Long term relationships and journey of inclusion.
At Gerrard White Consulting we are committed to delivering a first class candidate experience for everybody we work with, which includes those who aren’t successfully placed by us, just as much as those who are. For us it’s about the long term relationship we enjoy building with people, not just looking for a quick win.
Testament to this approach was the journey of one of our senior consultants working with a CTO level candidate through a long process for a major UK insurance client. This was a several month, multi-interview process where when finally at the end and the candidate was offered the position, they had a more lucrative career opportunity elsewhere on the table, and as such had to turn our client down. Having built a fantastic rapport and relationship throughout the process, this was a candidate who was very impressed with our process and so committed that when settled into their new role, they would come back and use us for their own recruitment needs in their new position.
A few months later the call came, a meeting was arranged and Gerrard White had a new customer in the shape of one the world’s leading investment management businesses.
Being an advocate for diversity and inclusion within technology, our new client was interested in the work we had done previously placing women into IT roles. As well as showing our commitment to signing up to the Tech Talent Charter, an initiative that supports diversity in technology, we were also able to demonstrate several other success stories we have had in this area. When looking to make two senior hires within what were two very male dominated technology niches, we had to work together to find a way to attract an even gender pool, and fairly progress the hiring process. These were key hires within their journey of inclusion.
Talking through methods Gerrard White had used with other clients we came to the agreement that an equal submission of male and female candidates, with fully gender anonymised CV’s and supporting documentation was the way forward. This would ensure that they are qualifying everybody based on capability, and inviting the best candidates to interview, whilst being completely impartial to gender. Naturally there were challenges, in the shape of the distinct lack of volume of female candidates with the correct technical skills in the market, so a clear market map was drawn up to show that this would be a head hunt only requisition, and as such the expectation on time frames had to differ from those originally proposed. Honesty, and clarity are as important as the subject matter here given the desire to hire relatively urgently.
Positive Outcome
Within the promised time-frames and following a rigorous, and completely fair process the client was able to announce two important new hires, one male and one female to join their organisation.
This method is something that the client has adopted for their technology hires from now on, and Gerrard White have had the opportunity to support them outside of their direct sourcing methods, making multiple placements in 2021 since and maintaining a positive, mutually beneficial business relationship.
If you are looking to diversify your IT talent pool from graduate level all the way up to CTO, we would love to help and be a part of your inclusion journey. Please contact Steve Wright or Kathryn Hunt on 01892 55 3 355 for a chat.
