Restaurant chain Pizza Hut has the slogan ’Come in. Go far’ on its careers website and this was indeed apt for the position it was looking to fill at the beginning of the year. Pizza Hut’s US-based parent company Yum!, which includes KFC and Taco Bell in its stable of famous brands, provides outstanding career opportunities, having 35,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.

And so one of the requirements for the regional HR business partner role, Ben Phillips, Restaurant Support Centre recruitment manager told Recruiter, was that the potential candidate must have ambition to progress their career at Pizza Hut and throughout Yum! globally.

“For this particular role we were looking for a real high-flier with a strong educational background and the ability/desire to relocate globally should the need arise to further their career.” Within Yum!, the desire to get to the level of HR director requires people to be at Masters or post-graduate level academically. “Progression would inevitably mean a stint overseas,” Phillips continued, “so part of the challenge was to find someone who was prepared to be flexible, as far as location was concerned - to up sticks at short notice.”

As one of three agencies approached by Phillips, and one of two HR specialist recruiters, Ortus was briefed on the specifics for the position and visited Phillips and the then HR operations director Nicola Yates at the Borehamwood head office to make their presentation. “It was a well-thought out pitch,” Phillips said, “they managed to theme it around a Pizza Hut starter, main course and dessert presentation and showed they had done their research and had a good understanding of our business culture.”

In addition, both Phillips and Yates were impressed with the HR experience of Ortus’s senior recruitment consultant, Sarah Wojciechowski. “If you were following the maxim that ’quality knows quality’, we knew we were on to a good thing by choosing Ortus,” Phillips explained.

After further discussions with Phillips and Yates, Wojciechowski and the Ortus team realised that Pizza Hut had a perceived candidate-type in mind for the role, which would naturally narrow down the search. “Pizza Hut had a vision for the person who would fit the role,” Wojciechowski explained. “They had to be strong academically and have progressed already in their career. In fact, they would be seen to be so good that an organisation would have kept them, rather than them staying two to three years then moving jobs to progress their career.”

Despite this rather restrictive requirement, Wojciechowski set about getting to grips with the culture of Pizza Hut, meeting Phillips and other members of the senior HR management team several times at the head office to get a flavour of what type of person would succeed. “We really saw the energy of the people there,” she said. “It was critical to get a deep understanding of the culture.” Armed with this knowledge, Ortus employed its search methodology to identify target organisations “where we would be likely to find the candidates who matched all these particular qualities”. Working closely with Phillips and Yates, Ortus carried out research using different tools, as well as its own specialist market knowledge and networking, to map out specific companies where Pizza Hut’s future HR business partner may have been passively hiding.

Phillips was impressed with the way the recruiter kept him up to date. “Ortus were genuinely consultative,” he said. “If there was something they thought we could do differently, they would advise us, which was appreciated. Coming from an agency background, I can understand the frustrations from both sides when the communication and transparency between both parties isn’t there and it was good that Ortus were not simply ’yes men’.” Wojciechowski agreed. “We established an excellent relationship with Pizza Hut from day one and they were extremely helpful and communicative with us,” she told Recruiter.

From a shortlist of five candidates, Pizza Hut eventually appointed the HR business partner. Phillips was impressed with the outcome. “We would definitely work with Ortus again,” he asserted.

Key lessons

• The key to placing hardto- find candidates is to use and spread your networks – they are invaluable for getting recommendations
• Completely understanding the client’s culture is absolutely essential. Cultural fit is crucial
• Communication and keeping the client up to date with progress is so important in the process