Hiring An Operational Risk Associate for A Sovereign Wealth Fund

Opportunity

This was a troublesome longstanding open Operational Risk Associate position that had defied several attempts to recruit for it. The client had been searching for over 2 years for a suitable candidate to join its operational risk team. While this was not a particularly senior role, the client was keen to source candidates with high quality operational risk experience from more developed markets outside of the Middle East to help them improve and modernise their operational risk practices. They had made direct efforts and interviewed many candidates without success.

Approach

An initial meeting with Human Resources and the Head of Operational Risk was held where we set about clearly understanding the nature of the role, the detail of the perceived requirements for the person specification and the problems that had been experienced in recruiting for the role. While the role and the business were attractive, we identified some misalignments between the role and person specification that had caused recruitment issues. Adjustments to the person specification were agreed along with a structured recruitment process to ensure focus and momentum were maintained throughout to support a successful outcome.

Outcome

A search for relevant candidates across Europe and the UK was undertaken to identify potential candidates. After some initial interviews and receiving feedback on their interviews, further adjustments were made to the Operational Risk Associate role and person specifications which enabled us to hone the search to identify a possibly unique (!) and suitably qualified and experienced candidate who the business liked and who was successfully offered the role. The candidate accepted the role and has relocated with his wife and children.