in its established markets and accustomed to recruiting successfully there. Entering a new country created a very different challenge.
The company needed to build a team across several specialist and business-critical functions, while navigating a talent market in which it had limited local recruitment knowledge and little established employer recognition.
It needed answers to fundamental questions before recruitment could accelerate:
What salaries would candidates expect? What benefits would make the business competitive? What working patterns had become standard in the local market? Where would the right talent come from? And how could the company build awareness and credibility with candidates who may never previously have encountered its employer brand?
At the same time, its existing leadership and People teams were managing the demands of the wider office launch. Recruitment needed to move quickly without becoming another major operational burden.
The solution
Faststream was appointed as the company's recruitment partner for the new-office project.
Rather than treating each vacancy as an isolated assignment, we built an embedded recruitment campaign around the complete office-opening programme.
A dedicated Faststream team provided recruitment delivery alongside local market expertise, including:
Talent mapping and access to Faststream's specialist maritime and shipping network;
Salary, compensation and benefits intelligence;
Advice on working patterns and candidate expectations in the UK;
Employer value proposition and recruitment marketing support;
Structured candidate screening, submission and interview processes;
Regular project communication and stakeholder updates;
Placement guarantees and post-placement aftercare.
The recruitment activity was supported by market intelligence covering talent supply and demand, candidate preferences, compensation, benefits and competitive hiring practices, areas identified as important to the client before entering the UK market.
This allowed the client's leadership team to make recruitment decisions using current local insight rather than trying to replicate practices that worked in its home market.
Entering a new market also meant building awareness of the client as an employer. Faststream supported the recruitment campaign with dedicated marketing activity, including a bespoke careers page that brought together the client’s employer value proposition, opportunities and reasons to join.
This gave candidates a clear destination to learn more about the business and helped strengthen the client’s visibility in the UK talent market. The campaign was designed to reach both active and passive candidates and support a consistent, credible candidate experience throughout the recruitment process.
The result
Over the six-month programme, Faststream supported the successful recruitment of nine people for the new UK operation across leadership, technical, operational, procurement and business-support positions.
The office successfully opened, with Faststream taking much of the recruitment workload away from the client's existing overseas team.
The project also delivered a significant commercial benefit.
34% average saving on recruitment costs
By using a project-based recruitment partnership RPO rather than recruiting the positions individually on standard contingent terms, the company achieved an average recruitment cost saving of 34%.
Planning your next international office opening?
Partner with Faststream to build your team with local market insight, targeted candidate attraction and a recruitment model designed for growth. Speak to our team about your expansion plans.
