The Yorkshire-based family run farm shop business, Blacker Hall Farm, offering award-winning fresh seasonal produce from its own and other local farms sought a new Head of Finance to drive forward big improvements in its finance systems to enable better analysis of the customer journey and product profitability.
THE CHALLENGE
As Blacker Hall Farm is a family run business and incorporated a shop, cafe and gift shop within its operation, it was essential that the ideal candidate demonstrated not only the broad skillset required to fulfil the role but also displayed an excellent cultural match to ensure that they would be able to work closely with and support Edward Garthwaite and the existing team.
THE SOLUTION
By consulting with Edward and his team from outset, a clear approach was developed to provide them with a thorough understanding of the full process and timeframes involved and to ensure that the candidate search satisfied the business’ immediate and longer term objectives.
As well as identifying potential candidates that satisfied the skillset required via a competency matrix, the initial shortlisting activity placed emphasis upon conducting face to face pre-screen interviews to ensure that only those candidates which would match the culture of the organisation were put forward for interview.
By presenting the recruitment team at Blacker Hall Farm with five strong candidates, this was not only time efficient but ensured that they could select the very best match with the confidence that each were absolutely capable of doing the job and had demonstrated the necessary skills and experience. Within a few months of joining, the successful candidate played an instrumental role in helping Blacker Hall Farm to quickly adjust its business model to offer an e-commerce based home delivery and click and collect service as it adapted its offer in response to COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions.