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Virtual Sourcing Office: Recruitment of Sourcing Specialists
The client, a Shanghai-based joint sourcing office of two low-cost retailers in Finland and Norway offering a broad range of product segments, engaged ARC Consulting in a Strategic Review of the Purchasing Alliance of the client.
Following the results of our review, the client reached out to ARC Consulting for a deeper analysis of their Asian sourcing operations and to get an overview trend analysis of how European sourcing offices in China differentiates risks by relocating sourcing outside of China. ARC Consulting was also tasked with the setup of a virtual sourcing office in Vietnam. The aim of the project was to help the client manage and enable further sourcing growth in Vietnam through onsite operation of a virtual sourcing office.
The first step of the project is the recruitment of sourcing specialists. ARC Consulting was tasked with managing the full recruitment process to hire a Sourcing Manager that is to be stationed in ARC Consulting’s office in Ho Chi Minh City. The recruitment process covers every step from initial CV screening, interview organizing, to signing and onboarding candidate. Post-recruitment, ARC Consulting continually helps with the operation of the virtual sourcing office, providing supports in operation, HR, and administration.
Opportunity
As of today, the client has experience with Chinese suppliers, but felt the need to strengthen their sourcing base in the Southeast Asian region. Following the results of our operations analysis of the client, Vietnam is deemed the most suitable place to hold a virtual sourcing office. The sourcing office in Vietnam will be trialed with the sourcing of furniture and other related homeware products, something that Vietnam has long established a strong global market standing. Consequentially, there is a large pool of sourcing specialists in the field.
The challenge was for ARC Consulting to identify candidates that could meet the various requirements of the client. The right candidate needs not only the extensive experience in sourcing our client’s targeted products, but they must also have the experience serving European clients. Further, they need to portray the right characters to fit in our client’s diverse working culture.
Approach
The recruitment of sourcing specialist included:
- Candidate search and screening,
- Three rounds of interview between the most potential candidates and the team of ARC Consulting (first interview), the sourcing office of the client in Shanghai (second interview), the representatives of the client in Finland and Norway (third interview).
- Reference check, offering and signing contract with the selected candidate,
- Provision of ongoing support for the virtual sourcing office including HR, administration, payroll management, and operational support.
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