Recruitment of a Group Finance Director
£155m
Company size
Property
Sector
1,000+
Employees
Brief
Founded in 1969, CLC Group (CLC) is a privately owned business and multi award-winning company, which includes being pronounced ‘Management Team of the Year 2016’ at the Solent Business Awards. CLC has grown significantly into the country’s leading property and asset maintenance provider. With the intent to embark on a range of business process improvement initiatives, CLC identified the need to appoint a Group Finance Director.
The role was to work alongside the CEO and MD, supporting the delivery of this strategy. CLC places great importance in its people as they have been fundamental in its success so far. It was therefore important for CMA to work closely with the CEO and MD, to develop an in-depth understanding of the values and culture of the business to ensure a successful outcome.
Search Parameters
With a very experienced leadership team in place running a highly successful business, the challenge in this search would be identifying potential candidates demonstrating high emotional intelligence, as well as possessing a successful track record gained within similarly complex privately owned businesses, with the ability to initiate and lead a range of improvement programmes.
Research was concentrated across three main categories: regionally head quartered privately owned businesses, divisions of key industry players and competitors, and candidates from complementary industry sectors. A combination of methodologies including detailed research, proactive head hunting and referrals delivered in excess of 40 prospects for initial consideration, referencing and qualification.
"... the challenge in this search would be identifying potential candidates demonstrating high emotional intelligence, as well as possessing a successful track record gained within similarly complex privately owned businesses."
Outcome
With the emphasis on candidate behaviours and core values, it was important that CMA’s initial interview process was not only in-depth, but that it applied behavioural interview techniques to establish candidate suitability. A thorough interview process with fourteen candidates was undertaken by the CMA Executive team.
From the long listed candidates, six individuals were able to demonstrate the desired skill set and emotional intelligence, and selected for an initial meeting with the CEO and MD. This list was further reduced to two candidates, each of which had evidenced the ability to balance short term business improvement with longer term growth.
CMA’s management of this rigorous recruitment exercise allowed a successful appointment to be made within the agreed timescales. The newly appointed Group Finance Director has made a hugely positive start in the business and integrated effortlessly with its existing senior management team.
