THE CLIENT
Established over 100 years ago, Kreston Reeves is a Top 30 Accountancy Practice with offices throughout the Kent, Sussex and London area. They have a history of constantly evolving with the most recent incarnation being the merger of Kreston Reeves with Spofforths another established firm who were based in the Sussex area. They offer a range of services including accounts and outsourcing, audit and assurance, business advisory, corporate finance, financial planning, forensic accounting and litigations support, online accounting, restructuring, taxation and wealth management.
THE CHALLENGE
Kreston Reeves brought on board a new Recruitment Manager to streamline their recruitment processes, they wanted to work with fewer agencies and for these agencies to eventually sign up to a Preferred Supplier List. In the run up to the PSL being established the Recruitment Manager shortlisted a number of agencies to potentially go onto the PSL based on recommendation from within the business and prior performance. Following on from a meeting with the recruitment manager we were invited to recruit on five vacancies within the Tax and Trusts department. This would give us a chance to prove ourselves before the PSL was implemented. We were given three vacancies within Corporate Tax and two vacancies within Trusts.
Our Solution
I met with Gary Hicks the Trust Partner and spoke with Laurence Parry the Partner heading up the recruitment into the Corporate Tax team. I ensured that I had a solid understanding of the requirements of the vacancies, the team hierarchy, culture of the business and the unique selling points of the firm in order to attract the ideal candidates. I produced a number of targeted adverts to be based in relevant on and offline publications such as Taxation and ICAEW to attract new candidates, I also headhunted and used our extensive established database to produce shortlists for each vacancy. Working closely with a dedicated resourcer we pre-screened and conducted face-to-face interviews focusing on competency and technical based questions as well as extensive CV screening and exploring in detail what the candidate's’ motivation for wanting to work at Kreston Reeves was.
THE RESULT
I put 22 candidates forward to Kreston Reeves of which 12 were interviewed at first stage and five were taken through to second and final stage. Three candidates were offered positions and three candidates accepted. I managed all of the arrangements including diaries, feedback from both parties and the offer process. Not only was I successful in helping Kreston Reeves to fill three of their five vacancies but I have also ensured that we are invited to join the PSL.
FOLLOW UP
All candidates have started and are happy in their new positions. I have taken them out for celebratory lunches. The feedback from Partners is that they are settling well into their teams, are a good fit culturally and technically strong. "I have been working with the Pro Group on a programme of specialist hires for Kreston Reeves and been impressed with the results, in particular Emma Rose of Pro-Tax has performed especially well with a high ratio of interviews to offers, she has worked hard in a tough and highly competitive market and sourced excellent candidates who are not just intellectually qualified but a good personal fit for our teams."
