Private Sector
Energy and Utilities
Our Energy and Utilities Practice is dedicated exclusively to the following markets within the UK:
- Nuclear
- Renewables
- Water
- Gas and Electricity
- Regulatory in the Utilities and Energy sector
- Energy Infrastructure
What sets us apart is our ability to provide an integrated solution for clients seeking to recruit senior level executives into critical roles, whether these are for short-term interim needs or permanent leadership positions. We have genuine strength in identifying leadership talent that can help shape and direct a company’s future.
For example, we were commissioned to find a Chief Executive for one of the largest water companies in the UK. There were critical issues to be addressed, including a £6 billion investment programme, improvements in customer engagement, and a need for significant experience in successful change management in a large, complex organisation. Our insight and experience of working across industry side and regulatory sectors enabled us to undertake a targeted headhunt that included industry referrals both in the UK and abroad. The result was a successful appointment with a genuine choice of candidates and the successful candidate coming from the electricity industry.
This unique ability to work across both industry and regulatory sectors enabled the Practice to deliver a critical assignment for the Health and Safety Executive in the UK, which needed a highly experienced and talented individual to lead its Hazardous Installations Inspectorate. The critical issues here were to find someone who had the depth and breadth of experience to cover oil and gas, broader manufacturing and the coal industry. The depth of our search created a diverse shortlist of candidates and resulted in an excellent appointment inside 12 weeks.
Our expertise within the traditional functional Board-level specialisms of HR, Finance, IT and Commercial Management is equally strong, and our multi-lingual Research Team is able to identify talent globally to ensure the broadest range of referrals and candidate targeting. For example, we recently executed a mandate to deliver an interim CFO, with strong commercial experience gained within a global operator, to one of the largest utility companies in Europe.
Finding and attracting leadership talent is only part of the offer. Our consultancy mindset ensures that we can provide support and advice on broader organisational issues.
Indeed, we recently completed a discreet piece of consultancy work for one of our clients in the nuclear sector, which enabled the organisation to understand its positioning as an employer benchmarked against competitors in its sector. This led to a change in direction for the organisation and improved its competitive position.
This consultancy approach, combined with a deep understanding of the current issues our clients face, enables us to provide a truly integrated approach to finding the right recruitment solutions and the best return on investment.
An example of this is a current mandate to recruit a Senior Energy Partner for an international consultancy. Our insight and networks within both the industry sector and the consultancy world have resulted in a strong and diverse pipeline of candidates who have the ability to drive future business opportunities.
Outsourcing and Business Services
Our Practice brings great strength in supporting the Business Process Outsourcing industry, and our consultants offer an excellent track record of search and selection for senior BPO roles as well as industry-side experience.
We are often asked to support recruitment for roles which require a really deep understanding of the business. For example, we recently conducted the search for a Transformation Director for one of the UK’s largest BPO providers. This role was truly ground-breaking, with a brief to improve the process through which outsourced operations are transformed, as well as to take responsibility for operational outcomes across the company’s businesses.
We understand the challenges facing the industry as it matures and becomes more competitive, with second and third generation outsourcing and the changing nature of the relationship between clients and BPO firms.
This means we can find the best people to position our clients in this growing market, particularly in specialist roles, such as:
- Bid management, to ensure that the major investment of bidding is as effective as possible;
- Proposition development and client management, to align strategy and create long-term partnerships;
- Key operational roles, including transition, transformation and operations.
We see ourselves as part of the industry, and work with leading players to develop capability and capacity across both BPO firms and clients. For example, our series of business forums bring people across the industry together to identify issues of common concern and find common ground.
By engaging as a partner in this way, we can leverage our search and selection expertise to add more value than simply recruitment.
As a UK-based firm we have the capacity to deliver locally through our business centres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds and London. We also have a strong, multi-lingual research capability that enables us to penetrate candidate markets throughout Europe, the US and Asia.
Whatever the requirement, we understand that recruitment is an expensive investment decision, and that our clients should expect and receive a return on that investment.
For example, when Gas Safe Register won the contract for safety accreditation of gas installation companies, we had already worked with them through the bid process, and therefore had a deep understanding of the challenge ahead for them.
Together, we identified an issue: the complex public affairs and communications environment they were about to enter, with many interested parties, including trade representative associations and a high media profile.
We supported the company to develop the innovative role of Stakeholder Relations Advocate, to lead on building strong channels of communication with these new audiences, and conducted the search and selection which led to the appointment of a candidate who had previously been a Board Member of Uswitch and brought a totally new skillset – and mindset – to the organisation.
A key strength of the practice is the depth of our combined experience in this space. We are able to leverage over 25 years of experience working across the public/private interface, supporting large corporations in recruiting whole teams to take advantage of emerging markets. Recent examples include the recruitment of two divisional Managing Directors for a FTSE 50 company to take advantage of the emergence of large-scale resourcing contracts resulting from the drive for efficiencies in the public sector.
Start up, turnaround and turnkey expertise is at the heart of everything we do. We have the capability to identify genuine leadership talent at Board level combined with specialisms in Finance, HR, IT, Programme and Project Management, Shared Services and Transport.
The wider Practice handles roles across a breath-taking range of businesses.
For example, we recently recruited the CEO for a business in emerging technologies with medical applications. We were invited back to find four senior heads of function for this rapidly-growing company, and this team has given investment partners the added confidence to agree new venture capital funding to support an international expansion programme.
Many of our searches are international in scope, and we research candidates and recruit from (and to) senior roles worldwide.
For example, we recently recruited the Managing Director for the Sri Lankan subsidiary of a UK-based engineering group. The search was global, and the successful candidate was a German national previously based in New Delhi.
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