Advantage Solutions

The Hiring Need

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Advantage Solutions experienced high turnover throughout its accounting department. As Senior Director of Accounting, Scott Vahle was under pressure and constantly hiring for over a year. He needed to fill roles from junior staff accountant up to the controller level, including accounting supervisors, managers, senior staff accountants, and staff accountants. Hiring was difficult across industries during COVID-19 but incredibly challenging in accounting. Advantage Solutions was also cost-conscious during this period since the pandemic had wiped out in-store sampling, which represented a section of their business. Vahle was familiar with Century Group. It had placed him in a great job before he found his permanent position with Advantage Solutions. Over the decades, he had seen accounting recruiting businesses come and go, but Century Group was stable. He reached out to Nathalie Hollants and Barnaby Wang at the Costa Mesa office.

The Solution

Vahle worked with Nathalie to fill most positions and Barnaby to fill senior management-level candidates like controller. He was extremely impressed with their responsiveness and how quickly they worked.

"Century Group helps us find very professional people. Nathalie is wonderful to talk to and works very fast. She would send me five resumes in one day, and we would set up back-to-back interviews. What I really appreciate is her ability to zero in on specific things we’re looking for to bring me the right person at the right value point."

Vahle oversees a global accounting team with unique requirements that make positions even more challenging to fill. Nathalie helped him zero in on skilled accounting candidates with required language abilities, including Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. "Nathalie has been able to find those needle-in-a-haystack candidates — very impressive!"

The Result

Vahle's accounting department is more stable than during the pandemic, but he continues to work with Century Group to meet his hiring needs. He knows he can rely on them for top-notch service.

"Century Group has a big pool of candidates they are sourcing from. They’ve been around a long time and have worked with people for years, so they can bring in the right people and make decisions quickly."