THE CLIENT
Parkinson's UK is a charity who empower and support thousands of people living with the condition, inspire health and social care professionals to help drive better care and steer ground-breaking research to improve treatments and to find a cure.
THE CHALLENGE
Parkinson’s were looking for a Deputy Director of Finance, Performance and Planning to report into the Deputy CEO and had previously advertised directly as well as engaged with other agencies – neither of which had been successful in finding an appointable candidate.
OUR SOLUTION
Upon speaking to Parkinson’s about the challenge, we organised a meeting with the Deputy CEO to talk about the challenges of both the role and organisation and to really understand the spec – both technically and culturally. We also discussed why they had been unsuccessful previously and what we could differently as the role had been well advertised on the market for a while. The feedback was the Deputy CEO felt re-energised after this meeting. We changed the job title to accurately reflect the duties and responsibilities closer agreed on search criteria, the target candidate and other key things about the campaign. We rewrote the advert and our marketing department used banners and dual branding to make the advert really stand out and look different. All candidates received an initial call and candidate information pack within 24 hours of applying to keep their interest. Shortlisted candidates were invited into our offices for the first interview with myself. In this first interview key competencies of the role were examined in a lot more detail and candidates were required to give full competency-based answers. We had also agreed with Parkinson’s that all shortlisted candidates would complete a Thomas International PPA prior to interview which exams a candidate's working style and suggests areas to question further at interview. We attended a shortlisting meeting with Parkinson’s to talk through our suggested shortlist of candidates to interview, along with interrupting the PPA and answering any questions. Five candidates were called for the first interview with Parkinson’s and three a second interview.
THE RESULT
Stephen Hooper was offered and accepted this role and has been with Parkinson’s for several months. Feedback from both parties is the move was right for both. "I have had the pleasure of working with Claire when she was recruited to take on the role of Divisional Director of the Finance Division at Harris Hill. Having gone through a period of change within the team, it was key to appoint the right leader to keep the division on the right trajectory and ensure the team would be developed and supported. Claire was a great addition, she built a strong team of high performing consultants and met and exceeded all targets. I now work with Claire and her team at Pro and we are delighted with the support she provides. Having significantly reduced our dependency on agencies the vacancies we go to Claire and the team with can be challenging due to a candidate-led market. We find they have a very creative, pro-active and honest approach which results in good candidates being submitted to the organisation. We also value all the additional support they provide on a pro-bono basis." - Parkinson's UK.
