Recruiting Becomes a Life-Saving Assignment

February, 2000
by Joyce Herring

In just over four months, The Dalley Hewitt Company (Dalley Hewitt) orchestrated the realignment and reblending of a large sales force for the Wound Management Division of Smith & Nephew, Inc. (S&N) located in Largo, Florida. As a result, S&N is ready to launch an innovative, multimillion-dollar biotechnology product that will dramatically improve wound care techniques, saving millions of patients from losing their limbs and lives.

S&N is known for pacesetting educational programs that substantiate the company's dedication to the science of wound healing. With its wide range of specialty products and educational services supporting advanced wound, skin and I.V. site care products, S&N has established a leadership position in the healthcare industry.

Orchestrating a hiring blitz

Working with senior management, Dalley Hewitt developed a strategic plan to evaluate the existing sales management talent, reposition that talent to a new type of selling, determine hybrid sales and service skills needed for new hires and develop a recruiting approach to round out the existing sales force.

Using its well-established client relationship and organization insights, Dalley Hewitt completed the initial aspect of the project within a few weeks during year-end holidays as preparation for a first quarter hiring blitz. Initially, Dalley Hewitt interviewed over half the management staff for this 100-plus sales team as well as those aspiring to management. Simultaneously, Dalley Hewitt's staff generated and evaluated over 100 talented candidates for the newly created positions nationwide.

"Dalley Hewitt made possible the successful and rapid growth of an existing sales team by finding quality new hires quickly who could launch a wound care product capable of revolutionizing the wound management industry nationwide," explained Rod Skaggs, president of S&N's Wound Management Division. "As a result, we can have a much stronger impact in the marketplace."

These newly developed positions called for a mixture of sales and service skills with a strong focus and compensation on team results. At the same time S&N changed to a consultative, problem-solving approach to sales. Consequently, these positions were very hard to fill. In spite of this, Dalley Hewitt quickly and effectively located finalist candidates and had them on board within eight weeks. By the end of the first quarter, all new staff was in place and prepared to meet its obligations for the worldwide launch of this advanced wound care product.

Extending HR assets

According to Skaggs, Dalley Hewitt provides far more than recruiting services by enhancing the management team's HR capabilities. Dalley Hewitt was able to:

Assess the current strengths of sales resources for staff alignment and development
Define additional resources needed to integrate the revolutionary biogenetic product into the product mix
Recruit sales staff for the newly created positions
Monitor and evaluate the recruiting process to ensure success
Develop a close relationship with a joint venture partner of the Wound Management Division to include their interests and needs in the recruiting process

"Dalley Hewitt's team has become Smith & Nephew's answer to an expanded HR department," explained Skaggs. "This partnering relationship allows us to focus our internal resources on other strategic issues while the Dalley Hewitt team manages projects as if it were a second Smith & Nephew HR resource."

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