Case studies
Paradigm Housing
Roles
- 1 x Capital Accountant (£50k - £60k)
- 2 x Assistant Financial Accountants (£35k - £40k)
Client profile
Paradigm Housing provides over 15,000 affordable homes for sale or rent across London and the South East. Their mission is to help more people gain a home they can afford, and through the work of the Paradigm Foundation, to support the communities they serve. As a charitable organisation, all surplus revenues are reinvested in building new homes, with Paradigm targeting 600 new properties each year
Assignment
Paradigm’s Finance team had been heavily reliant on interim talent, and the incoming Director of Resources was keen to transition to more stable, permanent roles. In spring 2019, Robertson Bell was retained to recruit for three key positions:
- 1 x Capital Accountant (£50k - £60k)
- 2 x Assistant Financial Accountants (£35k - £40k)
Considerations and challenges
- Perceived lack of career development opportunities in the not-for-profit sector for ambitious property finance professionals.
- The niche skills and experience required for the Capital Accountant role are always in very high demand.
- Based in High Wycombe, Paradigm is the largest social housing provider in the area, and with few comparable local employers, the available talent pool was very limited.
Solution
Our in-house database of almost 100,000 finance professionals in the Public and Not-for-Profit sectors yielded many promising candidates, and our initial search was augmented by access to high-value third-party databases.
Targeted advertising on specialist websites was designed to optimise both quality and volume of response, and we leveraged our consultants’ impressive connectivity in a wide-reaching headhunt to engage passive candidates whose expertise and experience were aligned with specific role requirements.
To exploit LinkedIn’s preference for video content, we created compelling promotional videos to ensure high prominence of jobs posts and to drive candidate engagement and interaction.
Outcome
Our campaign generated strong demand for the Assistant Financial Accountant roles, and the client was able to appoint one candidate with strong housing association experience, plus one new-to-sector accountant with a commercial background – bringing a good blend of skills to the Paradigm Finance team.
For the Capital Accountant vacancy, Robertson Bell’s extensive reach enabled us to identify an ideally-qualified candidate with a wealth of experience in managing complex asset registers. After an offer was made, the appointment was delayed due to personal circumstances, so our consultants worked hard to maintain engagement between both parties, and to support Paradigm with high-quality contract talent in the interim.