After a request from the Group Director of HR, Protocol submitted a very competitive proposal to recruit an entire new senior management team for West Lancashire College, part of the Newcastle College Group (NCG).
The requirement was for the following three roles based at the Colleges new Skelmersdale campus:
- Director of Curriculum and Employer Partnerships
- Director of Quality and Support
- Director of Finance and Business Services
After initial discussions with the group Director of HR and the College Principal to fully understand the rationale of the brief provided, a very competitively priced proposal was submitted outlining our understanding of the roles and our commitment to provide value for money to our clients.
Upon submission we were asked to meet the client in Newcastle and used this time to fully outline our proposal and put the client at ease by showcasing our experience and success in the sector, so they could be confident that we could source the calibre of talent required for these roles.
We decided to run a campaign for all three roles concurrently and brought in a number of experienced consultants to discuss the roles in detail with candidates, in order to get the most out of the early days of the campaign. We ran a full bespoke recruitment campaign, including print and online advertising, utilising our heavily discounted rates, which are always passed on to the client. All advertising utilised the client’s branding alongside our own, and because we have an in-house design team, we are able to provide design services at no additional cost.
A good selection of quality candidates were sourced through on and offline advertising, intensive head hunting activity, knowledge of the FE sector and relationships. We were extremely pleased to have collated strong long lists for all three roles.
We then met the client off site in Leeds to discuss all applications in detail, we recommended 10 candidates to be shortlisted for the roles.
To put the shortlisted candidates through their paces, we arranged a one-day assessment centre. Consisting of; interviews, group activities, written exercise, college tour and psychometric testing. Protocol organised and delivered the event ensuring the college could focus on interviewing and assessing the candidates.
At the end of the day, the Protocol team led the discussions with the interview panels, providing feedback on candidates’ performance in the various activities as well as their psychometric test results, to support the recommendation for appointment.
Appointments were made to all 3 roles, and indeed a further candidate performed so well that another Director post was created specifically for him in the area of apprenticeships.
The process took about 10 weeks from start to finish and the client was extremely happy with the campaign and outcomes.
Lynne Griffin – Human Resources Director, Newcastle College Group “This is the first time I have worked with Protocol on a recruitment assignment and I have been very impressed. From our discussions they demonstrated fully that they understood the requirement of NCG. The administration and set up of the interviews was extremely impressive and highly organised. Protocol developed and ran the assessment centre on our behalf and it was highly effective in determining those candidates who demonstrated the skills and expertise for the role. The campaign has been a great success identifying excellent candidates and we feel that the appointees to the roles have real potential for the future. The whole campaign was effectively managed and real value for money. We will definitely use them again.”
