Case Study:
This client, a partnership involved in the hiring of furniture and accessories to the film and television industries, requested support to help articulate their long-term sales and general business strategies.
However, some three months into the assignment, the partners expressed concern regarding their current staffing levels. They needed to recruit, but had no experience of the process they needed to go through. Previously they had hired staff that hadn’t worked out and found, to their cost, these to be bad business decisions.
We agreed that their most immediate need was to identify, document and implement a recruitment process and agreed to put “strategic support” on the back burner whilst we assisted the partners with this task.
Together, we mapped the process from job description through to formalising the job offer. The client had an urgent need to recruit a sales person.
After drafting a job description, person specification and approving an advertisement (for compliance), we agreed a procedure leading to interview selection.
We then worked with the client to draw up a list of interview questions, anticipating how the ideal candidate might answer them and prepared an interview shortlist.
Having agreed on a common format for the initial interviews, we chaired the interview panel. After each interview the panel independently scored each candidate’s answers against the ideal response. Members then reached a consensus on a group score for individual interviewees. This competency based approach introduced the necessary element of objectivity to the exercise.
After the first round of interviews, we reviewed the scoring and agreed a final interview shortlist. The second round of interviews was conducted in a similar manner to the first.
The client, having introduced that degree of objectivity, was able to get a clearer idea as to the extent that the short-listed candidates matched the attributes called for in the person specification, the extent to which they appeared to share the values and ethos of the business and their “fit-ability”.
As previously indicated, whilst guiding the client through the recruitment process, we were also documenting it, so that the partners would be able to follow this process in future without our help.
Subsequent to supporting this client with their recruitment process, we undertook further work in developing and implementing a performance appraisal system.
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The People Dimension:This case study reflects the importance of personal relationships within small businesses. We worked very closely with the partners to help them define a satisfactory balance between informality and formality. (For example, whilst there was generally an informal atmosphere and an open door policy, staff soon realised that being invited to a meeting behind closed doors signalled a formal discussion).
Before the recruitment exercise we had the advantage of holding a number of meetings with the partners to elicit company values and, perceived values. This was particularly helpful, when it came to identifying the personal attributes the partners saw as essential in fulfilling the sales role.
Reflecting sometime later on this particular recruitment decision, the partners agreed that by following the recruitment process it had enabled them to make one of their better business decisions to date, and recruit someone who has subsequently turned out the one of their best performing employees.
Our Credentials:John’s ability of being able to switch from “strategic” to “hands-on”, enabled him to refocus and offer this client the specific support they needed at the time. His own management training was heavily geared in terms of HR processes (acquired before HR became so specialised) and allowed him to draw upon his experience at British Steel, Arthur D Little, and more broadly, that gained from running his own businesses and partnerships.
With regard to appreciating the fundamentals of selling that he might share with clients, he was able to call upon his experience at Arthur D Little, where he had responsibility for the sales training of their consultants, plus training and managing staff in the UK business support sector. This knowledge was complemented by John’s own experience of selling in his own businesses, encouraged by the sales success he achieved as Commercial Director in the 1980s, spent in the private sector, promoting health care products.
