The company
Lisa was engaged by the panel managing the Smart Energy Code (SEC) – a multi-party agreement between organisations that defines the rights and obligations of energy suppliers, network operators and other parties involved in the end-to-end management of smart metering activity in the UK. The Smart Code was the biggest change to the industry since de-regulation and there was going to be a spotlight on the project, not only because of the cost to deliver the programme but also because of the implications of change.
The challenge
The panel – made up of representatives from all the interested parties – engaged Lisa to find a Chair Person to lead them. In the words of the one member “There will only be a few people from the industry who can do this role”.
The challenge was all about the person – they had to have relevant industry experience, be credible and well respected. The person needed to be familiar with the highly regulated industry code, experienced in an extremely complex and rapidly changing environment and a strong networker, someone who could stay in touch with Gemserv, the DCC and the other partners to ensure they were giving the panel best advice.
So, Lisa was looking for candidates with strong, independent, lateral thinking capability, excellent listening skills who could operate in a highly collaborative environment.
The solution
- 10-week turnaround
- Approached 45 potential candidates.
- Throughout the process held weekly progress meetings with the client
- Created, profiled, and presented a longlist of 8 exceptionally strong industry candidates.
- Shortlisted 3 candidates who went forward to interview.
The Result
This is a testimonial from the client:
“I wanted to write and formally thank you for your services in recruiting the Independent Chair for the Smart Energy Code Panel. In my role Chairing the Recruitment Committee there was a real challenge for me, because the role was so important and there was a demanding timetable set out in the Smart Energy Code.
Because of your most professional work this has all been most successful. The appointed Chair attended his first Panel meeting, and I have enjoyed congratulations from across the industry.
We all found your pitch for the work refreshing, the fees reasonable (certainly compared to others we reviewed) and you had really done your homework. Most importantly you knew what we needed, how to get it and delivered on your promises. To get such a fantastic set of candidates for us to interview was really outstanding; and I found your pre-sifting of candidates and your brief on each before we interviewed particularly helpful.
It was all very professional and despite the challenging requirements and demanding timescales you responded excellently; most importantly we got a wonderful recruit, through a robust process. The only difficulty I had was writing letters to the very good candidates we had to disappoint, but that is the sort of problem you can really only hope to have.”
Eric Graham
Chair of Recruitment Panel on behalf of the Smart Energy Code panel
