THE CLIENT
King's College London was founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington (then Prime Minister) in 1829 as a university college in the tradition of the Church of England. It now welcomes staff and students of all faiths and beliefs. King's professors played a major part in nineteenth-century science and in extending higher education to women and working men through evening classes. The university has grown and developed through mergers with several institutions each with their own distinguished histories. These include:
- United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals
- Chelsea College
- Queen Elizabeth College
- Institute of Psychiatry
THE CHALLENGE
In 2018 Kings College London made the decision to embark on a journey to become trailblazers in the Higher Education world. This was to drive a completely new way of working within their HR function. The decision was to embed a brand-new People Partner model across three different faculties; Arts & Sciences, Health and Professional Services. They were looking for People Partners (HR Business Partners) at Grade 7 and Grade 8 levels. The key challenge for us was that we were up against a couple of agencies that were seen as preferred suppliers at the time, and this was the first time we were working with Kings. The other challenge was working with the three Senior People Partner’s that headed up the faculties who all had different needs and wanted very different experience/skill sets.
OUR SOLUTION
We met with the Senior People Partner’s to get their personal briefings as this wasn’t going to be a “one-size-fits-all” piece of recruitment. We then had to write 3 very different adverts and structure how we were going to source for these roles by way of priority.
THE RESULT
After meeting and rejecting a large number of candidates, the best candidates were established for the roles and we sent across CVs in bulk to the three Senior People Partners. We booked in a follow-up call with the hiring managers to go through feedback, giving my thoughts on why the candidates were put forward and to answer any questions had regarding their experience or softer skills. This could only be done as we had met each one of the candidates and had a full understanding of their background and their motivations. We ended up placing four candidates with Kings College London, two at Grade 7 and two at Grade 8 level. (between £47,000 - £63,000)
