Rescuing a stalled finance leadership campaign through Recruitment as a Service (RAAS)

The problem

A critical finance leadership position in Corporate Services. State Budget processes, financial reporting, executive advisory, Treasury engagement, and a team that needed building. The kind of vacancy that shows up in the reporting within a quarter.

The advertisement had run. The closing date had been extended. The still was not competitive, a constrained market, difficult timing, and very few senior finance leaders willing to move during a peak budget period.

That leaves a panel chair with three bad options: appoint someone you are not confident about, advertise again and wait another six to eight weeks with the seat empty, or keep extending and hope the market changes.

What we did about it



We came in mid-campaign, worked as part of the department's own HR and panel team, and took the process off their desk.

We stopped the drift first. We went to the panel chair, set firm dates and got everyone working to the same timeline. A stalled campaign rarely fails for lack of candidates. It fails because nobody has a clear run of hours to push it, so the dates keep moving.

We went and found candidates. Advertising had done what advertising does. We ran targeted search and approached people directly, and those candidates progressed to interview alongside the internal applicant. That is what turned a limited field into a genuine contest.

We took the administration completely. Every applicant enquiry, the shortlisting, interview preparation, interview logistics, scribing, moderation, referee checks and the final selection report.

We protected the candidates. People approached directly walk if the process goes quiet on them. We kept every candidate informed and prepared throughout, so nobody was lost between shortlist and offer.

What we would tell you honestly

The market did not improve. We worked around it. Forty-four applications across an extended campaign is a modest field for a role at this level, and it stayed modest. What changed was not the volume, it was that someone went and had direct conversations with people who were never going to respond to an advertisement.

Two suitable candidates is a real result, not a comfortable one. It gave the department a genuine choice and a defensible process. It did not give them five. If your role sits in a market this thin, a campaign that produces two appointable people is a good outcome, and we would rather tell you that now than describe it as a deep field.

How the process stood up

Because this was a recovery of a campaign already in train, the documentation mattered more than usual. Everyone assessed was recorded, including candidates not progressed. Interview questions were structured and consistent across the field. A dedicated scribe took the record. The selection report was prepared to the department's own reporting requirements, using the department's templates and procedures throughout, because the process had to stand up as theirs rather than ours.