OVERVIEW
US Foods is a leading foodservice distributor that partners with 300,000 restaurants and foodservice operators to help their businesses succeed. With nearly 28,000 employees and more than 70 locations, the company provides customers with broad and innovative food offerings along with e-commerce, technology, and business solutions.
CHALLENGE
Growth in data science was a top goal for US Foods. To drive this effort, they sought a senior data scientist who could serve as both player and coach, possessing a balance of deep technical skills with proven management and leadership experience.
Because the company was still maturing in data science, it was not yet considered desirable to top talent when compared to other companies. The company’s hiring managers had posted the job, but the quantity and quality of incoming candidates were not meeting expectations. Despite spending many hours reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates, they could not find the right person to meet the high standards set by the data science team.
SOLUTION
As months passed with the position unfilled, the company’s hiring manager reached out to Mavent Analytics Talent team to find the right highlyqualified data science candidate. We proposed a path forward with our Agile Direct Hire™ Premium service.
Partnering with the hiring manager, we revised the technical skills on the job description, aligning them more closely to the sought-after skills and competencies we knew were available in the current talent market. We also collaborated on a “take-home” assessment that would be used to validate candidates’ practical knowledge in key data science areas.
With updated search criteria, we identified two candidates for the role. Before presenting them, both went through our internal vetting process with in-house data science subject-matter experts. The candidates completed the newly developed assessment, allowing our client to ensure each had the requisite skills and competencies to succeed.
Our client interviewed both candidates and selected the better fit of the two. We made the offer and navigated the negotiation process, landing the first candidate within the client’s desired salary range. Once our placed candidate started in his new position, our Aftercare 360 feedback program ensured both sides were satisfied with the match over our 90-day guarantee period.
OUTCOMES
- After advising our client on role requirements, filled role with first attempt, driving substantial cost savings, reduced interview cycles, and decreased stakeholder frustration.
- New assessment process was deemed so successful it was implemented into the client’s hiring process.
- One year later: the data scientist was promoted to a higher-level management role. He then spearheaded a Data Science Center of Excellence, implemented a new machine learning operations strategy, expanded cloud capabilities, and implemented numerous data science best practice processes.
