Success! – Recruiting for a difficult location (Finance)

Artis Accounting & Finance Case Studies

Deputy Head of Audit, £60k, Retail

The problem

Our client in this case was a successful retail and wholesale business based in Somerset. A great business with a great story behind it; unfortunately, though, they are located outside the major cities and – critically – far from other similar businesses which might employee the niche staff they need. This assignment highlighted the fact that even when attracting more general skills locally is not difficult, the candidate market for senior staff or niche skills can prove a major headache for many employers. When a long-standing employee left the business, our client struggled to replace them.

What we did

Given our extensive database, access to all the right niche job boards / CV databases, comprehensive reach via social media plus some excellent search tools we knew we could reach the right people… but we also knew we’d need to sell this opportunity as it would likely involve a longer commute for most candidates. Sometimes the key is to really understand what makes the opportunity – and the client – attractive, and to focus on presenting this right from the outset; that way the ‘pull factors’ are placed up-front and centre. We drafted a ‘candidate pack’ with all the benefits set out clearly and used this across all our attraction activity. This meant we’d attract people who were keen on the progression this opportunity provided and who could look past the extra time in the car.

Success!

Whilst this assignment did at times feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, the hours put in resulted in us uncovering some excellent candidates. In the end, the client hired someone with the perfect background who, in fact, now commutes from Bristol… against the prevailing traffic.

OUR CLIENT SAID: “When our previous Auditor left, we found it hard to replace them. We knew Artis well although we hadn’t worked with Carl – we decided to give him a chance and were very pleased with the result.” Group Head of Audit & Risk, Retailer THE CANDIDATE SAID: “I’ve spent a good deal of my career in Audit and this role sounded great. It is a little further from home, but that’s manageable… and I’m enjoying working with a great team of people and the scope of the role is challenging, which is just what I need!” Deputy Head of Risk, Retailer