Case Study - St.George

Senior Development Manager for St.George

The Challenge 

After an initial consultation, we were tasked with finding a ‘Head of Planning’ for the St George team. St George’s approach had been very candidate-led at the start i.e. “when we meet the right person, we will know” – something that we were able to hone in on as we got more of an understanding about how they worked and the type of person that both St George would want to see, and that would want to work for them.

The role was needed to fill a skills-gap in the team, evolving as St George met candidates - coupled with needing a replacement for someone moving on towards the end of the process, from a Planner to a Development Manager.

There were a number of unique challenges as part of the mandate. That the role evolved was one, but also St.George weren’t able to disclose upcoming major schemes as they were not in the public domain, therefore making it more challenging to sell the role to potential candidates. This, coupled with the need to have four days in the office each week discounted many of the people that were initially interested. 

The Solution

We worked on an exclusive/dedicated basis with St.George, due to our historic relationship, and not being in a rush –discussing specific candidates in the first briefing, who were then invited in to interview. We gave advice on salaries and benchmarking, utilising our network and existing active candidates as well as known individuals in the industry. 

During their office refurb, we held first and second round interviews at our West End of London offices - an impartial space to allow for clear communication between the candidate and client.

The results

Through thorough feedback on both sides, we perfected the sell to candidates, arranged follow ups and, with the role’s responsibilities finalised, the successful candidate, Julian Wain, was selected.

The candidate had recently been affected by a restructure at their firm, coming from a Planning role within a registered provider, but having strong numbers-skills, they were effectively acting as a Development Manager already. We had them in other interview processes, but St George offered the competitive offer, title and package that the candidate had asked for, so the process was smooth from that point onwards.

The Feedback

Paul Kelner, Land Director at St George commented: “Kate and the team at Cobalt were able to help us successfully and quickly fill a position in our land and planning team. Kate had a genuine interest in finding the right candidate for the role and was able to translate a difficult client brief into a shortlist of strong candidates. Throughout the process Kate was pro-active, responsive and professional and we will not hesitate to call on her again.”

Within Residential Development, our team place professionals from MRICS-qualified Development Surveyors and Development Managers, to Land Buyers, Land Managers and those in Strategic Land from Assistant to Director-level.

From urban planning and regeneration to rural town planning, our Town Planning recruitment team place those working towards their RTPI Chartered Town Planning status through to Directors with years of experience. Across both spaces, the team works with a range of organisations including Hill, Berkeley Group and hgh Consulting.