Context
A midsize, PE backed property management business had made the conscious decision to become more acquisitive. Given all growth historically had been organic, the newly appointed HR Director recognised that there was no internal HR M&A skillset and therefore bringing an interim onboard to support this critical phase would ensure that, from a people perspective, they integrated the multiple acquisitions in the most successful way possible.
Challenge
With two potential acquisitions already nearing the end of due diligence by the time the new HR Director joined, speed in identifying the right candidate was critical. In addition the HR Director was wanting the interim to provide some support to them as an unofficial Head of HR so, whilst the M&A work was the focus, the interim would also need to bring a breadth of generalist experience at a senior level and have the pace and resilience to operate across multiple workstreams at once.
Solution
The regular contact we maintain with our interim network meant that there were a handful of candidates we immediately knew would be potential solutions for the client. However, given the significant and almost overnight growth the business would experience we identified that the ideal solution for the company would be to engage someone who had operated in far larger organisations and would be able to assist with laying the blueprint for how the business might be structured longer term. The successful candidate had consulted on an interim basis for several SME’s but had also been the HR Lead for a number of acquisitions for a bank as well as leading the HR function for a FTSE 250 business. They slotted in seamlessly to the team and had an immediate impact.