Recruiting a Commercial Advisor for Container Exchange

About Container Exchange

Established in 2018, Container Exchange (COEX) is a not-for-profit organisation running Queensland’s Containers for Change Scheme, ensuring that over 3 billion drink bottles don't end up as landfill.

The Containers for Change Scheme allows people to return eligible drink containers for a 10 cent refund at over 270 sites across Queensland, reducing container litter and encouraging enterprises to raise funds from donations of container refunds. 

In addition to the Containers for Change Scheme, COEX promotes recycling and helps the local community from donations to charities, community and sports groups, as well as not-for-profit organisations registered with the scheme. 

Matching a high-performing talent with a high-performing organisation

Container Exchange is an incredibly high-performing organisation, packed full of first-class professionals, each one dedicated to making a real difference in the world.



The Commercial Advisor role is quite a unique role because of the context and structure of the business. This role needed someone who could do a bit of everything. And do it very well.

The perfect candidate would have advanced financial literacy as well as technical knowledge of commercial analysis and reporting. They also needed to have project and program reporting skills from an ICT point of view, with the commercial acumen skills to work collaboratively across the organisation.

The Challenge

Three different skills for one role, with just 2 weeks to fill the position

Container Exchange needed someone who could fill this role with experience and skills across all three aspects, this is quite hard to find in the talent market. 

We had to find the best three worlds as well as ensure our candidates had an alignment with the high performing culture and its strategic direction that Container Exchange had built.

The successful candidate also needed to be adaptable, flexible, willing to learn, and grow with the business. 

Kingston Human Capital had two weeks to search for this role. It was a short time frame, however, we worked hard and fast to turn it around.

Container Exchange is very strategic when it comes to finding new talent. Kingston Human Capital has worked closely with COEX on an exclusive basis. This allowed our search team to dedicate 100% of our time, energy, resources, and expertise toward finding the perfect person for the job.

The Process

Different crossover skills needed extensive interviewing to get the balance right

Because of the three crossovers skill sets, the Kingston Human Capital recruiting team were looking for a candidate who was a niche within a niche within a niche. We were looking for someone with experience in a role that traditionally doesn't exist in organisational structures.

It required the specialist strateigc HR and talent search team at Kingston Human Capital to perform comprehensive interviews to unearth skill sets beyond what a traditional CV would portray.

We investigated the candidates extensively by asking them a broad variety of evaluation questions, which were designed to surface their skill sets.

We also focused on understanding the individual's drivers, emotional intelligence and soft skills that they would bring to the role and their alignment to the strategic growth and direction of the organisation. 

How Kingston Human Capital helped Container Exchange find the right candidate?

1. We did a deep dive analysis to understand the challenges facing the role and the outcomes the perfect candidate would need to produce.
2. We developed a specialised search strategy and developed a multi-channel attraction strategy that would appeal to passive and active talent.
3. We utilised our expertise in sourcing, networking, and activating candidates in the passive talent market to develop a strong shortlist.
4. We provided our advice in candidate evaluation and behavioural interviews alongside designing a high-impact interview format. We acted as a concierge for three rounds of interviews.
5. Supported the client by facilitating the discussion as to who was the most value-adding candidate. We supported COEX in extending the offer to the successful candidate.
6. We liaise with internal HR to ensure a smooth onboarding process.
   

Learn more about Kingston Human Capital Recruitment Process

The Result

A High Quality field of Talent identified that resulted in a second position being created

Container Exchange was impressed with the shortlist and extremely happy with the quality of the applicants.

Kingston Human Capital met the challenging turnaround times as well as providing excellent candidates.   

After the first stage interview, Container Exchange was already very impressed with all candidates.

Due to the quality of our shortlist, they found it challenging to decide who was the best candidate and moved to the second stage interviews.



After the second stage interviews, COEX decided to hire one candidate and create a new position for another candidate. Effectively making two hires out of one recruitment project.

Container Exchange has a reputation for hiring the best of the best. They are forward-thinking and highly strategic when it comes to talent acquisition and we're proud to partner with them.

What did Container Exchange value most about Kingston Human Capital's Recruitment Services?

There were 10 business days to deliver on a shortlist. This was a tight timeline, because of the nature of the complexity of this role.


We were also working with passive candidates in the mix, it made the timelines tighter. 

Great recruitment is all about executing a diligent and thorough process, managing timelines, and keeping our clients and our candidates well informed. We always move quickly, but never at the cost of quality.

We work with organisations that change the world. Container Exchange is not only delivering incredible outcomes for the environment, they are an employer of choice as well.

We help recruit great executive talent

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Discover how Kingston Human Capital are different and give you a competitive advantage.

We work as an agile team across retained recruitment projects, ensuring we can commit the time and effort of our entire search team. This allows us to reach further into the market, which means we get to evaluate more candidates and get high-quality results.