Client
Regional office of a leading national house builder.

Brief
Recruitment of a Senior Land Manager with very specific knowledge of a major city, where the property industry is known to be very regionally focused and insular by nature.

Challenge
Our client needed a high calibre person with very specific regional knowledge who was willing to take on the challenge of establishing a new name in something of a closed shop market.

The Problem
From our market knowledge, we knew that these people were in very short supply.  We briefed our client accordingly and this factor proved crucial later in the process when it came to attracting the right person into the business.

Our Methods
We knew advertising wouldn’t work.  The target pool of candidates was too small.

We couldn’t recommend pure Search. It wasn’t suitable because time was of the essence, and a short list of three to five strong people was unrealistic.

The chosen methodology was an exercise in networking across all available contacts with links to the relevant market to build a detailed, accurate picture of who the key players were.

We spoke to land managers, planners, agents, solicitors, the local council, local property entrepreneurs, and researched relevant local developers using all available resources.

Once we established who the relevant people were, discrete approaches were made and suitability and interest levels were ascertained.

On this occasion, it became clear from our discussions that there was one outstanding candidate who met all the criteria.  Crucially, we ensured our approach to this candidate was successful, gaining his expressed interest in our client’s position.

The information we provided during the process about the comparable quality of the potential alternatives gave our client the confidence to make the appointment, despite having only one candidate to interview.

We had found an excellent person and despite the lack of viable alternatives, the client never felt that he had to compromise on quality nor was he left wondering if there was anyone else out there that we had missed.

Our methods proved this candidate was truly the “needle in a haystack” and we found him!

For reasons of confidentiality this client cannot be named here.

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