Case studies
Crown Prosecution Service
- Risk and Assurance Manager
- Risk Specialist
- Financial Accountant
Client Profile
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes criminal cases that have been investigated by the police and other such organisations in England and Wales. The CPS is autonomous and makes its decisions independently of the police and government. Its duty is to make sure that the right person is prosecuted for the right offence, and to bring offenders to justice wherever possible.
The CPS decides which cases should be prosecuted; determines the appropriate charges in more serious or complex cases, prepares cases and presents them at court; and provides information, assistance and support to victims and prosecution witnesses.
Assignment
Robertson Bell’s relationship with the CPS arose due to the consultants’ relationship with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) when they were at a previous organisation. When the CFO joined CPS, they introduced Robertson Bell to the wider team and made them aware of the organisation’s hiring needs.
The initial vacancy arose as a result of the Risk Assurance Manager, who had originally been placed by Robertson Bell, leaving the organisation and the client returning to the team for support in filling the vacancy.
For this role, the organisation required a candidate who was highly knowledgeable in the risk space, with prior central government experience, and who was able to hit the ground running. The ideal candidate would be supporting the update of the department’s risk function to make it more efficient and therefore needed to be confident taking on tasks independently as well as acting as the Head of Risk and Assurance’s right-hand person.
The second vacancy arose as a result of the positive outcome of the first recruitment campaign and the initial point of contact recommended Robertson Bell to a colleague who had a Financial Accountant role to fill. A candidate was needed with relevant industry experience, the ability to lead on the preparation of statutory accounts and with a background in a government organisation due to their unique way of operating.
The original contact then returned to Robertson Bell in order to hire a Risk Specialist to help to facilitate the risk improvement project. While the current team held strong strategic expertise and the ability to evaluate and scrutinise processes, they were lacking in people to enact those changes and so required someone more hands on.
Considerations and challenges
The key consideration for this hiring campaign is that all three of the roles were very niche making the pool of suitable candidates limited. Although this can make hiring challenging, it also means that the search can be increasingly tailored and strong candidates will be easier to identify quickly.
Solution
For the Risk and Assurance Manager role, the team sourced three applicants, two of which were appointable. One was identified as a standout candidate, selected for an interview the following day and was ultimately successful in achieving the role. This applicant had several alternative offers to consider, but the team was able liaise with her to understand her needs and ambitions and she ultimately decided that it was the right role for her. The candidate has since been thriving in the organisation.
To hire for the Financial Accountant position, the consultants initially had an in-depth conversation with the hiring manager to understand the requirements, plans and expectations that they had for the role before beginning recruitment. The team were able to achieve a fast turnaround, three applications were shared, all of which were appointable. Candidates were interviewed later that week, and the successful applicant was offered the role– a timely result which the client was really pleased with.
The team sent over four CVs for the three-month Risk Specialist role, two of which were progressed to interview and one of which was successful.
Outcome
For all three of the vacancies, building a rapport with the client was key. By taking the time to drill down into the detail of the organisational and departmental need, the consultants were able to gain a comprehensive understanding of what was required in a candidate and then tailor the search with those specific skills or attributes in mind. The team worked hard to build a relationship of trust and establish open lines of communication, and the client gave specific and valuable feedback on why certain candidates were not the right fit for the role, allowing a more focused search to take place.