A highly-regarded global financial institution based in the United Kingdom, whose scope of services included retail banking, investment banking, insurance and a variety of other financial services across multiple subsidiaries, had a core staff of about 5,000 people in the UK. As a result of variable performance of some business units and greatly increased regulatory scrutiny, the bank was about to undergo a major restructuring. Regulators wanted the Board of Directors to assess the top 300 executives for the leadership of a restructured bank, all the way up to and including the CEO. And it needed to be done in 30 days.
Demanding schedules of the senior executives, limited venues for assessment interviews and firewalls in the bank’s IT systems posed obstacles to a traditional approach. Plus, executives were reticent to participate in the exercise, believing it was part of an effort to cull the bank’s staff in the face of restructuring.
To expedite the process, a specially tailored assessment methodology was devised using out-of-the-box online diagnostic tools and a widely recognised leadership capability framework followed by interviews to identify leadership capabilities, personal styles, potential and skills of the executives. Reticence by participants was largely overcome by framing the programme as a development exercise and focusing feedback on development opportunities and planning for the executives involved.
A joint team of associate project managers and client personnel handled logistics, scheduling and IT matters. A cadre of executive leadership practitioners conducted interviews and provided feedback to participants on their diagnostics. Concise reports were prepared on each participant including a scoring against international benchmarks. By managing the logistics and reporting with military precision, the assessment was completed within 30 days.
The consulting team identified the levels of leadership and technical skills, personal style and potential required for select top jobs in the bank. Working with the bank’s chief human resources officer, executive assessment results were matched to job requirements to produce a succession pipeline for each senior level position.