Case Study

Checkit’s ambitious international growth plans – accelerated by the digital transformation trends of the past year – compelled the company to expand its outstanding leadership team.

Early attempts at search had only identified a small handful of good candidates in over two months and, frustratingly, nobody who stood head and shoulders above the rest. Good wasn’t good enough for Checkit: they were looking for exceptional, and there was no time to waste

We spoke to Checkit Executive Chairman, Keith Daley, about the challenges he had experienced with the search process and the frustrations he had felt with not being able to meet enough quality people in the time available.

Committed to innovation

Checkit provides large, multi-site organisations with an intelligent operations platform to improve customer experience, efficiency and compliance. The platform gives deskless workforces a guided digital assistant that prompts, guides, tracks and analyses their work. The additional option to plug in sensor networks and smart building management empowers leaders with real-time insight and control over their essential operations and the opportunity to continually streamline and improve processes.

With the surge in remote working over the last year, the need for technology to help companies organise and analyse tasks across widely dispersed people and processes has become increasingly important. Checkit helps large organisations, including the NHS, make efficiencies within their operations, allowing them to benefit from real-time data and respond faster to market changes.

“For us, 2020 presented an opportunity.” explains Keith. “We were experiencing a period of rapid growth, our work with the NHS was growing significantly, fuelled by the planned role out of the Covid-19 vaccine programme, and we were expanding into the US. In the midst of all this, we were struggling to find enough-first rate business leaders with the ability to keep pace with our growth. We knew we needed an outstanding search firm to maintain our hiring momentum.”

Pushing the transformation agenda

Checkit was looking to hire several senior leaders in the UK, including a Chief Commercial Officer to oversee all commercial development and strategy, and a Chief Operations and Customer Officer to oversee all operational functions and ensure customer success.

Keith and his team were also recruiting a President to lead the US business, as well as integrating with a Florida-based business they had acquired.

Commenting on the requirements of the search process, Keith said: “Our solutions extend digital transformation to deskless workforces that have been historically under-served by technology. It’s an exciting area of innovation, touching on a lot of functions, and we need forward-thinking people who can take us to market.

“Due to the expansion of the business, we had a tight timescale with these roles, so the search and selection process had to be efficient in finding high calibre candidates.”

Another challenge Keith faced was the difficulty in evaluating candidates for commercial roles. “These people are good at selling themselves above all else” he said, “how do you assess them properly?”

At Herringbone Search, we understand how important it is that candidates are extensively assessed to ensure they align to the culture and possess the expertise to achieve business outcomes. In Checkit’s case, we interviewed over 400 people across three roles before compiling our shortlist.

Ryan Henshaw, CEO of Herringbone, comments, “The success of this project was all about access. We have a strong network and were able to approach the right people quickly, but it was essential that we only presented Keith with a shortlist of candidates that we had absolute confidence in. By the time we had got to the shortlisting stage, we had spent at least 4 hours with each candidate and knew they would impress with their personal impact and fit with Checkit’s needs.”

Shaping the digital future

Following the search and selection process, we were delighted to successfully place candidates for all three roles, with each individual already exceeding expectations.

“Working with larger search firms, which take more of a “production line” approach, wasn’t yielding results for us,” Keith explains, “but the attentive service and commitment to the job we received from the team at Herringbone Search demonstrated that they really understand both the recruitment industry and our vision.

“They put in a significant amount of work to help us and we have developed a very good working relationship. Ultimately, we couldn’t be happier with our new team – and they have just helped to recruit our new Non-executive Director.” Keith concludes.

To find out more about our services and approach, get in touch with one of our Search Consultants.