THE CLIENT
Tokio Marine Kiln is a specialist insurance company formed through a merger between kiln and Tokio Marine Europe. They currently employ over 800 people across 21 cities including London, Paris, Shanghai and Rio de Janeiro.
THE CHALLENGE
The former incumbent of this VAT Manager role had moved on from the business so a replacement was needed for the small in-house tax function. VAT within the insurance sector is a niche area of indirect tax so, as the line manager was more of a direct tax expert focusing on those matters, someone with more of an indirect tax skillset was required. As a new client, I was put in touch with the Recruitment Manager in order to agree on terms and to arrange a briefing.
THE SOLUTION
After discussing with Mary Thompson (Group Tax Manager) and Sam Mansbridge (Recruitment Manager) about the technical requirements for the role and, just as importantly, the personality fit for the desired candidate, Pro-Tax achieved a greater understanding of the best candidate for the role. A shortlist was drawn up from our database consisting of excellent VAT candidates we had recently spoken to of whom were actively looking for a move into industry and an advertising campaign was formed across popular job boards frequented by tax professionals.
THE RESULT
From the shortlist 4 CV’s were sent across to TMK with 2 of those candidates becoming processed through first and second stage interviews. Arranging the diaries of both candidates and hiring managers to be available for interview were performed with feedback for both parties taken and relayed in a prompt fashion. The successful candidate, unfortunately, had a bereavement in the family on the day they were offered which delayed the process however with patience and understanding from both Pro-Tax and TMK, the candidate accepted the position and started shortly after.
FOLLOW UP
Tokio Marine Kiln has been very happy with the placed candidate, especially during a busy period involving mergers and acquisitions concerning the business. We treated the placed candidate to a celebratory lunch once they had settled into their role and, due to the good work Pro-Tax had done, they referred a former colleague of theirs to Pro-Tax in order to find them a new role.
