British Gypsum – HIPO

CASE STUDY

BRITISH GYPSUM - HIPO

The Saint Gobain Group, one of the top 50 manufacturers in the world, has an ambition to significantly strengthen the diversity of thinking and calibre of talent within the upper echelons of the organisation. This mandate manifest in the UK operation as a requirement to set-up a new High Potential MBA Programme led by the UK Group MD that could deliver an individual of exceptional talent operating at Global Group Board level within 8-10 years.

KEY CHALLENGES

The immediate requirement was to identify an individual who could operate at Director level within a group business, British Gypsum, and lead a complex transformation programme. Within this request lay some difficult challenges:

  • Having not run an MBA Programme previously, it was essential to find a way to engage with the mindset of the desired candidate base.
  • The requirement for the “top 10%” performing Tier 1 candidates put the organisation in direct competition with very big and established recruiting brands in this space.
  • With no previous activity in the MBA sector the business had the handicap of minimal brand awareness.
  • Their operating industry, construction, was not going to be as attractive as some of the other higher profile career options

SOLUTION & RESULTS

Given our knowledge of and experience within the MBA recruitment space we knew that most companies used a passive approach, relying on brand strength to bring applicants to them. We therefore suggested a much more proactive stance combined with a fully supported on boarding process. We crafted a specific sales message attuned to the career desires of MBA’s and following a comprehensive European wide search exercise took that message via direct approach to our chosen audience.

Good Talent worked with the senior leadership to confirm assessment criteria and then we developed all core materials for a full day assessment centre, including case study, exercises and supervised the delivery of this process.

We delivered a triangulated, coaching based, on boarding solution that engaged with the new hire, line management and the programme sponsor to ensure optimum impact was delivered as quickly as possible.

With such a comprehensive methodology in place we were able to deliver an assessment centre comprising 8 candidates from which a successful hire of a Sales Transformation Director was made. The quality of the process left a strong impression on all participants and enabled Saint Gobain to articulate an impressive offer to the market. The organisation not only gained the services of an outstanding new hire but has also laid the foundations to continue the MBA initiative over the coming years.

Without Good Talent’s deep understanding of the MBA recruitment market it is unlikely that this programme would have experienced the results it did. Our ability to empathise with MBA aspirations and present a compelling story direct to audience enabled the delivery of such a high quality field of applicants.

 

ALSO CHECK: Method – UK Brand Manager

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