The Brief
After successfully recruiting a number of Executive roles for the group, and as part of our ongoing partnership, we were retained by the Divisional HRD for People Solutions to recruit a new Managing Director for the Learning Services Pillar. This was a key appointment, following a wider divisional restructure, to report to the Executive Officer, who sits on the Group Executive Committee for Capita. The Pillar MD was to be accountable for providing the leadership, management and vision to effectively grow the organisation and ensure financial strength and operational efficiency. They were seeking an industry expert and someone visionary with an execution-driven mindset. Strong leadership skills were essential, and the ability to lead and represent the organisation externally in client and market engagement.
The Process
We initially invested considerable time with the client to understand the divisional strategic goals, the focus of this leadership role and the competencies needed to meet these goals. We assembled our internal team, appointing those with the most relevant industry experience, and those with a long-term relationship with Capita. The process involved an extensive and targeted search by our dedicated research team, including passive and active candidates, searching our network and database and a digital advertising solution. We had regular weekly updates with the client to do a progress review, which included a longlist exercise, before shortlisting 4 candidates for client interview. Subject to some wider changes, the brief consequently changed, leading us to undertake the same process again at no additional cost to the client . We provided a second shortlist of 4 candidates who progressed to client interviews and an offer was made. We undertook further due diligence with full 360 referencing to help inform the client’s final decision.