Background: In July 2009, the CEO of a large, privately owned electrical design-build and systems integration firm decided to invest in new resources that would improve the overall functionality of the company. In contrast to many other construction or engineering executives and managers who hire people purely for project oversight, the CEO was specifically looking for a true Quality Control and Quality Assurance (“QA/QC”) person to help proactively coordinate and oversee all quality improvements in the organization and make it a pioneer in the industry.
Challenge: Unfortunately, QA/QC specialists with strong process improvement skills do not exist in most construction companies. Therefore, RSMR was challenged to find an individual who was working in manufacturing or another comparable industry that employed process improvement QA/QC specialists and then convince him or her to move into the construction industry. The key problem is that, historically, the construction industry has the reputation for lacking interest in creating and maintaining tangible process efficiency improvements to create better, long-term QA/QC solutions for projects using historical data and leveraging past performance as a guide for future actions.
Action: RSMR quickly researched the Northern Virginia market for credible candidates and created a strategic, targeted communication plan to contact the most qualified QA/QC candidates directly.
Resolution: The selected candidate came from a very large multi-national equipment manufacturing company in rural Virginia. This candidate was able to understand the unique challenges our client faced and able to implement effective process improvements. His academic credentials were unusually strong, with multiple master’s degrees to complement his highly credible engineering background. He has been on board less than a year, but he has already organized his department, become a change agent, and is in the process of expanding his group to achieve the objectives established by the CEO.
