The need for speed: 3 Minds in 3 weeks for Financial Services Consultancy
Our rapidly growing Financial Services client called in Freshminds to find standout graduates to help achieve their ambitious growth plans. With an extremely tight turnaround and strict candidate requirements, not only was an accelerated candidate search required but we also needed to build our client’s brand presence in the graduate market from scratch. A focused and dedicated search resulted in 3 outstanding candidates being offered positions 3 weeks after we’d first received the role.
The brief
With big growth plans in place, and increasing client demands, a fast growing Financial Services Consultancy came to us as they needed to recruit graduate consultants in time to start their training scheme which was due to start imminently. This meant that speed was of the essence - as they were looking to host a one stage assessment centre within 3 weeks of Freshminds starting our search. With offers being made at the end of the day, there could be no compromise on quality.
Who they needed:
Bright, analytical candidates with the ability to manage a range of stakeholders as they’d be making early client contact from the outset.
Candidates also needed a minimum of 12 months' blue chip experience.
An entrepreneurial outlook as the client is a fast growing and young consultancy.
Challenges:
There was a very quick turnaround as we only had 3 weeks between kick off and the assessment centre
Strict requirements for the candidates
Salary constraints for the type of candidate required
The time of year also posed a problem as most 2014 graduates would only have 6 months experience and any graduates from 2013 would have already entered a higher salary bracket than was offered.
The client is a young company who don’t yet have a brand presence, which meant that they were unknown in the graduate marketplace.
What Freshminds did
Took a detailed brief to fully understand the company, position, requirements and fit
Extensive marketing, networking and head-hunting campaign: engaging both our established network as well as head-hunting target candidates.
Rigorous screening and interviewing
Results
Approached 60 candidates from within our network and beyond
Whittled this down to find 7 candidates for the assessment centre, of which 5 were selected to go through
3 of our candidates received offers from the assessment centre at the end of the assessment day
These new recruits allowed the client to expand the business at their required rate and take on more client work
We provided the client with access to a network of people which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Without any brand recognition in the marketplace they would have struggled to find candidates of this calibre.
We were delighted to receive brilliant feedback on the Freshminds team from the client throughout and look forward to our continued work together. With 2 further intakes scheduled for later in the year, we hope to continue this successful relationship.