THE CLIENT
Marie Stopes International is a global non-governmental organisation (NGO) providing contraception and safe abortion services in 38 countries around the world.
THE CHALLENGE
With such a complex global reporting structure, it’s imperative that Marie Stopes International (MSI) ensure its global teams are providing data from the same system and are able to demonstrate a “single version of the truth” in terms of financial controls and reporting. The Head of Global Reporting and Lead for the OneSun Project, Matthew Lean, wanted to deliver a centralised and standardised financial system in Sun V6 and Infor BI to MSI Offices worldwide while managing the BAU support of the systems. The decision was made to employ the (then) world’s largest global roll out of Sun V6 to all 38 sites around the world concurrently. Matthew wanted a specialist consultant who had a strong network of global Sun Systems implementation candidates with a finance background since these individuals are rarely on the market. MSI have an internal recruitment team and their process is to resource directly as much as possible but Matthew requested I work alongside the resourcing team to enhance the chances of resourcing for this time critical project. Having recruited for MSI for the last 10 years (including placing Matthew himself) they came to me due to the strength of the relationship built up between myself and the team. I knew what the culture was like, the rest of the team’s personalities and the overall drivers behind the project and expertise required.
OUR SOLUTION
I met with Katy Clementson, the internal Resourcing Business Partner and Matthew Lean face to face prior to the start of the recruitment process to ensure the best possible understanding of the role, the softer skills required and the milestones and drivers surrounding the OneSun project. As with all my clients, I wanted to ensure I was acting as an extension of MSI’s resourcing team and the work that Katy was putting in directly to source candidates. I worked with MSI on designing an advert and message to take to the market, pre-screened and completed face to face interviews with all interested candidates. I proactively headhunted and sourced passive candidates raising interest in the OneSun project along the way.
THE RESULT
I managed to source upwards of 10 candidates for MSI to consider for several Global Implementation roles as well as UK based reconciliation and data migration positions. The majority were interviewed either in person in London or via Skype remotely. I managed all of the arrangements alongside the resourcing team including diaries and travel logistics. I then arranged 2nd stage interviews and further stakeholder meetings where necessary before coordinating offers of employment. I was successful in placing 3 Global Implementation Consultants who were based out “in country” (Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, North America, South America and the Pacific), a Data Migration Consultant and a Financial Reconciliation Accountant both in the London office.
FOLLOW UP
The project drew to a successful close and the OneSun project was completed early and under budget! MSI, Katy and Matthew were extremely pleased with how my candidates supporting the project and as such used me to recruit the permanent Head of Global Systems and later the 2 Sun Systems Accountants based in London to support the team. "10/10 Matt is a top class recruiter. I’ve recommended him and will continue to do so. Matt’s incredibly personable and a highly effective communicator. What I have appreciated the most is how he dissects every role to ensure a really firm understanding, even when I’ve been too busy to give a full brief or to provide anything particularly useful in terms of background. I’m also grateful for how understanding you are of this. To summarise, our working relationship feels like a partnership rather than a client/ supplier agreement, which I believe is how it should work and is why you had so much success in working on my more complex recruitment campaigns, especially with the difficult project posts with particularly demanding managers at MSI. Please don’t change!" - Katy Clementson, Resourcing Business Partner at Marie Stopes.
