THE CLIENT
PwC is the leading provider of tax services in the UK, in terms of the reputation, size and scope of the tax practice. With clients ranging from multinational organisations and public sector bodies to entrepreneurs and family businesses, the work they do is diverse. They lead the debate with tax authorities and governments in the UK, changing the way we all think about tax.
THE CHALLENGE
Pro-Tax have worked closely with PwC for a number of years, and being a preferred supplier, I was instructed on a search for a Manager to join the Tax Technology Portfolio team in London. Being a very niche area of tax, this is certainly not an easy position to fill – especially being at Manager level, where they expect an individual to be able to come in and hit the ground running from day one. I set up a meeting with the recruitment team at PwC and two senior members of the Tax Technology team to discuss the role in more depth, find out about the team, the culture, and establish our recruitment strategy.
OUR SOLUTION
During the meeting with PwC, we discussed various options with this challenging recruitment assignment. As they had reached out to other agencies, we were unable to offer a retained search. We advised them that we should look at running a contingent search but if that was not successful after a period of time we should then engage in a more proactive search by ways of mapping the market, advertising, both in print (Taxation, Tax Advisor, Tax Journal) and online (LinkedIn, Taxation, ICAEW, Reed etc.) in order to attract a more ‘passive’ candidate. After speaking to several candidates already known to Pro-Tax, I didn’t get any success with my search. I decided to take my search to LinkedIn, where I contacted several candidates with profiles matching my requirements, where I had a great response rate.
THE RESULT
After talking and meeting with the candidate interested in the role at PwC it was clear that his skills were very transferable and would fit the criteria and the team environment at PwC. As the candidate was only passively looking at his opportunities in the market, after submitting his CV to PwC, I arranged an informal conversation/coffee with two senior members of the team to discuss further. After meeting him in the first round it was clear that the candidate could bring a lot to the role and bring some great experience. The candidate was very impressed with the opportunity at PwC and decided to take the process to the formal/technical interview stage. I scheduled this in for three days later, and shortly after, he was offered the position. The whole process from initial conversation with PwC to offer stage was completed in just over a week.
FOLLOW UP
A month on and Ahmer has integrated into the team very well and is starting to work on his own portfolio of clients. We had a wonderful celebratory lunch at The Ivy in Covent Garden to catch up and raise a glass. I will continue to speak with Ahmer and my client to check in and make sure he is happy and progressing well in his new role. “I would highly recommend Maisie as she helped me in getting my recent role in big 4. The help and support which she provided was phenomenal, she guided me thoroughly in each step of interview process. I would really love to work with her in future.” - Ahmer Bin Nadeem Mir, Tax Technology Portfolio Manager at PwC
