| 30-11-2021 | treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit | LinkedIn |
Over the last years, Treasurer Search found hundreds of treasurers. Our client contact persons are HR managers & internal recruiters, the CFO, Group Treasurer and sometimes even procurement. There is no standard first contact. Working with more than one often works best. This is what we learned and some examples.
Bureaucracy
Inspiration for this blog is a recent placement that was, in our experience, a very tough one. Before our services were being considered by this client, we had to read and sign over 150 pages of legal documentation. Procurement of this company, that is active in the global chemicals market, was in the lead. Complying with as many legal and other requirements, of as many countries as possible with contracts that apply to as many various suppliers was their method. I do understand the value of bureaucracy and do not like to manage exceptions. But using a contract for a recruiter that is also used to buy a multi-million chemical plant might not be practical.
Internal recruitment
Next stage was working with internal recruitment. Both contact persons were nice, cooperative and also strict. Based upon too many agencies bothering too many of their hiring managers, the policy was that external recruiters were not allowed direct contact with hiring managers. Not for intake meetings, not for evaluation. Internal recruiters have a short track record and manage many job openings, many job types in parallel. This resulted in “recruitment in the dark” with a lot of guessing. Also here, from experience I can say it is not “one size fits all”. Not from procurement and not from recruitment perspective.
Treasury director without experience
The other extreme is a treasury director without experience in recruiting for his own team, who wants to manage risk to an extreme. He had to learn and decide what he is looking for in recruitment services (fee structure, guarantee, exclusivity, assessments, et cetera). And he wanted to become an expert in the toolkit in recruitment: how to screen CVs, perform interviews and checking references. What is the value of each of the tools? Who should do what? What uncertainty am I willing to accept? His thoroughness slowed down the process, which does not work well in this market.
I am happy I can say both described processes led to success. There is no standard in recruitment but what we do appreciate:
- agreement designed in a clear process that includes timelines and who will be involved;
- screening by experts, HR vs Treasury, both of CVs as well as in meetings;
- clear segregation of duties and communication lines but nothing too rigid.
