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As Equinor accelerated its transition toward renewables and digital capabilities, it needed to attract senior leaders from talent markets that were not historically core to the organisation. These hires were critical not only to immediate delivery, but also to building a future executive pipeline aligned to Equinor’s low-carbon strategy. Working with AMS Executive Search, Equinor adopted a more cost-efficient, compliant, and standardised approach to senior external hiring, underpinned by deep market intelligence and targeted sourcing. By combining executive search expertise with the cultural and operational insight of AMS’s embedded RPO team, Equinor successfully filled key leadership roles in renewables and digital while delivering a high-touch candidate experience, reducing risk, and achieving approximately 40 percent cost savings compared to traditional executive search models.
Equinor is an international energy company that is committed to long-term value creation in a low-carbon future. With a mission to turn natural resources into energy for people and progress for society, Equinor has a global footprint which spans 30+ countries and is comprised of c.21,000 employees.
To supercharge the energy transition and remain an industry leader in carbon efficiency, a strong pipeline of talent is vital. Equinor needs decision makers and leaders that align to their vision of tackling climate change and pushing through boundaries to truly make a difference.
Equinor needed to attract leaders from the external market in disciplines that were not previously core to their business, particularly in Renewables and Digital. Once identified and brought into the business, these leaders are the pipeline of future talent for the executive roles in Equinor and are therefore critical hires.
To complicate matters, global talent shortages, varying processes and a strong focus on compliance and cost needed to be considered. Equinor needed a more cost efficient, standardized and compliant approach to attracting senior talent from the external market.
Equinor partnered with the AMS executive search team, who in turn focused on a two-pronged approach: qualitative metrics and research allied with best-in-class sourcing.
The market and competitive intelligence team and the AMS executive search team carried out research on talent markets (and locations) that were new to Equinor, which in turn led to decisions being made on where critical hires should be located. On the basis of this research, talent was approached, attracted and recruited.
The executive search team leveraged the in- depth knowledge and understanding that the existing embedded RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) team from AMS had about the internal culture within Equinor, which ensured all processes ran smoothly and compliantly.
For an organization that needed to swiftly bolster their leadership talent, this partnership enabled critical leadership positions to be filled. The outcome meant that Equinor could feel comfortable that these candidates had a high touch candidate experience that was aligned to the necessary internal standards required, and this was all provided at a cost much lower that was previously possible.
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