Testimonials - Douglas Stuart

Kevin Burrell, Area Managing Director – Mekong at Maersk

“After a recommendation from our colleagues in Maersk Europe, we approached Douglas Stuart Ltd. with a challenging search for a Regional Head of HSE for Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. The team at Douglas Stuart took the challenge head on and began a global search, carefully assessing candidates in senior level roles that fitted with our values and had the skillset required for the role.

The team at Douglas Stuart were very proactive in their search and provided us with meaningful updates each week, packed with valuable information and market intelligence that we could use to ensure we offered the best package and pay structure possible. Despite our heavy requirements, Douglas Stuart presented a shortlist of four strong, diverse candidates which resulted in a successful hire. In addition, Douglas Stuart provided much appreciated support after the shortlist, ensuring candidates were given constructive feedback and helped to organise international visits to our offices in Vietnam and continue to assist right through to onboarding.

We continued to work with Douglas Stuart on a search for a Regional Head of Procurement, based in Ho Chi Minh City. Once again, the Douglas Stuart team tackled this assignment with vigour and identified a number of local, regional and international candidates. While we ultimately decided to hire a candidate identified by our internal HR team, Douglas Stuart once again provided extremely informative updates each week which allowed us to visualise the market to make sure we made the correct hiring decision.

We wholeheartedly recommend Douglas Stuart and would not hesitate to use their services again.”

Yvonne Tiltmann, Senior Human Resources Officer

Recruiting is not a minor matter, qualified employees who fit perfectly into the team are one of the most important pillars of the company. We therefore searched intensively for the best possible support for our recruiting. In the end, commissioned Douglas Stuart Ltd. to support our Talent Acquisition in Düsseldorf.

Especially at the beginning of the cooperation, it was important for Steven and his team to gain a personal impression of Proman and its employees. This is not a matter of course and yet so important and helpful in finding the "right" employees in the future.
The support provided by Steven and his team goes far beyond providing strong candidates for our requirements. They are able to help us define role requirements, assess behavioral and functional competencies, provide valuable marketinsights and generally improve our recruitment processes.

All Douglas Stuart team members have shown real commitment and dedication to attracting exceptional local talent to our business. They have gained a solid understanding of the specific needs of our business, our future growth plans and our company culture.
I would be happy to recommend Douglas Stuart Ltd. to any energy company looking for a great talent acquisition partner in Germany or beyond.

Kelly Mullen, Area Head of HSSE – Mekong at Maersk

“Having been approached by Douglas Stuart about an opportunity in Asia for a role as Area HSSE Business Partner, I was initially skeptical. I was extremely content in my current role having worked with that company for over 15 years, but the professionalism, passion and energy brought by the Douglas Stuart team was refreshing, their positioning of the opportunity left no doubt that it would be an exciting venture and a once in a lifetime opportunity. James and the team at Douglas Stuart were supportive at every turn, providing answers to questions before asking. Their knowledge of the client and the role itself was invaluable, giving me the confidence that they understood not only the opportunities, but the challenges I may personally face.

I cannot thank James and the team enough for their patience, assistance, and encouragement in the recruitment processes, at all stages a sounding board to understand the practicality of moving from the UK to Vietnam
both personally and professionally. I fully advocate and recommend Douglas Stuart Ltd having succeeded in gaining the role and moving halfway around the world with my family, a task only made possible with their support.”

Jordan McFadden, Regional EHS Manager (Supply Chain & Logistics)

“I was approached by Julie Preston at Douglas Stuart Ltd., in regards a Health and Safety Business Partner role, one of several messages that I had received from various companies and/or recruiters via LinkedIn. Unfortunately, a lot of these approaches fail to materialise, but this one was different, Julie was in contact regularly with information and updates about the role. I was not really looking for anything new at the time as I was quite content where I was currently working, however, due to how the new opportunity was managed and presented to me I felt that this was indeed an option for me. Over the following days Julie supported me in my application and interview process and this proved to be invaluable.

I am extremely grateful to Douglas Stuart, in particular Julie for all of the effort and support offered to me and without question would highly recommend them to anyone looking to find their next role.

Enikö Weiher, HR Business Partner, CEE Region

“After a recommendation from my colleagues in our head office we engaged Douglas Stuart Ltd. to conduct headhunting services across Germany and Czech Republic. They were given challenging briefs, but we were impressed by how they brought multiple stakeholders together to establish a common understanding of what competencies were needed in each role. In addition to providing strong shortlists for each role in a short timeframe, they also conducted ‘headroom assessments’ enabling us to consider the future potential of all shortlisted candidates.

Throughout the process I was fully updated on the progress in the form of weekly reports. The evidence provided to us throughout the searches was to an extremely high standard and the personal support the candidates received was excellent. I’d have no problems in engaging Douglas Stuart Ltd. on future searches in our Central & Eastern Europe region.”

Amanda Chew, Head of Compliance

“I was approached by Douglas Stuart Ltd., about an opportunity with Headlam Group as a Health and Safety Business Partner, Julie gave a good overview of the role and the company which led to the initial interview.
Julie and the Douglas Stuart team were professional, friendly and always happy to help with any questions I had throughout the whole process. The briefing document was comprehensive providing information and tips to assist in the preparation for the interview. Julie’s knowledge of the role and the vision of the client was invaluable as this allowed me to understand the culture of the company and how the role would fit in.
Julies support and feedback at each stage of the process made the whole experience a pleasure and gave me confidence in their ability to navigate through what can be at times can be very stressful process.
I want to thank Julie for her invaluable support throughout this application I have no reservations about recommending Julie and the Douglas Stuart team.”

Seonaid Culliford, Account Director at Shield Safety Group

"I was initially approached by Fay from Douglas Stuart about a role that was a fantastic fit for my background and experience which made me feel like she has really done her research. I wasn’t actively looking for a new role, so this personalised service meant I was more receptive to a discussion. Fay was thorough, supportive and helpful as well as extremely personable.

When Fay was on annual leave, James stepped in to replace the role she was performing, and the transition was seamless. Both provided constructive feedback and challenged me in a positive way, and I was successful with a job offer.

I would highly recommend Fay and James or Douglas Stuart as a company to engage with whether you are looking to fill a critical role or considering the next step in your career."

Romain Brouté, Global HR Business Partner – Project Management at SBM Offshore

SBM Offshore is a longstanding industry leader, unique in offering floating offshore energy solutions across the full product lifecycle. They specialise in the construction, lease and operation of floating production storage and offloading vessels. They are also leading the way in the transition towards renewable energy, with a focus on Floating Offshore wind, Wave Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage.

"We engaged Douglas Stuart Ltd. to assist us with finding a new Global Head of Planning following the successful completion of several assignments in our Project Management Organisation. This appointment, following an internal transfer, was critical to the evolution of our planning discipline and the integration with our ERP system.

The team at Douglas Stuart demonstrated persistence and partnership throughout this assignment, finding the right balance between candidates’ representation and customer focus. Despite the niche skillset we were looking for, we ultimately had two strong candidates who could have been hired which demonstrates the efficiency of the DS teamwork.

I am thankful for the strong candidates but also for the market intelligence and additional support provided after the shortlist. I’d happily recommend Douglas Stuart and would not hesitate to use their services again."

Gianluca Orlandi, Project Director at SBM Offshore

"After being approached by Douglas Stuart about a Project Director role with SBM Offshore, I explored the opportunity with them as it would allow me to progress my career into a more senior position while continuing to live in Kuala Lumpur. Their confidentiality and knowledge of the industry was extremely reassuring in what could have been a sensitive career move.

I am grateful to James and his team for working with me through the process to negotiate a smooth transition."

Graham Bradbury, VP EMEA & APAC at Parker Hannifin

Parker Hannifin is a global coalescing, filtration and separation solution provider. Committed to delivering innovation through the application of technology, Parker Hannifin collaborates with its customers to help them realize improved plant availability, reduced environmental impact and enhanced bottom line performance.

With 140 years of history, over 800 people and a presence in more than 73 countries, Parker Hannifin works with customers in the environmental, process, energy, marine and aviation industries.

"James and I were first introduced via our Head Office in the US. After successfully delivering several search assignments for them it made sense to extend the service provision to include my EMEA business unit. James and his team have now recruited a variety of different level and different discipline roles for me in the UK and Germany.

Delivery quality has been exceptionally high and we’ve significantly increased awareness within our target talent markets because of their recommendations on sourcing strategy. However, what sets them apart is their integrity. I can trust James and his team to carry out confidential assignments on my behalf and I know that they will always represent Parker Hannifin in a professional fashion."

Joe Harris, Executive Recruitment Specialist at Serco Group

Serco Group plc employs over 50,000 people and operates internationally across four geographies: UK & Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and across five sectors: Defence, Justice & Immigration, Transport, Health and Citizen Services.

“We contacted Douglas Stuart Ltd. to find us a new HSE Director for our Justice & Immigration sector after an introduction from our Group HR Director. Our whole experience with the Douglas Stuart team has been fantastic. They understood the brief, took time to speak with key stakeholders and bought into our values and leadership essentials needed for the role.

The number of engaged candidates and insight was valuable in such a niche area of our business and the calibre of the final shortlist met the brief. Once we got to final interview stage, we had three strong candidate profiles and all could have been hired into the role.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Douglas Stuart and will continue to partner with them for future requirements across Serco.”

Simon Pringle, Founding Director, Steer Economic Development

Part of Steer Group, Steer-ED are a specialist consultancy focused on characterising and realising the economic potential of places, sectors, and markets. The business helps clients by thinking creatively about the factors that drive competitiveness, these including People and Skills, Infrastructures (both hard and soft), Enterprise, Knowledge and Ideas. Steer-ED designs, appraises, implements and evaluates public and private policy interventions relating to these factors.

"We engaged Douglas Stuart after a recommendation from our HR Manager who had successfully partnered with them on several assignments for Steer Group. What set the Douglas Stuart team apart from previous search firms we had worked with was their commitment to getting ‘under the skin’ of what we do as a business and how we do it. Not only did they understand the mix of skills and competencies which are key to our work success, but they also communicated effectively our business proposition to potential candidates.

The level of candidate interest generated was very impressive, especially so given a tight and competitive candidate marketplace.
The calibre of their candidate shortlist for both Senior and Principal Consultants met our expectations, and we are now integrating a new member of staff who they identified for us.

We would have no hesitation in recommending Douglas Stuart, and are intending to work with them again in the New Year"

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Igor van den Essen, Regional Managing Director – Africa & Europe at APM Terminals (an A.P. Moller Maersk company)

Maersk is an integrated transport & logistics company with multiple brands and is a global leader in container shipping and ports. Maersk employs roughly 76,000 employees across operations in 130 countries.

"I first hired James and his team to help establish a global recruitment function for Maersk Oil in our head office in Copenhagen. To make sure that we hit our resourcing targets whilst implementing this new recruitment infrastructure, James’ team continued to headhunt senior talent for our business-critical disciplines.

With his expert knowledge of recruitment best-practice across a variety of sectors, James supported the design of an optimal org chart for recruitment complete with detailed role descriptions and realistic performance metrics.

He and his team also worked with our in-country HR teams to significantly streamline our Preferred Supplier List as well as bringing all agencies onto a single, consistent Service Level Agreement which resulted in significant savings in external spend while we built our own direct-sourcing capability.

Other notable successes include the design and delivery of competency-based assessment training to our business leaders, the initiation of a global subsurface recruiter forum and the formation of a much closer working relationship between our Marketing Communications and Recruitment teams. These ideas were introduced during a period of significant change in Maersk Oil. Without James’ energy and the change management expertise of his team we would not have been able to achieve so much.

Because of this successful engagement, I asked James to provide interim in-house resourcing support to my team at Damco in The Netherlands. We were facing a significant spike in open vacancies due to the expansion of our IT and Business Development teams. I was once again impressed by the proactivity, professionalism and flexibility of the support provided."

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Mark Flanagan, Chief Executive Officer of Shield Safety Group

Shield Safety Group is the UK’s leading provider of Food Safety, Fire Safety and Health & Safety software and services the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. Having established an extremely strong foundation, they have ambitious growth plans for the next 3 years which include doubling headcount to 200+, globalising their software service offerings and achieving a 50% increase in revenue year-on-year.

“I’ve brought in Douglas Stuart to provide expert advice on what we should be doing from a recruitment and talent management perspective to realise our goals including succession planning for my Board. The insight that James and his team have provided has been excellent. It turns out that we’ve been doing a lot of things really well but there are some fundamentals that have been missed or need improving. So, Douglas Stuart are now working with our HR team on the phased introduction of a variety of different things;

• Intelligence gathering to help fine-tune our attraction strategy and rewards scheme

• Our own in-house resourcing team

• Preferred Supplier List coupled to a standardised Service Agreement

• Fit-for-purpose Application Management System

• Competency Framework linked to our core values

• A range of assessment tools and templates for hiring and performance management

• Competency Based Interview training for all of our Hiring Managers

• A Rising Stars programme to identify and motivate our high-potentials

Whilst all this has been going on we’ve been able to continue hiring through the 2 interim recruiters Douglas Stuart have provided, who have already helped us to improve our time-to-hire by 4 weeks and our cost-per-hire by 25%.

What’s really impressed us so far is the way that James makes sure he regularly updates us on progress and carefully monitors the added value of these initiatives against our original objectives. It gives me confidence that they are so passionate about recruiting and retaining the best people for our company.”

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Caroline Ellis, Group Recruitment Manager at Spirax-Sarco Engineering

Spirax-Sarco Engineering is a FTSE 250 multi-national industrial engineering group, headquartered in Cheltenham, England, and world leader in steam technology.

“We asked the team at Douglas Stuart to review our Global Graduate Development Programme as part of our ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion in all our recruitment and assessment activities.

Eliminating bias in our application process is a priority for us – we want to make sure we are reaching the best STEM graduates, regardless of ethnicity, gender or background. And that means continually assessing our own processes.

James and Eilidh from Douglas Stuart scrutinised our application questions, the style and use of language, and ‘proofed’ them from a bias and diversity perspective. They offered us valuable insight into what we’re already doing well and the tweaks we need to make. They were very knowledgeable about D&I best practice in recruitment and made several recommendations on assessment design and D&I sensitive decision-making. It’s been a really valuable exercise.”

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Eugenio F. da Silva Neto, Head of Digital Solutions & Transformation

“I was first contacted by Steven Pearson, Senior Consultant at Douglas Stuart Ltd. During our initial conversation, which was exploratory in nature, the Senior Consultant was open and straightforward. Following our first contact, I felt curious about the opportunity and wanted to learn more.

Many of the Executive Search firms that I have dealt with previously did not offer me the chance to highlight my strengths during the initial engagement, nor did they provide me with a clear description of the role, including company, strategy, and challenges.

The feedback I received after my first interview with the Senior Consultant was spot on and valuable, and I was able to gauge it based on my own reflection. He was candid, fair, and insightful. Having access to the notes of the Senior Consultant regarding my performance during the first interview was helpful.

It was a pleasure to work with Steven, I appreciated his assistance throughout this process. In addition to offering valuable feedback, he motivated me to reflect on it. Throughout the entire hiring process with his client, he provided me with guidance and was responsive.

I was extremely happy with this recruitment process and hope to stay connected with the team at Douglas Stuart Ltd.”