Combining Business Skills and CofE Culture

 

by Ann Brophy

Our client needed to recruit a new CEO. It was important that this be someone with the business skills to lead the organisation forward in a challenging economic climate. And given that the role was in the Church of England, it was equally vital that the recruit would flourish in the culture of the organization, and be a good fit with its values.

Because of the nature of this challenge, we designed a two-stage process. Firstly the recruitment of a candidate with chief executive level skills, plus appropriate personal attributes. Secondly the induction of the new recruit, so that they would be able to adapt successfully to their new role. 

Our recruitment programme included an assessment centre to measure core skills and a competency based interview. In addition we used a values-based personality match assessment to ensure that they would fit well within this very different organisation. 

This was followed up with a team development session where we worked through a strategy that the new recruit might follow, examining the impact that this would have on other members of the team. We designed and facilitated this team induction using appropriate psychometrics – e.g. team climate survey. 

As a result we recruited an individual with highly transferable skills who was an excellent fit. In addition we provided organisation-wide clarity over what was expected and the impacts on other people.