Key appointment recruitment

Exeter Science Park

The organisation

Exeter Science Park is a STEMM business park and conference venue offering state-of-the-art office spaces to their community of like-minded professionals. Their park includes conference, event and meeting spaces as well as an onsite café and laboratories. With this wide scope of versatile spaces, services and offerings, ESPL employs a team with a wide variety of different skills and experience.

ESPL began working with Fitzgerald HR in 2016. In that time, we have partnered with them on projects ranging from recruitment, policy development, organisational design and restructuring, TUPE transfers, development of organisational values, casework and coaching.

In February 2024, ESPL reached out to our Talent Acquisition Partner, Freya Burke, here at Fitzgerald HR to utilise her expertise in the world of resourcing.

Calling the Fitzgerald team to help with key appointment recruitment

The Head of Finance at ESPL, urgently needed to appoint an Assistant Accountant.

The role was a priority for them as the individual within the role had decided to move on- ESPL understood that time was of the essence as they required the successor to receive a thorough handover prior to the end of the notice period.

Understanding the process

Freya began by establishing a clear process to both enhance the candidate experience and to also ensure that ESPL was fully appraised of the timeline and expected steps.

Getting the role seen

Using her many years’ of experience in the job market, Freya curated a refreshing and engaging job advert, showcasing the culture and benefits ESPL had to offer, as well as honing the existing job description. Freya identified the best platfoms for advertising to attract the right calibre of candidates and maximise the number of applications.

Handling logistics and decision making

Following a detailed review of the applications, a longlist was created. Freya liaised with the Head of Finance and worked closely with her to identify the best candidates to be placed onto a shortlist.

During this process, Freya managed all candidate communication – keeping applicants in the loop and removing this time-consuming responsibility from ESPL, allowing the hiring manager to focus on her own role’s priorities.

Interviews, covered

The Fitzgerald HR team developed bespoke interview scripts and questions, along with a clear scoring matrix, enabling easy comparison of candidates in a fair and transparent way.

Freya attended all first-stage interviews and after collaboratively reflecting on the feedback gathered from the process, Freya and the hiring manager established a final shortlist of the best candidates.

The final interviews were again booked by Freya, who took care of all the logistics. Prior to the interviews, Freya liaised with the candidates to facilitate psychometric testing through Fitzgerald HR’s specialist provider to support the final decision.

New employee, appointed.

A final decision was made and an offer of employment, accepted.

The recruitment to employment transition was seamless, as Freya, who had been involved from the first discussion about the role,  was requested by ESPL to undertake background checks and to help ensure the new starter experienced a smooth onboarding process. The candidate felt supported by the same familiar face from application to appointment.

ESPL was able to secure an excellent replacement Assistant Accountant within their timelines. Furthermore, the successful candidate (and every single applicant) experienced a professional and clear recruitment process, facilitated by Fitzgerald HR.