Bussines cases

Recruiting a team of Next Generation experts

The arrival of European funds has created a new business niche in the consulting industry, as companies need help to apply for and manage these funds. For many of them this will mean a definitive change in how business is understood in order to adapt to a new future (digital, innovation, etc.) and overcome Covid effects.

Objective

Create a team of experts in the management of Next Generation EU funds

Project

The search required a great deal of market research, as it was a niche specialty.

Results

A team of 4 highly experienced people was hired to create a new area in the company that maximizes this new business niche.

How we did it

The search was limited to Spain as it was deemed necessary that candidates also had a broad knowledge of the Spanish regional administration along with the EU procedures.
We conducted a thorough research of a few small companies specialized in EU funds management.

Special focus was put on hiring a whole team of already trained professionals who could work together, so that adaptation risks would be minimized.

The approach

When undertaking the search for experts in a very small market, it’s important to refine the process in order to achieve the desired results:

The positions are highly technical: candidates need to have a broad knowledge on European bodies’ procedures and how to access funds. The same applies for Spain and its regional governments.
Despite these funds being closely related to Covid, the knowledge required is the same as for any other R&D&i funding processes
Getting a whole new team to adapt to the organization is complicated, therefore we worked with the client to design an attractive package to attract candidates and enable adaptation to the new company, and a more structured way of working, all with the purpose of creating a new department.