Resource Management
Case Studies

FirstPlus

FIRSTPLUS, part of the Barclays Group of companies, has become a market leader in the provision of secured loans. Based out of its UK headquarters in Cardiff, FIRSTPLUS employed only 300 staff and are seen as one of the most progressive and profitable divisions within the Barclays Group.

FIRSTPLUS faced an ambitious challenge to start a new company to manage all incoming initial contacts with potential customers for both FIRSTPLUS whilst also acting as a Broker for loans. Following an early scoping exercise it became apparent that FIRSTPLUS needed to work with a partner who could manage a significant attraction and selection exercise that will eventually see the organisation double in size.

One of the biggest challenges faced was that the new fascia was as yet un-branded and yet to be publicly launched, so the project came with a degree of commercial sensitivity.

The first tranche of this exercise saw Resource Management appointed and the successful recruitment of in excess of 80 sales and service personnel in 3 months, all sourced directly from an extremely competitive market.

The Business Challenge

FIRSTPLUS made the decision to re-insource part of their business in late 2005. Due to the nature of their business this new function was required to be set up as an individual company within the FIRSTPLUS Financial Group.

It was to be a Sales and Service Centre and needed to be open for business within 6 months. This was a huge challenge for FIRSTPLUS and literally involved procuring new premises for the business as well as one of their toughest challenges which was the recruitment of a significant number of new staff from an extremely competitive market and in such a short period of time.

To open for business the centre required circa 85 FTE’s, including a CEO, numerous individuals at management level and 75+ Sales and Service Centre individuals.

FIRSTPLUS were looking for a complete ‘end-to-end’ solution to ensure that all individuals were recruited to meet the challenges of deadline, quality and the shared values and competencies of the organisation.

The Resource Management Solution

The Resource Management remit was to project manage the entire recruitment work-stream to include the design of an effective attraction strategy and a robust and consistent selection process.

Our solution included:-

• The creation of an interim recruitment brand
• Creation of a recruitment microsite
• Development of a candidate attraction strategy exclusively focusing upon direct attraction
• Provision of a comprehensive candidate management process utilizing the Resource Management workflow management tool
• Development and design of a robust and consistent selection strategy
• An effective but prompt telephone screening exercise
• The sourcing of applicable selection tools from one of the UK’s leading Psychometric and Ability Testing companies
  
• Final selection of all candidates through a bespoke designed assessment centre
• Support and facilitate all assessment centre's
• Support of the final decision making process
• Manage the internal recruitment process to ensure fair selection
• The management of the offer process and candidate management up to and including start date

Download the FirstPlus case study