Applying the detail to attract the best recruits
Embrace the Middle East
“It was a pleasure to work with Tracy and Hayley on this recruitment. They offered great understanding of the candidate market which ultimately helped us achieve our recruitment aspirations. We are really pleased we decided to work with Action .”
Lucy Insua, HR Manager, Embrace the Middle East
Background:
Embrace the Middle East is a Christian development charity that tackles poverty and injustice in the Middle East through education, community initiatives and healthcare. In May 2022, Embrace asked Action Planning to carry out a fundraising review in preparation for the recruitment of a senior Fundraiser, to lead this part of their work
Our review concluded that, with a professional, sophisticated, data-informed (rather than data-driven) approach to fundraising, encompassing authenticity, compassion and effective relationship-building, Embrace’s five-year goals should be eminently achievable.
In conclusion, we were asked to recruit a Director of Fundraising to lead the team and assigned the case to Tracy Madgwick.
Brief:
To recruit an experienced Director of Fundraising, with the skills, expertise, passion and heart for Embrace’s Christian mission.
Process:
Tracy worked with Embrace’s HR Manager to define the scope of the role and most effective approach to reach prospective candidates. Drawing from David Saint’s report, they created a full set of recruitment credentials – including a candidate pack, job description and job advert.
“Tracy’s professional recruitment expertise in this area helped us identify specific fundraising expertise skills to fulfil the role”
Working with Action Planning colleague Hayley McDonald, Tracy put together a candidate pack from the information provided by Embrace and agreed a timeline of actions. “This was extremely helpful and gave us a clear sense of the key milestones we needed to achieve at each stage”. “Thanks to the help of Action Planning, we are really pleased to have appointed a new Director of Fundraising, to lead this important part of our work.”.
Tracy and Hayley were the first point of contact for candidates. They produced a shortlist of applicants and detailed candidate summaries, from which Embrace were able to invite suitable candidates for interviews. Tracy then worked with Embrace’s HR Manager and Director to create a DiSC profile. This was used to assess candidate’s compatibility at the final stage.
DiSC analyses behavioural styles and how they vary under pressure. The results can then be overlayed to see how candidates’ behaviours match the desired behaviours of the role. It is not intended to be the decisive factor in any recruitment but it does help to reinforce the final decision. And it makes you really think about the kinds of behaviours and characteristics that the role requires.
Outcomes:
Embrace appointed a new Director of Fundraising, with the relevant skills and expertise to lead this important part of their work.
Consultant’s insight:
Finding candidates who share the organisation’s faith and ethos but also have the requisite skills is notoriously difficult because the candidate pool is small. By putting the work into accurately reflecting what the role has to offer and thinking hard about the skills and behaviours that the organisation needs, you don’t require vast numbers of applicants. It’s quality not quantity.