Project reference · Executive search and HR consulting · Banking
Hiring a bank's loan-recovery team, then training its managers.
A foreign-owned bank in Ukraine needed new people at the top while it set up a unit to work out problem loans. Under one framework agreement we filled board, HR, legal, risk and credit seats, reported to its HR director every Monday, and once the recovery unit was staffed, wrote its job descriptions and ran a leadership workshop for its managers.
One framework agreement
Contract
Stop lists before the first call
Discretion
A written report every Monday
Reporting
Profiles agreed with head office
Alignment
Nine quarters, one framework agreement
Hiring requests in, a report out every week
For every role the bank's HR team sent a hiring request and a stop list of people and institutions we were not to approach. We mapped the other foreign-owned banks, met the shortlist in our office and wrote an English summary of every candidate the bank saw. From the second year we sent a short written report each Monday: every open role, every candidate in play and what we needed from the bank to move on.
The brief
A bank rebuilding its top team in difficult years
The bank belonged to a European banking group. Its chairman needed an HR director, a chief information and operations officer, a head of legal and a compliance officer, quickly and without any noise in the market. At the same time the group was setting up a separate unit to restructure and recover loans that borrowers could no longer serve, and that unit needed lawyers, case managers and analysts of its own.
We drafted the first profiles ourselves, had them checked by the group's specialists and the chairman, and started searching only when both sides agreed on them. The first agreement covered three senior seats; within a year it had grown into a standing arrangement for any management or specialist role the bank asked for.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A small pool, all at competitors
The bankers the client wanted worked at a dozen other foreign banks, and most were not looking. Every approach was confidential and checked against the stop list first; for one rare risk profile we searched abroad and found a candidate willing to move.
Head office and the local board
Profiles had to satisfy the group's specialists and the local management at the same time. Senior candidates met both, sometimes on a trip abroad, and we organised the interviews, the travel and the feedback in two languages.
A unit without an organisation chart
The recovery unit wanted case managers from accounting, corporate finance and consulting rather than from banking. We built a long list while its structure was still being drawn, and kept candidates warm until the roles were defined.
Vetting before every start
Each offer went through the bank's own security and document checks. We collected the papers, explained the steps to candidates and kept start dates from slipping.
Searches that waited for decisions
Some roles were put on hold until a new manager had set out his plans, and one function's remit was debated inside the bank for months. We told candidates honestly where things stood and restarted quickly once the scope was clear.
From hiring people to how they work
Once the recovery unit was staffed, its head asked us to interview its managers, write job descriptions for its roles and run a one-day workshop on roles, leadership and coaching. The framework agreement was extended to cover consulting.
What we did
Search, reporting, consulting, a workshop
- Months 1–6 · The top team. HR director, chief information and operations officer, head of legal, and head of legal for the new recovery unit: four seats filled within six months.
- Months 6–12 · Risk control and compliance. Chief officer for credit-risk modelling and later the head of credit-risk control, with searches for information security, business continuity, compliance and an operations manager.
- Months 10–20 · The recovery unit and corporate banking. Four lawyers, three of them for the recovery unit, a board director, an assistant for the chairman's office, a head of legal collection and a corporate relationship manager, with weekly written reports.
- Months 21–27 · Consulting. Interviews with the recovery unit's managers, job descriptions for its roles, and a full-day workshop on roles, leadership and coaching.
The bank kept the same search partner from its first senior hire to the training of the team those hires built. Several of the first hires went on to brief us on the next roles.
How we work
We do not show you another company's name
The bank, its owners and its people are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Building a team while the organisation chart is still being drawn?
Tell us the roles and the names you do not want approached. You get an agreed profile first, a written summary of every candidate and a report every week until the seat is filled.