The British Red Cross

“Following a review, it became clear that we needed to implement a restructure of the International Division of the Red Cross. We had a really tight schedule of just 40 days to stick to (far too tight on reflection), and the brief was quite complex.

Because of this, we needed to draft in extra support to assist the implementation team to undertake all of the reorganisation process, including organising job matching, developing a new selection process (taking into consideration ring fenced roles) and providing all associated material.

For the restructure, most staff decided to go for the option of applying for a possible new role meaning there were over 100 interviews to perform for 70 jobs in just 6 weeks.

Approximately 35 staff weren’t affected (slotted), with the remainder being ring-fenced. We also wanted to provide an opportunity for staff to apply for their new roles before undergoing their ring-fencing, which made for a complex schedule of internal and ring-fenced interviews in sequence of descending grade.

We wanted someone external, who would be able to provide independent and impartial HR expertise, but also needed someone who would be happy participating in the day-to-day work (particularly the ring fenced selection activities), ensuring comprehensive write-ups were delivered to senior management, whilst at the same time providing feedback and liaising with our staff at all levels.

We knew of Fitzgerald’s strong NGO HR experience and reputation working with the third sector. With the wide range of services and expertise available, and the fact we got our own consultant to work with throughout the process, it seemed like a good fit for what we needed.

We explained the brief to Fitzgerald at the outset; what was really appreciated was their ability to immediately grasp what was required and with just a few clarification questions to be able to set to work with minimal ongoing input and deliver what was required.

The complicated internal and ring-fenced interviewing was a mammoth undertaking, but Fitzgerald were involved in every single one, writing up all notes and providing feedback to all candidates. It was a huge volume of work.

The work was all delivered on time and in full, despite the tight timelines. At times, it was clear that our consultant had worked right into the night in order to deliver the work; at no point did she fail to meet our requirements. There were one or two occasions where she felt the deadline was not deliverable without compromising the quality of the work, but explained this clearly and enabled us to re-think the deadline to something more realistic.

We really valued Fitzgerald’s ability and confidence to challenge our internal panels and managers where necessary to ensure the best processes and standard of work.

The consultancy service was successful for us on many levels – Fitzgerald delivered exactly what we wanted in the timeframe we needed. In taking on this model of service, it also allowed our in-house HR team to continue with business as usual whilst we went through a difficult restructure. The independence and impartiality offered by Fitzgerald was extremely helpful.

The work was delivered to a very high standard, and I am extremely pleased with it. I would not hesitate to recommend Fitzgerald for future work.

Catherine Fitzgibbon

Head of International HR