NHS Shared Business Services | David Godfrey

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) were looking for improvement at a service level for their customers but needed the right talent in place to help bring about this change. Hunter had established previous relationships with both the Director and Head of the Healthcare Improvement Solutions practice at NHS SBS.

NHS SBS identified the need to recruit multiple Service Improvement Consultants who have a background in healthcare operations. Due to the flexibility of the roles being based anywhere in the country and their consulting nature, David needed to carefully plan what type of individual would actually be suitable and capable of delivery. The client also required a reasonably tight turnaround, factoring in the likelihood of most candidates having a notice period of at least 1 – 3 months.

Hunter met face to face with the client and with two existing team members, who talked openly and frankly about what it was like to work for the team. We then devised a targeted head-hunting campaign alongside branded advertising (Guardian Jobs) aimed at attracting NHS Graduate Scheme candidates and similarly high-performing individuals with a healthcare operations background who would be open to and capable of working in a consulting environment. There was a particular focus placed upon location – notably London and the North-West as these were the two areas where the NHS SBS consulting team had secured the most work both historically and moving forwards. All interested and suitable candidates were met in person or video interviewed before being shortlisted for the client.

Hunter successfully filled all roles within a four-week timeframe, and thus kick-started an exclusive recruitment relationship for permanent operational and service improvement recruitment with NHS SBS.