Case studies
Hand in Hand International
Roles
- Interim Financial Accountant
- Permanent Financial Accountant
Client profile
Hand in Hand International is a global charitable organisation with support offices based in the UK, Sweden and the US. As part of the Hand in Hand network, its vision is to fight poverty with grassroots entrepreneurship and their long-term goal is to eradicate poverty in the communities where they work. Since its founding, Hand in Hand has created or grown more than 4 million jobs, the vast majority of which have been for women.
Women face unique barriers in the world of work and by partnering with them to break those barriers and with a passion for women’s economic empowerment, Hand in Hand International believes that whole families and communities benefit.
Assignment
Robertson Bell’s previous experience within the international charity sector caught the attention of Hand in Hand International.
The charity required both permanent and interim recruitment solutions in order to overcome current and future challenges. Robertson Bell worked with the client to explain the process and benefits of an interim hire and how this search would differ from the permanent role.
Both the interim and permanent positions would be for a Financial Accountant role, though the responsibilities and requirements for each differed. Each candidate would need to have knowledge of year end accounting in the charity sector and some experience working with international stakeholders.
Considerations and challenges
Due to Robertson Bell working exclusively in the charity, third and public sectors, our team have an expert understanding of the market conditions and demands. Immediately we understood that the salary on offer would be a challenge compared to the profiles the client was looking for. We worked with Hand in Hand International to help them understand what they could reasonably expect from the current job market.
A key consideration in working with this client was the diversity and inclusion initiatives they had put in place to ensure a fair recruitment method. This lengthened the process slightly as candidates were required to fill in an application form which removed all identifiers that could lead to biases.
Furthermore, the specific experience the client was searching for is in extremely high demand. This meant there were fewer available candidates to approach. The size of the finance team was a negative to some candidates but a real positive to others, so we really had to get to know the candidates and sell the role appropriately.
In addition, Hand in Hand International had received a pitch from another agency which offered competing advice to our own. As we had not worked with the organisation before, we had to take some time to develop the relationship and build trust. Robertson Bell was selected as the exclusive agency for these searches as we were able to demonstrate our expertise in the field.
Solution
We were able to gain much of the brief for the interim role from the conversations we had already had with the client during the tender process. This meant we were able to secure an incredibly quick turnaround, with the successful candidate able to begin work within eight days of beginning the search.
While the interim search focused heavily on what the individual could bring to the role in the short period they are with the organisation, the permanent perspective was different. Robertson Bell took the time to take a detailed brief, learning more about the organisation and understanding all of the unique selling points.
Following this, we began by running through different candidate profiles based on our market knowledge before devising a recruitment plan with advertising for the permanent role. We worked with the client to hone the process to make it as straightforward as possible and encourage more applications.
Outcome
The successful interim candidate was able to hit the ground running, quickly making an impact upon the organisation. The permanent search ran for four weeks, with a degree of flexibility added towards the end to reflect the slightly longer than usual application process.
Following two successful placements, Hand in Hand International reached out to Robertson Bell for another search due to our high level of service and impactful results.
We were able to demonstrate our superior market knowledge and sector expertise, supplying quality candidates quickly and efficiently to meet the needs of the organisation.