Case Study: Wincanton
“I’m delighted with the service provided by Amy and the team at Holmes Noble. The brief wasn’t straight forward, and I knew I was pushing the art of the possible, but Amy stepped up to the challenge with passion, energy, and great market insight. I highly recommend Amy in this space.”
What was the challenge?
Wincanton is the beating heart of Britain’s supply chain. The company has a 20,300-strong team operating from 200 sites all over the country with more than 5,500 vehicles on the road. They came to Holmes Noble to scale up their HR executive team by hiring a group talent & development director.
The candidate would report directly to the chief people officer and be responsible for the overall talent and learning and development agenda across the group. This included creating exciting, motivating L&D programmes covering all team levels, as well as delivering an effective talent acquisition strategy group wide.
Due to the nature of the business, it was important for Wincanton that the prospect had experience in building, developing, and coaching teams across large, multi-site and complex organisations – from apprentices and graduates to executive level. Furthermore, the chief people officer had a clear goal to continue to diversify the HR executive team.
What did we do?
Investing in a lead for the group-wide talent and development agenda was crucial for Wincanton’s growth. As such, it was important to find a driven change-maker to join the HR leadership team in delivering its ambitious targets while accelerating people development in a usually rigid sector.
Working in partnership with the Wincanton group people officer, we defined target markets for our search. To make sure that the candidates would fit the company and team culture, we identified a range of industries as more suitable.
Through an innovative, progressive search strategy, we provided a strong candidate shortlist which was 50/50 gender diverse. It also included exceptional individuals with a great track record of strengthening the potential of people to maximise business growth and transformation.
What were the results?
We placed a group talent and development powerhouse with over 20 years of experience – 10 of those on a group level – within 16 weeks of receiving the brief. With the notice period, Wincanton had a group talent and development director in just seven months. This has allowed the company to create a nurturing environment to support the business’ overall development strategy and maintain their position as the industry leader in supply chain solutions.
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