A major cosmetics brand needed a Senior Director of HR with unique skillset

A European cosmetics firm needing a Senior Director of HR Operations with Compensation & Benefits (C&B) experience. In addition, team building and management experience were a strong search requirement as the chosen candidate need to have the potential to succeed the current GM as Head of the Human Resources operation.

There were 3 main challenges to this assignment.

As C&B experience is not a skill or specialty typically associated with the management track of HR leaders, finding this qualification with the capability to potentially lead an HR function would narrow the list of qualified candidates significantly.

Additionally, the client’s corporate culture was very niche; most competitors in the industry were highly aggressive and valued a frank communication style. The successful candidate, however, would need to have a lighter touch and be very comfortable dealing with ambiguity.

Finally, very few companies had an organizational structure that would have a role with a similar skillset or at this leadership level.

Our research team compiled a list of companies to target. Since most direct competitor organizations would have neither the right culture nor organizational structure, we decided together with the client to extend the search territory to include other European businesses of similar scale and culture.

In the end, this decision was key as all 3 shortlisted candidates came from non-related industries. However, all of them fit the cultural, skill, and leadership requirements that were of strong interest to the client.

The candidate that the client expressed the most interest in came from a relatively conservative business culture and with a personality very suitable for the client’s requirements.

The candidate was highly motivated to accept the role for the career path it offered and the cultural fit of the company.