Mining our contacts to find a one-of-a-kind

The Challenge

For First Quantum Minerals, finding its workforce could be very challenging as mining experience was important and projects were complex, with a huge variety of variables. Alongside relevant industry expertise, a cultural fit was crucial. Teams were incredibly diverse with a mix of local employees and expatriates and languages were also critical.

Because of this mix of cultural fit and industry expertise, the company handled the majority of its recruitment in-house but bought in external recruitment firms when they had a very specific role or unique skills requirement, usually at a senior level.

The Solution

One such role was for the position of Group Treasurer, reporting to the Chief Financial Officer. They had a very specific profile for the role - a person used to working in a multinational organisation in a regulated environment, dealing with colleagues with a variety of backgrounds across the world. They also needed prior, experience in dealing with the risks and challenges on a senior level within such an organisation. The client was aware that the pool of suited talent was going to be very small.

Furthermore, the role had been vacant for about two years. They tried a variety of solutions, both internal and external, and the best fit was an interim consultant, but they were retiring. The CFO decided that they needed to find a permanent solution. The interim consultant was able to provide some support in the hunt for a replacement and recommended Alex Hyde, a Director in BIE’s CFO & Financial Leadership Team, as the ideal person to lead the search.

The Outcome

The search resulted in a successful candidate being appointed who had already made an impact. “Our new Group Treasurer has only been in place for a few months, but they already feel like they had been with us for much longer. They’ve developed strong relationships with people across the business, including the CFO, and despite coming from a completely different industry, have really embraced working for both our company and in the mining industry. We’re now in a position to start building up a proper team to support the Group Treasurer, and we’re excited to see how much more of an impact this can have, both in finance and across the business as a whole,” explained the client.