Challenge

SMA Australia services utility & commercial scale solar projects across Australia, primarily in hard to reach rural locations including but not limited to Toowoomba, Port Augusta, Townsville, Albury and Dubbo. Finding and nurturing technical talent that is willing to relocate to these locations is no easy task.

Additionally, the SMA group is heavily focused on customer service and support. In fact, the company prides itself on regularly sending its engineers to provide local support to clients in their language.

Hence, when SMA was looking to make its mark within the growing ANZ market, it’s no wonder the company chose to set up in Sydney, Australia for its central location and access to high-end multicultural talent.

Serving clients from Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands, SMA Australia needed to create and constantly upkeep a dedicated multilingual team of the highest level for local technical support.

However, considering the renewable energy market is a niche one, finding talent that has the correct technical expertise as well as multilingual abilities remains a challenge. That’s where Anávo’s cultural appreciation and local expertise comes in handy.

Approach

As SMA continues to be Australia’s #1 provider of large scale inverters, both their permanent & contract talent needs are of the highest standard.

To fulfil their niche requirements, we crafted a tailor-made, all-in-one solution, enabling them to outsource all recruitment, HR consulting and fixed term contract payroll functions to us (through our parent company, Polyglot Group).

By electing us as their staff’s Employer of Record, SMA Australia is now able to recruit & onboard employees anywhere without the hassle, as well as leave local HR, Payroll & admin responsibilities to us knowing that we ensure compliance on their behalf.

As SMA Australia’s exclusive recruitment partner, we have also made (and continue to make) a point of meeting with their Managing Director, HR Manager & Head of Finance to forecast / “pre-source” their headcounts on a quarterly basis.

This for both their Sydney HQ office , as well as for field roles all across Australia (to be based near their many Solar PV utility scale projects).

Success

Anávo has been instrumental in SMA Australia’s growth over the last 4 years, helping them double their team and continue their sustainable growth.

Thanks to our extensive network and strong knowledge of the overall renewables market, combined with in-depth search campaigns, the Anávo team is continually fulfilling SMA Australia’s growing talent needs. This for both their sales and back-office staff, as well as their technical positions in capital cities and regional roles spread out across the country.

By providing full market mapping exercises, Anávo has also empowered SMA Australia to make more informed decisions when executing organisational restructures, as well as budgeting their business growth and talent acquisition.

Finally, by giving them access to one point of contact for all of their talent & HR needs, Anávo has enabled SMA Australia to focus on their core business, so that they may concentrate on their growth across Asia Pacific.