From transition to transformation: Talent’s exclusive partnership with HPE
-
95% of contractors engaged through Talent
through an exclusive partnership in Auckland -
25 specialist hires delivered
across highly technical roles -
Interview-to-placement ratio improved 3x
from 1 in 8, to 1 in 2-3
Their story
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a global infrastructure and services provider, supporting clients across virtually every industry with enterprise hardware, cloud solutions, and managed services. Their role is expansive, from implementing large-scale infrastructure to delivering full-service support and systems management for organisations like Spark and Nvidia.
In New Zealand, HPE had ambitious plans to expand its delivery capability, especially in Auckland. But their hiring process was slow, fragmented, and inefficient with multiple managers working independently, inconsistent feedback loops, and a lack of visibility over progress. Our relationship with HPE has been longstanding but low volume, until one consultant stepped in to rebuild the partnership and streamline their hiring process from the ground up.
The challenge
HPE’s hiring challenges were twofold:
1. Process inefficiency: Disjointed communication, inconsistent candidate feedback, and delayed interviews were leading to high drop-off rates and a poor experience for both HPE and candidates.
2. Niche skills required: Roles demanded professionals with hands-on experience using HPE infrastructure and technologies. This meant working within a narrow and highly competitive talent pool.
Additionally, HPE needed to move quickly on a strategic workforce transition: Spark NZ was making 36 systems engineers redundant, but HPE wanted to retain this talent to continue servicing Spark’s infrastructure clients via a managed service agreement.
The solution
We rebuilt the entire recruitment engagement with HPE, turning a once-scattered process into a streamlined, high-conversion partnership. Key changes included:
- Introducing structure and transparency: We implemented weekly check-ins with hiring managers and monthly progress reports using a colour-coded traffic light system to highlight role urgency, roadblocks, and timelines ensuring decisions were made while candidates were still available and interested.
- Creating hiring momentum: By looping in HPE operations and escalating updates, we shifted hiring from reactive to proactive, aligning all stakeholders on timelines and expectations.
- Exclusive delivery model: As our results and trust grew, HPE moved to exclusive engagements for Auckland-based contract roles.
- Supporting a major talent transfer: When 15 Spark engineers were at risk of redundancy, we worked with HPE and Spark to smoothly transition them into contract roles with HPE. This included education around contracting, reduced payroll margins, and full access to our contractor care program to support retention and engagement. Our ENGAGE mobile app gave contractors an easy, modern way to manage timesheets and admin, replacing outdated manual processes.
This work directly enabled the launch of HPE’s new Auckland ITOC team, housed in their recently opened office in Auckland Central. The team now operates as a delivery centre for managed service clients in the region.
The result
Our partnership with HPE has delivered significant impact across recruitment, transition, and workforce integration:
- 25 placements made, predominantly across highly specialised job families including Solution Architects, Technical Consultants, Data Protection Consultants, and Compute and Hypervisor Consultants.
- Interview-to-placement ratio improved from 1 in 8, to just 1 in 2–3.
- Exclusive partner for contract hiring in Auckland, trusted to deliver in high-stakes environments.
- Seamless transition of 15 Spark engineers into HPE roles, retaining critical knowledge and avoiding disruption.
- Direct support in building out HPE’s Auckland ITOC delivery team.
- 95% of HPE’s New Zealand contractors now engaged through Talent, spanning ITOC, content, sales, and other business units.
- Contractors feel fully integrated with HPE’s permanent workforce, helping maintain culture, collaboration, and team cohesion.
- High-performing contractors extended and recognised, reinforcing quality of hire and fit.
