Transforming the capability of the Finance function

The challenge:

A leading UK retail Financial Services organisation had a clear vision for their Finance function but considered its existing team to lack the aptitude to drive towards this vision. It wanted to recruit a cohort of high calibre individuals who would transform the capability of the team, but had no faith in its PSL of recruitment agencies so we were engaged directly by the COO, Finance and the Head of Executive Recruitment to hire up to 15 individuals into roles at E, F & G level grades covering core finance and finance change disciplines into multiple UK offices.

Our solution:

In addition to being experienced Financial Services practitioners and possessing the core skillsets and experience for each role, each candidate needed to demonstrate both a current career trajectory and the potential to progress by two grades in the next three years. We deployed a multi-channel sourcing strategy then held assessment days across several UK locations to appraise candidates. This stage formed our long list, then from that candidates were invited to assessment centres for interviews with the hiring managers.

The outcome:

  • In total, the client made offers to 19 candidates, of which 16 accepted positions.

  • This was one more hire than the project had been originally scoped for, however, the client was so impressed by the calibre of the candidates that they decided to increase the headcount.