Search
Chief Facilities & Engineering Officer
Organization
Regional Hospital Group (Canada)
Situation
This new client to The ExeQfind Group was in need of a facilities and engineering leader to be based out of a regional healthcare group’s primary hospital in Ontario. We were awarded this assignment despite the fact that it was our first search in Canada’s hospital sector. The Vice President of Corporate Services and Director, Human Resources were comfortable in awarding this search to Sylvia MacArthur due to her reputation for a diligent search process and our track record for successfully placing key candidates in new industries.
Assesment
It was required that the successful candidate be a certified facilities engineer, that they have extensive facilities management expertise and that they had hospital management experience. The Client previously had a series of contractors filling the requirements of this role so consequently they were overpaying for this function and had no continuity of service. As they were also about to embark on a significant installation/upgrade, it became critical that they fill the role with a permanent hire.
Challenge
Along with constraints on the overall compensation budget, which ultimately restricted the search to outside of the Greater Toronto Area, the role required the candidate relocate to northern Ontario. Budget constraints also impacted on only having a minimal relocation allowance as part of the package. We went into this search knowing that the talent pool for this type of position was extremely limited and that it would require extensive research in a new area of search for us. In addition to the challenges of relocation, specifications and compensation that the search presented, the need to get the candidate onboard in fairly short order was an additional factor.
Solution
We knew that we would need to cast a fairly wide net to ensure a strong shortlist. Research identified every facilities and engineering leader in every regional hospital throughout Ontario. To ensure that the opportunity was appropriately showcased, potential candidates were contacted by the Director managing the search and initial phone screens were conducted. These initial discussions led to the identification of a strong pool of potential candidates that were subsequently interviewed in depth as well as being invited to complete a psychometric profile.
Candidate
A shortlist of candidates was presented within the agreed upon timeline. All of the candidates met the client specifications in experience and credentials. As each of the candidates hailed from different regional hospitals, they were acclimatized to living in a small center and all were open to relocation. Upon meeting the candidates, the client suggested that any one of them would be capable of filling the role and that each would fit into the organization well. The personal dynamics of two of the candidates led to their being the top considerations – with one being seen as only a slightly better cultural fit. This provided the client with the luxury of making an offer to the lead candidate with the knowledge that if they could not come to terms for any reason, they had an excellent fallback candidate.
Postmortem
Our Healthcare practice has since built an impressive client list of hospital groups and healthcare facilities – making senior management placements. This client has continued to present us with challenging, specialized searches that are consistently “first of” assignments for us. We have been equally successful in filling each one of them and count this hospital group as one of our key clients in the sector.