Assisting privatisation in the utility industry
The privatisation of the Danish water and sewage utility sector triggered extensive mergers and a surge in demand for highly specialised engineers. Over several years, Capax has assisted many of Denmark's largest utilities with finding the right profiles in a concentrated and competitive talent market.
About the context
A sector in transformation — merging, growing, and urgently hiring
The privatisation of the Danish water and sewage utility sector has led to utilities merging and scaling up rapidly. This transformation has necessitated extensive recruitment processes — as newly consolidated organisations needed to adapt while attracting expert candidates in ways that required external expertise.
Capax was hired to assist with recruiting specialists for many of Denmark's largest water and sewage utilities. It has been an extensive process that has lasted several years — with Novafos being among the most prominent of the collaborations.
"Capax definitely met the challenge, and I am certain that we, through their assistance, have hired an exceedingly skilled project manager." — Tina Otterstrøm Jensen, Novafos
The challenge
A concentrated talent pool under extraordinary demand
Recruiting specialists for the utility space is inherently challenging — the talent pool is small and concentrated. When the entire sector underwent privatisation simultaneously, that already narrow pool of hydraulics specialists, sewage engineers, and utility project managers was in even higher demand across multiple competing organisations.
Highly specialised profiles
Hydraulics specialists and sewage engineers represent a narrow, concentrated group of experts — with limited supply and rising demand during the privatisation wave.
Sector-wide simultaneous demand
Multiple utilities were competing for the same small pool of candidates at the same time — making proactive headhunting essential and passive job posting insufficient.
Organisational change as barrier
Candidates were cautious about joining organisations in active transformation. Communicating stability and opportunity within a changing environment required careful positioning.
Attracting candidates to a new model
Newly privatised utilities needed to attract experts used to a different organisational culture — requiring a fresh approach to employer branding and candidate communication.
What Capax did differently
Four disciplines that worked in a sector under pressure
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1
Deep sector mapping
Capax built a detailed map of the Danish utility sector — identifying which specialists were working where, their seniority levels, and their likely openness to a move given the broader market transformation.
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2
Proactive outreach to passive candidates
With specialists in extra high demand, Capax could not rely on inbound interest. We reached out directly to profiles with the required technical expertise — presenting the opportunity as a natural next step given the sector shift.
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3
Positioning change as opportunity
The ongoing transformation of the utility sector was reframed as a compelling career argument — candidates willing to help shape a newly privatised organisation could have a rare level of influence and impact.
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4
Sustained multi-year partnership
Capax's involvement extended over several years and across multiple utilities — building accumulated knowledge that made each new assignment more efficient and better targeted than the last.
Recruiting for a sector in transformation requires more than a strong network — it requires understanding what motivates specialists to move during a period of uncertainty, and being able to communicate that clearly and honestly.
Result
Critical specialist positions filled across multiple utilities
Capax successfully assisted many of Denmark's largest water and sewage utilities with recruiting the specialist profiles needed to navigate the sector's privatisation — from hydraulics engineers to project managers and technical leaders.
The multi-year partnership model proved essential in a sector where relationships and accumulated knowledge matter. Each assignment built on the last — and the results spoke for themselves, as Novafos and others continued to rely on Capax throughout their transformation.
Learnings
What this case taught us
- In concentrated talent markets, proactive headhunting is the only viable strategy — job postings cannot reach the specialists you need
- Sector-wide transformation creates both urgency and opportunity — candidates aware of the broader shift are often more open to a move than in stable periods
- Positioning change as career opportunity requires honest communication — candidates can tell the difference between spin and genuine strategic framing
- Long-term sector expertise compounds — each utility assignment made Capax faster and better for the next
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