The solar energy industry is growing at cosmic rates, and understandably so. Almost all energy on Earth comes from the sun. The amount of sunlight that hits the Earth in one hour has more energy than the world consumes in a year. The future of energy is undeniably solar.

As a solar energy company, you have limitless potential to grow. However, how you compare to other similar companies in the industry is determined by the people you hire. This puts recruitment at the center of your business strategy for survival and growth.

Whitham Group specializes in finding highly suitable candidates for solar energy companies. Our team has been working as renewable energy recruiters for 12 years, and we’ve helped many dust clouds mature to become the stars they are today. We serve well-known companies like Panasonic Eco Solutions as well as small businesses and startups. We’ve also partnered with Tesla Motors for The World Energy Innovation Forum.

Our database of 18,000+ people includes engineers, sales experts, marketers, executives, and other experienced professionals. Here, we discuss some of the departments we can help you fill. We only talk about roles broadly in this article. Please refer to our services page for the complete list of positions.

1- Business Development

The solar energy industry has been evolving fast. Researchers all over the globe are trying to figure out ways to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells and make the technology cheaper and more accessible. Businesses need to keep evolving just to survive. The only way to find your position in the market is to develop yourself into something distinct from others. Companies that capture a good market share today will be the leaders when solar energy reaches scale.

Whitham Group can find experienced and talented individuals to lead your business to success. Our 24-step process filters only the very best from our vast database of candidates. Get in touch to hire VP, Director, and Managers for business development in your company.

2- Marketing Professionals

Marketing is a vital business process in the renewable energy industry that startups often underestimate. It’s not enough to have a good product; you also have to communicate it to the audience in a way that highlights everything superior about it. Marketing will also help you establish trust and authority, ensuring you’re a step ahead of the competition when solar energy is more common.

Marketing is essential even if you’re a B2B business working on innovative solutions for other companies. You need investors to know about your company, and marketing is the only way to reach out to them. You also want to convince investors that your company is doing something truly innovative and useful so they can see profitability in investing in your company. Marketing experts can present facts and figures about your company for maximum impact.

Solar energy is also a radiating topic for documentaries, YouTube videos, and news websites right now. If your company can catch the media’s attention with good marketing, you’ll get free press across different platforms and channels. This can improve your sales and get more people to invest in your company.

We can help you find marketing executives, brand ambassadors, digital marketers, communications managers, SEO experts, and other professionals. Get in touch and start hiring today!

3- Engineering Team

Engineers are the people who get stuff done. They come up with solutions to your problems and give your products and services value in the market. If your engineers are truly exceptional, they’ll be able to create products that are better than others in meaningful ways and have a place in the market. This can make life easier for your other teams, including business development, marketing, and sales.

Engineers play an even more critical role in evolving industries as opposed to more static industries such as FMCG. They’re the only ones that give companies a real competitive edge. Decisions from business development executives can’t materialize either if the engineering team isn’t qualified enough.

Unsurprisingly, engineers are highly sought after by solar energy companies, especially those with experience in the renewable energy industry. You won’t find the most talented individuals on job sites either—80% of candidates in our database don’t have resumes online.

Whitham Group can help you find engineers that meet your requirements and are willing to accept your decided salary. The secret is that we find engineers who find your company personally fascinating. They’re not primarily motivated by money to work for you. They will accept the job role even if you can’t match the salary of their other job offers.

We have environmental, hydro, geotechnical, civil, dam, mechanical, and various other types of engineers in our database. Visit our website now and find talent for your company!

4- C and V-Level Positions

C-level executives are as pivotal in solar energy as in other industries. They make all the big decisions, including how much to invest in different roles and deciding the importance of different processes. C and V-Level officers are responsible for everything in their respective departments except the CEO, who’s responsible for the entire company. In the solar energy industry today, choosing CEO will determine the future of a small business or startup more than anything else.

As renewable energy executive recruiters, we specialize in C and V-Level positions at Whitham Group. We’ve identified talented professionals from across the renewable energy industry for top positions in companies. We use an intricate 26-step recruitment system to find the most suitable employees for you.

Ready to find talent for your company? Contact expert solar energy recruiters now!

The renewable energy industry is growing faster than ever right now, and it’s projected to do so until it has completely taken over the global energy market! Still, the industry is relatively new, and talent is scarce. The job market is highly competitive, where only the biggest players can consistently hire the most talented individuals.

As a renewable energy recruiting firm, Whitham Group has been building relationships in the industry for over 12 years. We have around 18,000 candidates in our database with experience in the energy industry. Our 26-step search process finds the most suitable candidates for you that will stay with your company for the long term. Companies have accepted 96% of our offers in the last five years.

Whatever your requirements are, we can find candidates that meet them. Get in touch and find the candidates you’ve been looking for!

In this article, we discuss some of the reasons most companies in the renewable energy industry fail to find the right candidates and why employees leave soon after recruitment. So without further ado, let’s get to the point.

Top Talent Doesn’t Use Job Search Websites

Talented and experienced professionals in the renewable energy industry generally don’t use job search sites. In our database, 80% of the 18,000 people have never created a resume profile on a job search website. They look for companies through their connections in the industry or through recruitment firms like Whitham Group.

This is because the renewable energy job market is competitive. The industry has grown faster than colleges train professionals in renewable energy fields. The demand for talent is high. The advertisement model of job search websites simply cannot work in a competitive job market where employees choose companies as much as companies choose employees.

If you’ve been looking for candidates through ads on job search websites, you shouldn’t be surprised that the applicants don’t fit your requirements. Get in touch with renewable energy recruiters at Whitham Group, and let us connect you with experienced and capable candidates.

You’re a New Company That Lacks Reputation and Connections

Many talented people in the renewable energy industry choose companies based on what they’re passionate about. This is one of the few industries where people can put their skills to good use. If you’re a new company that lacks a reputation, few professionals have heard of you, and even fewer want to work for you. Companies in this industry also find candidates through the connections they’ve made in the industry. New companies lack that too.

Whitham Group has been in the renewable energy industry for over a decade. We’ve built relationships with industry events such as Solar Power International and met talented individuals from all areas of expertise. We’ve also partnered with Tesla at the World Energy Innovation Forum.

We can use our relationships and connections to find talented people for your company. Get in touch now!

You’re Unwilling to Invest in Recruitment

Have you ever thought about how much you lose when you hire the wrong person who leaves within months? That amount should be your available budget for recruitment. Recruitment needs resources in any industry. However, in a competitive job market where talent is hard to find, you can’t afford to cheap out on the recruitment budget.

Setting a proportionate budget will open up possibilities to use services such as renewable energy headhunters, making recruitment easier. Investing in recruitment also assures the candidate that you value them and want them to stay with you for a long time. This increases job security and retention.

Candidates You Hire Don’t Fit Your Company Culture

If you have a high employee turnover rate and you can’t find the right candidates that won’t leave, this might be the problem. People whose personality matches your company culture are more likely to enjoy working in your company. They’re also more likely to socialize, form relationships, and get personally invested in the company. People who socialize more are statistically less likely to switch companies.

At Whitham Group, we have a large database of candidates with experience in the renewable energy industry. We can find tens of candidates that the skills you’re looking for and are willing to work for your offered salary. Such a large number of suitable candidates allows us to filter for personality traits such as management styles and personal preferences.

We use these to determine which candidates would better fit your company culture. We ensure the candidate will enjoy working with your team and will likely continue working for you for years. Visit our website to learn more about our recruitment process.

You Don’t Focus On Employee Satisfaction

In a competitive job market, employees have a lot of options to work for. Companies offer highly competitive salaries to incentivize talented individuals to switch. The turnover rate is different to keep low for many small businesses in the renewable energy industry. This is unfortunate because renewable energy projects need long-term focus from the same people.

If you can’t pay competitive salaries, retain employees with greater satisfaction. As a smaller company, you can create a more casual, comfortable, and inclusive environment where employees feel at home. This may not be more attractive than higher pay for most people, but you don’t need many employees anyway. You only need a small group of people who value working with you.

Find Quality Candidates with Whitham Group

Whitham Group is considered among the most trusted renewable energy recruiting firms in the US. When we recommend candidates, we ensure they meet at least 90% of the requirements you list. We only recommend candidates motivated to work with you by something other than money, so they’re less likely to leave for a higher-paying offer.

Ready to let renewable energy recruiters solve hiring problems in your highly specialized industry? Get in touch now!

Hiring the right executive for your renewable energy firm is trickier than it looks. You need the best recruitment strategies to find the best person for a top-tier role at your organization. Needless to say, energy executive search is a time-consuming and thorough process that requires an energy recruitment agency for the job.

Here’s what the process looks like:

Client Analysis

The first step of a renewable energy executive search is understanding the client’s needs. After all, the executive search firm is tasked with finding senior-level professionals who’d be involved in their company’s managerial and decision-making processes.

Recruiters can’t apply a one-size-fits-all approach when hiring for top-tier roles. This is why the first thing they need to do is meet with their client representatives and discuss the role objectives and requirements. A detailed client analysis allows executive recruiters to fully grasp the specifics of the role they’ll be hiring for. It also gives them an insight into the company culture, management style, and organizational mission and structure. This enables them to begin their search for candidates who’d be a good fit for these requirements.

Candidate Specification

The next step of an executive search process is creating a candidate profile specifying all the required elements. Recruiters draft optimized job profiles to compel prospective candidates. This is done after thorough market research and analysis to ensure the description provided is as accurate and detailed as possible.

During candidate specification and profile creation, recruiters list the responsibilities, reporting relationships, and other core details about the role they want to fill. For instance, they mention the core competencies they’re looking for, such as years of experience or specific technical and soft skills. Ideally, the candidate profile should also include the key opportunities the hired individual will have access to, giving them a complete picture of the role at hand.

Search Strategy

Once the client approves the candidate specification prepared by the executive search firm, it’s time to develop a search strategy. This is a way to identify potential organizations, individuals, and avenues recruiters can target to get the best talent.

For instance, the executive search firm will identify potential companies in the renewable energy sector that they can use for their talent hunt. They can also list firms they won’t be targeting due to certain reasons to narrow down their options. The client may have certain requirements or objections regarding the companies recruiters reach out to, which is accounted for during the search strategy development process.

The search strategy helps clients ensure their preferred companies, networks, and avenues are contacted for executive roles. It also serves as a blueprint for recruiters, allowing them to identify potential candidates likely to yield successful results. Various channels may be used to develop a search strategy. The executive firm can target the specified firms mentioned by the client, use their vast database, or conduct online and offline searches to determine where best to find the top talent for executive roles.

Querying & Qualifying

What happens once search firms have created initial search lists for prospective candidates? They add more names to the list by querying sources. This essentially means they also look within their networks and sources for candidate referrals. For instance, they may find a lead through a professional association, media group, or another source they are or have been affiliated with. If the candidates meet the requirements set earlier, they’re added to the search list.

Having developed an impressive search list, it’s now time to start reaching out to relevant parties. The executive search team contacts prospective candidates to gauge their interest in the role and assess if they meet the primary requirements. This is also a way for them to determine a candidate’s motivation and establish what would make them willingly accept an offer from their client. Obtaining this knowledge then allows recruiters to schedule initial, in-depth interviews.

Interviewing & Referencing

The search team then schedules interviews with multiple shortlisted candidates to evaluate them further. This gives the recruiters a more detailed perspective of the candidate’s skills, experience, qualifications, past performances, and other important details. The interviews may be conducted in person or virtually. The goal of these initial interviews is to determine which candidates should be presented to the client and remove the ones that seem unfit for the role from the list.

The executive search team then prepares candidate profiles for individuals they’ve shortlisted for the client to review. Once the client approves the profiles, a second round of interviewing commences, where the client meets the candidates. These interviews are usually more detailed, competitive, and specific. The client and the executive recruiting team work together to assess each candidate and further narrow down the selection to two or three individuals.

This is also the stage where the executive search team checks references and contacts the people candidates had mentioned. Great care is taken to ensure this happens discreetly and under confidentiality. Referencing also includes verifying other academic, professional, or non-professional details shared by candidates.

Offer & Negotiation

Finally, the executive search firm reaches out to the final candidate who appears to be the best fit for the role and extends an offer. This typically kick-starts the salary negotiation process, although that may not necessarily occur. If the preferred candidate declines the offer even after negotiation, the next finalist is contacted for the position.

The executive search process ends once the candidate has accepted the offer made by the company. In some cases, the executive search firm also assists the client and the candidate with the onboarding process.

Initiate a Successful Renewable Energy Executive Search with Whitham Group

With over a decade of experience in the renewable energy sector, Whitham Group has a vast network of professionals and an updated database. We’ve built valuable relationships with individuals and organizations over the years and have participated in countless industry-specific events. When you partner with us, you can count on finding the right executive fit for your renewable energy company!

Check out our website for more information about our renewable energy executive recruiters, and contact us now to get started.

In the modern era, the hiring process has changed significantly. While there have been various positive elements that have improved the whole experience by leaps and bounds, there are many classical challenges in different forms that companies need to filter through.

High-volume hiring is one of them, which can be a problem for any listing below the executive tier. It’s a difficult process that can consume a lot of resources and take up significant time in certain cases, but it’s a pivotal step for companies to scale up. Considering how it’s a crucial element to expanding the brand and puts businesses in a good light, there’s no way around the high-volume hiring conundrum. ‘Here’s everything you need to know about high-volume hiring and how to ensure ‘it’s properly taken care of:

What Is High-Volume Hiring?

The process of hiring a large of people within a particular period is known as high-volume hiring. Imagine hundreds of people applying for either a single job role, which counts as high-volume hiring as well. As you can understand, with the larger pool of applicants, the process is a lot more challenging, requiring quality recruiters for the job. ‘They’ll use a wide variety of means, from their experience to various tools to get the job done.

It’s easier said than done when you consider you have to find applicants and assess them for the role, which involves interviewing them multiple times to negotiate and onboard them. ‘It’s a fairly difficult and stressful process overall.

How To Ensure Things Work Out Smoothly in High Volume Recruiting

Make The Most of Networking

The best human resources groups have a wide network of individuals available to them. In the past, it was much more challenging to find the right people, but various HR teams have a detailed database that they can use to find relevant resources. Not only do they consult this network for help, but the network can relay the signal to other people, which helps propagate the message about the listing to others.

But because of an influx of several applicants, you must write the write listing and job description to prevent unnecessary applications. The required experience variable also manages to limit the number of applicants.

Writing a Good Job Description

A major problem in the high-volume hiring aspect is the number of applications that ‘don’t fit the criteria, to begin with. A lot of it can be avoided by writing a better job description. List out all of the skills that you require from the candidate, and rather than create a large list of bullet points, only look for those skills that you need.

It’s no use if a candidate applies based on a skill that they’re great at but isn’t a major requirement to do a good job for you. Be clear and concise about all of the details while keeping your company’s vision in mind so that you have people onboard that possess the necessary experience, skills, and intention to help the company reach that benchmark in a reasonable manner.

Candidate Experience Matters

Unfortunately, the candidate experience is not a great concern for many companies. Regardless of whether you hire a person or not, they will have a thing or two to say about your experience with them. ‘They’ll also be potential customers in some capacity. In many cases, especially during an executive search, ‘you’ll be interviewing people who already have a lot more people looking to hire them.

Firstly, it’s a matter of setting a strong impression to ensure that the potential employee wants to join your company. Secondly, it’s about maintaining a brand reputation. With high-volume hiring, you might notice a drop in applications and people willing to fill up particular positions if word gets out that the hiring process is inadequate. Commonly, the hiring process can be a great indicator of the working experience as a whole.

Work With a Recruitment Team

When it comes to high-volume recruitment, your internal teams are more likely to be overwhelmed not just by the high count but the number of details. It’s a different ballpark at times, and it’s easy for mistakes to snowball and cause problems. In such cases, companies directly hand the task over to third-party resources.

It’s their bread and butter, and they are fully dedicated to the job with enough resources to easily manage things. They also have ample experience working with companies from various industries, which allows them a deeper understanding of the issues along with the success factors.

Conclusion

High-volume hiring is always a challenge, especially so if you have a team that doesn’t have enough experience in the sector. There isn’t much room for error, and it requires a lot of deliberation and careful thought to ensure that things get off on the right foot. Errors at any stage can lead to varying degrees of problems. Considering you want the right people for your organization that can help you fulfill your vision, you should work with executive recruiters and professionals with experience.

Whether you’re looking through hundreds of applicants for a single job post or looking to scale an entire company or department, they will help you get the job done.

Have a Recruitment Company Onboard

Want to expand your team and get a large number of employees? The preferred option for most businesses is to work with third-party businesses that have the experience and resources for a more efficient process. Whitham Group is an executive search and recruitment firm. The company helps businesses streamline their hiring process, having a team of dedicated solar energy and renewable energy recruiters as well. One of our major services is helping businesses find the best candidates in high-volume recruitment runs.

Head on over to Whitham Group’s website for more details. You can directly reach out to us for personalized queries.

Many companies struggle heavily with recruitment. Whether it’s a lack of applicants, being unable to find competent resources, or having short retention after finding an employee, there is a myriad of problems that companies face. All of these can be fixed with a better recruitment process in place to help companies out. It’s also fairly common to work with third-party resources like executive search firms to grow. Here’s all you need to know:

Work On Your Job Posts and Descriptions

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is writing a generic job description. In 2022, the average applicant is a lot smarter. They don’t just incline towards a higher salary only. A good job description is detailed yet concise, focusing on all those important markers that matter. Instead of creating an ocean of bullet points, figure out what kind of impact you want an individual to make and what their responsibilities are.

If you’re looking for a back-end developer, don’t mention that they should also be proficient in working with front-end technologies. You want to make the whole ordeal easier for your recruitment team, and writing up a clear job description is the first step to achieving that.

Plan It Out

Once you’ve got an open position, it’s necessary that you start considering all of the important details and have a necessary plan for that. Before the listing goes out, the salary should be discussed and approved beforehand. Even if you assign an executive search firm to take care of the hiring process for you, you will have to select a few people from the company to conduct or be involved in the final interview of the candidate.

Similarly, you’ll have to pick someone that will be involved in the onboarding process as well. While companies generally prefer picking one person for the task, it’s smart to have a  few backup candidates in mind in case the person in question leaves the company.

Figure Out What You Need

Whenever you’re looking for a new person to take a position in your company, your goal isn’t to just find someone that ticks boxes on a list of requirements. A business needs to assess itself in its current standing, plans, and needs. For example, instead of looking for someone that’s just a manager, look for an individual that has the kind of experience in the results you’re looking for.

Suppose your goal is to have someone with excellent managerial skills with experience in growing a team for scalability. You’d want to have your job description list that aspect so that you get candidates that have worked on similar ventures in the past. It’s far more effective than just looking for someone with specific skillsets alone.

Use Different Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms are being heavily leveraged by companies to connect with their customers. Businesses want to bridge the gap between their customers, so they use branded content to communicate with people. This has led to a flurry of informational content, and loyal followers look out for it regularly. At the same time, it’s also perfect for job listings.

The effectiveness of the platform can vary a lot. While LinkedIn will always be the go-to option, a majority of your potential candidates could be on other platforms too. Many businesses avail Facebook and even TikTok to spread the word about job listings. They’re effective tools that companies should be open to utilizing for their needs.

Improve the Onboarding Process

A major mistake that companies tend to make is investing all of their time in the process of talent acquisition, only to fumble in the onboarding process. If a new employee does not integrate into the environment properly and is not accommodated to have a smooth transition into your working setup, they’re highly likely to depart.

Companies often struggle with employee retention, and a major problem is a poor onboarding process. Even if they don’t outright leave, they might not be able to provide the kind of output that’s expected or what they’re capable of. Make sure that the new employee is given a proper orientation, with the right resources made available to them from day one with all their concerns addressed.

Be Patient with Executive Searches

The search process for an ordinary employee compared to an executive-level post is very different. Executives have to declare several months in advance that they’re leaving the company to provide the business with adequate cushion time to find other resources.

The truth is that the right resource can be hard to find. Generally, internal HR teams might not have a wide enough network to find the right person for the job. It’s very common for executive search firms to be onboard as they have a more powerful database to help companies find the right individual.

Conclusion

With the right approach, your recruitment process can go through a much-needed overhaul that has major benefits in the long run for the company. With atomic improvements across various steps in the pipeline, it can create a sense of stability and evident improvements in the long run. Not only will you be able to acquire more resources, but you will work with more reliable people that fit your criteria for better retention.

It’s always smart to work with third-party sources on such ventures as they have the necessary resources to help companies scale up and acquire the right personnel for their ranks.

Work With a Recruitment Company

Looking to improve the recruitment process for your company? Work with a business that has the relevant network and resources to make matters easy for you. Whitham Group is an executive search and recruitment firm. The company’s headquartered in the Bay Area and has a team of experienced, professional recruiters, including solar energy and renewable energy recruiters. The company specializes in helping find some of the top employees fit for your company.

That Will Save You Millions

You approach every aspect of your successful business with a thoughtful strategy in mind. Why should hiring be any different? Whitham Group is dedicated to tracking down the perfect exec for your team but we’re also dedicated to letting you in on the process. It’s important for us that you discover why our talent acquisition strategies work and how you can move forward in all your hires to create the lucrative long term team your company deserves and requires.

Here are just a few key components the Whitham recruitment experts put to work when identifying the best executive fit for organizations worldwide.

Combine Data & Marketing For Optimized Acquisitioning

The most important piece of data used for acquiring and recruiting executives is the detailed hiring patterns produced by recruitment metrics. Tracking recruitment metrics is essential to as it gives insight into what candidates respond to a variety of marketing strategies. Data can also help determine how long it would take to find, interview, hire, and onboard a candidate depending on the needs of the position.

Narrowing down your search criteria begins at the conception of the job post. How it’s marketed, where it (or if it’s shared publicly), and who has access to it is the first step to efficiently finding a candidate that fits your search description, aligns with your business goals, and fits effortlessly into your organization’s work culture.

Employer Branding

Once you’ve narrowed how to reach your target applicant it’s time to brand your organization as accurately and strategically as possible. 62% of desirable professional candidates across 26 countries ranked employer branding as their deciding factor.

The candidate you want will be in high demand and comparing your company to others. How will you attract the team you want? What does your employer branding say to those looking to commit to your vision? Cultivating an impressive employer brand will set your hiring opportunity apart and attract better talent and long-term employees.

Defining the Candidate Experience

Talent acquisition strategies include viewing the search and recruiting process from the candidate’s perspective. Often the most overlooked tactic, defining the candidate experience is an ideal way to attract elite candidates for executive positions. Your most valuable candidates are going to see the application, interview, and offer process as a direct reflection of what it would be like working for you. It’s meant to be as professional, accommodating, direct, and meaningful as possible.

Business-Goal Alignment

Executives and other critical organization members are leaving their roles more frequently than ever before. This alarming statistic has resulted in the need to take a progressive approach during the interview process. While skills, talents, and experience are still a major part of the process, ensuring that the candidate’s career goals align with your organizational goals helps improve the likelihood of a long-term hire.

This approach also opens up new ways to discover opportunities. For example, we had a client hiring in one country but had a goal to expand the business to South America. In our discovery with an elite candidate, their personal goals were to eventually make their way to South America. The opportunities aligned and the hired executive now runs the South American HQ of the organization.

These are just four of many talent acquisition strategies Whitham Group applies to pair you perfectly with a qualified and dedicated executive. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business build your dream team.