Capital Ambition & Arras

"Excellent, efficient and painless"

 

Capital Ambition were looking for a Programme Assurance Manager to come on board and essentially run a lot of the Project Office activity at Capital Ambition. The role was to support upwards of 90 projects across the London boroughs, so they were looking for a candidate with a strong public sector background and - obviously - experience of managing not only PMOs, but delivering projects, too.

Following Through On A Promise

Arras People consultant Gary Holmes handled the Capital Ambition account, and detailed how he worked closely with the Programme Manager to get the right candidate:

"I received the initial phone call from the Programme Manager an hour before setting off for a prior engagement. The Programme Manager was after a very quick turnaround so the challenge was getting a decent handle on the role in a short space of time and finding the right candidates in a day when I returned to the office. I gave him the assurance that we would have CVs over by the close of play on the Monday evening, which I achieved."

Unparalleled Teamwork

Gary's colleague at Arras People, Nicola Thorp, took the initiative to support Gary in finding the right candidate in that short space of time.

"Nicola came on board initially and found a candidate to add to the 2 that I submitted," Gary said. "It was a great help in re-assuring the programme manager that we were doing our utmost to find him candidates quickly. I got the role advertised before I left the office on the Thursday so that I would have a pool of candidates to work with on the Monday morning. As it turned out, I got in touch with a couple of good people I had worked with on a Design Council role previously who both outshone the other competition. They were both available and interested."

Amidst the Oysters, Arras People Delivers the Pearl

The programme manager for Capital Ambition has worked with Arras People before, filling a Project Support Officer need with them previously. He decided to interview the two candidates Arras People submitted. Unfortunately as there was a 2 week delay before the interviews, one of the candidates was offered another role and thus pulled out. Our remaining candidate was up against 4 other people but was offered the role which he accepted.

"When I asked the programme manager about the service we provided this time he said that it was ‘Excellent, efficient and painless’."

One of our favourite quotes - painless! Arras strives to ensure all our recruitment campaigns are painless yet successful. The secret is having excellent candidates available - consultants who understand the ins and outs of project management - thorough screening and vetting processes and the desire to see a job well done. Seems easy? I think this quote sums us up:

“Always behave like a duck - keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath”