The Challenge:
Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire is the proud home to well-known pottery manufacturers Portmeirion, Royal Doulton, Spode, Wade and Wedgwood, giving it its more popular nomenclature of The Potteries. However, over the years the city’s manufacturing had declined, the local authority had a poor reputation in the country, its children’s services was taken away from the council and was being managed by outsourcing firm Serco, and the council was about to undergo a radical reorganisation to its governance model. Throw in to this mix the search for a new chief executive for the council, and most executive recruitment agencies would run a mile.

Not so, according to David Hunter, head of public sector search recruitment at Penna. Having won the executive contract in January 2009, Penna was given various high-level vacancies to find, including CEO of the council. “Penna were new to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, so as well as trying to persuade candidates
that the role was a good one to take on, we had to quickly develop an understanding and a good relationship with the council,” Hunter told Recruiter. Head of HR at the council, Dawn Hewins, added: “We were taking a punt with Penna. It’s true we had some ’major issues’, but Penna impressed and the relationship worked well from the very beginning.” An additional ’issue’ was that her predecessor left before the search for the CEO had begun.

Hewins told Recruiter: “From the start Penna wanted to make an impact and, although I didn’t know at the time, the firm’s top people were working on the contract, sorting the processes out from the beginning to smooth the operation.”

The Solution:
To promote the CEO role, Penna devised an advert, which had to be approved by the Appointments Committee. “It was a very brave advert, based around the Alton Towers’ ride Oblivion,” said Hewins. “Surprisingly the committee liked the ad, which ended up winning a PPMA Award for the most creative advert.”

Penna built up a long list of potential candidates, educating them about the role and the difficulties behind the job. At the end of March, though, the process came to an abrupt halt. The landscape changed when two members of the council’s Appointments Committee were arrested (on charges that were subsequently dropped later in the year). That meant that the process was put on hold. Hunter explained: “The appointment was delayed as we all waited for the dust to settle.”

Yet potential candidates now had to be “kept warm” over the summer. “We lost a few people during this time,” he said. “But we were also able to add new ones.”

With the hiring back on track, near the end of last year Penna presented three shortlisted candidates to the council. As part of the reorganisation at the council, the Appointments Committee was now the HR Committee, with Hewins involved in an advisory capacity. Over the summer, she herself had gone through an interview process through Penna and been promoted to head of HR, having applied from HR services manager in shared services.

One of the candidates for the CEO role was former MD of Pepsi in South Africa, John van de Laarschot, who had relatively little previous experience of working in the public sector compared to the rest of the field. He was CEO of Torridge District Council in the South-West, a tiny council compared to Stoke. However, Hunter saw his potential: “He had worked with a demonstrable list of large, complex companies - the equivalent to the structures in local authorities.” After interviewing van de Laarschot, it was obvious he knew how to get things done and bring people along with him. “He was a genuine catalyst,” Hunter said.

Hewins also recognised this and although the borough council where he was working was a lot smaller, he made a good impression at the panel interview. “We wanted an innovative approach and someone who could inspire others,” Hewins explained. Just a few months into the job, any risk has paid off. “He is inspirational,” she told Recruiter. “He has big plans to improve the city council and improve it for the customer.”

And the council’s gamble with Penna, who was unknown to them, has also paid off. “Having gone through the candidate process myself, I knew we’d made the right choice,” she explained.

Vanessa Townsendl Would you like to be involved in The Challenge? Contact Vanessa Townsend at [email protected]