Multi-Billion Dollar Pharmaceutical Company

Client

Office of the CFO

Problem

Hiring a multi-talented VP of Finance to execute on a wide ranging set of job responsibilities. The previously hired candidates had been unsuccessful in the complex environment and had vacated the position within a relatively short timeframe after their hiring.

Deliverables

The Medlin Group designed and delivered a customized VP of Finance Job Benchmark before the hiring process formally was to begin.

The Job Benchmark was exclusively customized to the client’s environment and requirements since the candidate attributes and role responsibilities were derived entirely from critical internal and external stakeholders.

• First, a group of stakeholders were selected. The stakeholders were personally identified by the CFO as those executives who cared most about the success of the VP of Finance position.
• Secondly, the stakeholders validated a core set of Key Accountabilities needed in this role.
• From the Key Accountabilities a customized Job Benchmark was derived. The Job Benchmark, because it was tailored specifically to what the stakeholders collectively identified as the most important characteristics of a successful candidate in the unique environment, became the nonpartisan baseline for measurement and comparison of prescreened potential applicants.

Prospective candidates went through the company’s interview process. Those that passed the multiple interview evaluations were asked to take a brief online leadership assessment as part of the final interview process. The assessment ranked each of the prospective candidates against the benchmark and compared them to each other as well.

The outcomes were unanticipated. Candidates that interviewed well, were considered highly qualified, were well-liked by the CFO, and were viewed as finalists for the job turned out not to be strong fits when calibrated against the job benchmark. As a result the company deferred the hiring decision altogether and instead revisited the more intrinsic reasons behind the need for and expectations of this position in the first place.