Company Background

MAST ICT are a small, niche consultancy specialising in the management of data and use of CRM systems within the Not-For-Profit sector. They work with a large number of well-known charities, membership organisations and royal colleges ensuring each organisation manages their data effectively and efficiently. The business was set up by three very experienced entrepreneurial consultants, with Not-For-Profit sector experience, who had managed to grow the consulting team using their own network of contacts to start with, but were aware this could only take them so far and took the decision to look for help in recruiting consultants to implementing their growth strategy.

The Recruitment Problems

Andy Hopkins, Director MAST ICT said “The most important factor for us when choosing an agency was finding someone who could understand our soft-skills driven recruiting approach, finding technical people who can communicate well with senior managers, junior staff and a variety of technical teams.”

The directors were also limited by time and the ability for all three to be involved within the selection process which was an important factor for them.

Our Solution

We took our time to understand the issues they have and worked with them to design a process that would allow all partners to be involved and maximise the limited time they had available. Working exclusively with them we arranged for a shortlist of potential candidates to be available for interview on a specific day who would go through both technical and character interview. This enabled them to have a comparison of individuals and to come to a clear decision in a quick process therefore not losing out to competition and limiting the impact on their own valuable time.

“We were very impressed with Geoff’s ability to understand our needs and simplify the process for us, he took the time fully understand our needs and provided a very competitive shortlist of candidates within weeks of us starting the process. This resulted in us interviewing a very strong shortlist of candidates, all of whom could undertake the role. The hardest part of the day for us was making a final decision.”

Following a very successful first round of recruitment, MAST were soon looking for a second new employee. We were looking for a slightly different level of experience this time so made some minor adjustments to the process to cater for this and again provided a shortlist of candidates and arranged a successful interview day.

“Once again we were impressed with the quality of the candidates, and on Geoff’s recommendation we included someone in the shortlist with slightly different experience to the original brief, but who fitted the role perfectly. In fact we decided to employ them as well as one of the other candidates.”

The Result

“Working closely with the team at Arden has transformed our recruitment process, from a risky, time-consuming and tedious process into a structured and controlled process where we only spend time reviewing candidates who can fulfil the role technically and have the communication skills that are vital for our consultants. We are happy to recommend Arden, especially if you are a small business looking for an affordable agency who can transform your recruitment process.”