
The brief
Orbit Developments is one of the UK’s largest private commercial property developers and investment management companies, operating in the North West and South East of England and the USA. psd were engaged on an exclusive basis to conduct an Executive Search project to hire a Leasing Director for the organisation.
Reporting into the CEO, the role of the Leasing Director was to oversee all commercial leasing projects across the Southern Region and manage an internal team of asset, project, leasing, legal, finance and property management experts. The successful individual would also need to assist in establishing new business opportunities, growing the portfolio and identifying investment pipeline.
The solution
Candidate mapping & benchmarking, behavioural selection, evaluation and thorough referencing are all key components of the psd executive search recruitment process. Following a briefing with Orbit Developments, psd conducted a detailed candidate mapping exercise to provide the client with up-to-date employment market data. Using our extensive network in this market a list of 32 individuals was quickly drawn up. The target candidates were then agreed with Orbit to ensure that all individuals were deemed to be suitable.
We discreetly approached the targeted individuals to assess both their suitability and interest in the position. We conducted face-to-face competency based interviews with 10 strong candidates, based around pre-agreed criteria such as offices experience, leasing management, stakeholder engagement and team (internal and external) management. We assessed both the technical skills and personality / cultural fit for each candidate and provided a weekly report on progress to Orbit Developments.
Three weeks after the project commenced, four candidates were selected from the shortlist and were presented to Orbit. The shortlist included detailed interview notes, package details, a CV for each individual and a view on the cultural fit for each candidate.
The results
We arranged the subsequent client interviews and managed the processes through the offer stages, while assisting the preferred candidate with the resignation process. Within 6 weeks a successful appointment was made. The placed individual has a strong blend of commercial leasing and asset management experience and is settling into the business well.
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Business Sector: Property & Construction