Background: a public establishment specialising in radioactive waste treatment is seeking to replace its Human Resources Director, who is retiring. This replacement means a transformation of the HR culture, policies and tools.
Recruitment challenges: while the establishment is overseen by the government, the senior management wants to modernise by adopting methods and tools used in the private sector. The challenge of this search is finding the right HR Director profile who can make the switch from the private sector to the public sector, bringing their working methods and culture without making the transition too abrupt.
Added value provided by the firm/Skills used: we met a large number of potential candidates. Aside from their technical skills, our selection process looked at the candidates’ human qualities and soft skills. It was a question of finding someone with the leadership skills and charisma to occupy the role of HR Director but with the listening skills, analytical capabilities, sensitivity, negotiating skills and strategic vision to manage change. The person selected also had to be able to work in a different culture from the one they had known in the private sector, and this would require flexibility, agility, adaptability, patience, etc.
Result and recruited profile: we interviewed a large number of candidates to give ourselves plenty of choice after analysing the profiles. We presented a shortlist of candidates, all from the energy sector (private sector), but all with slightly different human qualities. Our aim was to give our client a genuine choice. We suggested running personality tests on the two finalists for extra reassurance on the final choice made.