Strategic Talent Deployment for High-Stakes Automation Projects

The Client

The client is an industrial automation system solution dedicated to helping companies optimize their operations and solve increasingly complex parcel and production environment challenges.

The Challenge

The client faced significant workforce challenges, driven by an urgent need to deploy 30 commissioning engineers and HMI engineers for a critical initiative with one of their major accounts. As project demands intensified, their internal recruiting team struggled to scale quickly, creating a backlog and prompting the need to enhance their existing hiring strategies. Despite efforts to accelerate recruitment, onboarding emerged as a persistent hurdle.

A core issue was a constrained talent pool—particularly in controls and commissioning roles, where candidates were reluctant to travel nationwide. This was compounded by broader market conditions: fierce competition for niche technical talent, geographic clustering of skilled professionals and saturation across the contractor market, which increased compensation expectations and reduced overall availability.

Operational challenges intensified these difficulties. Delays in TN visa approvals and delayed onboarding processes hindered the mobilization of international talent with relevant industry expertise. Hiring velocity failed to keep pace with project timelines, resulting in resource gaps and jeopardizing execution. At the same time, the organization lacked the workforce flexibility to scale in response to evolving needs and shifting deadlines.

These limitations posed significant risks to delivery outcomes, especially for their high-priority clients. Without a reliable and scalable labor solution, the client faced potential revenue losses and missed opportunities to win new projects. A successful solution would help the client with the opportunity to win more projects and expand their footprint with larger key clients.

The Actalent Solution

Actalent's tailored solution was grounded in a deep understanding of the client’s hiring preferences, technical demands and organizational culture—an advantage gained through a longstanding partnership. Our prior experience supporting the client’s hiring needs gave us a strong understanding of the ideal candidate profiles and successful placements from past engagements. By leveraging historical insights, Actalent was able to efficiently target the most promising talent sources, such as specific universities, companies, and professional networks known for producing candidates with the necessary expertise and travel flexibility—enabling a higher rate of successful placements.

To ensure both speed and quality, Actalent provided end-to-end support—from dedicated recruiters, account managers, manager for sub-vending to robust back-office operations. This cohesive structure enabled rapid candidate sourcing without compromising fit and allowed for agility when scaling up recruitment based on urgent project timelines. Strategic collaboration with a sub-vendor further amplified sourcing capabilities and visa processing efficiency, particularly for TN visa candidates—opening access to broader talent pools with minimal onboarding delays.

Complementing these operational strengths was a commitment to proactive communication and coordination. Weekly touchpoints with the client’s Human Resource team ensured consistent alignment on hiring needs, onboarding updates, and key administrative processes such as invoicing and expense tracking. A streamlined interview process also helped expedite decision-making, allowing the client to stay ahead of project demands while maintaining high standards in talent acquisition.

The Results

As the client’s operational scale expanded in 2025, so did the urgency to reinforce project delivery with dependable external support. Actalent stepped in with agility and expertise, successfully onboarding 30 consultants in under three months to meet rising demands without compromising quality. This rapid response enabled the client to stay on schedule and maintain continuity across complex initiatives.

Through a strategic sub-vending partnership, we streamlined immigration support—especially for TN visa candidates—by managing the process end-to-end. This approach significantly reduced time-to-start, lifted administrative burden from the client, and fast-tracked onboarding. We also adapted to unexpected challenges, including equipment delays and expense tracking hurdles, by implementing internal process improvements and closely collaborating with the client’s team to resolve bottlenecks before they impacted delivery.

All project milestones were met on schedule, and the consultants’ contributions consistently reflected the client’s high standards. Actalent’s scalable, consultative approach—coupled with proactive solutions around logistics and immigration—reinforced its role as a trusted partner in the client’s continued growth.