Summer functional heads talent campaign successfully delivered for The Confederation of School Trusts

To assist the further growth of our client, the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), we were engaged to source strategically key talent from around the UK in peak summer months, who would not only be the best fit for CST but were to also introduce new skillsets to CST's growth strategies and plans

This vital talent had a broad set of capabilities that included Heads of Membership, Professional Development, Marketing, Partnerships, and Communications.

Our client – The Confederation of School Trusts (CST)

The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) is a national sector body and membership organisation that represents School Trusts from all regions throughout England. CST represents more than two thirds of the academy schools sector, with its members responsible for the education of nearly three million young people and children.

As a strategic presence with access to government and policy makers, CST shapes the education policy agenda in England, to bring about positive change on important topics and is one of the most influential organisations in education today.

Founded in 2018 with four staff members, CST has experienced massive growth since then and continues to grow with more than two out of every three academies run by trusts that are members of CST.

Our brief

Our brief from CST was to identify the very best talent from across the UK for five key strategic hires for the next phase of the CST’s growth – Heads of Membership, Professional Development, Marketing, Partnerships and Communications.

CST was in a fortunate position – they'd had no employee turnover since their inception, and were offering fantastic career opportunities, including:

The ability to work with over 1,000 School Trusts – charities that run free-to-attend schools
The opportunity to help influence and improve the policy landscape affecting the education of millions of children and thousands of teachers and school leaders across England
Contribute to the enormous expansion of one of the most influential organisations devoted to education in England.

The Challenge

Whilst CST was growing, they realised that there was high demand for the skillsets they needed for their next phase of growth, and given the relatively small size of their team, they had limited or no time to search for qualified talent of the seniority required.

This challenge was compounded by the fact that our search was to be conducted during the peak summer months in the UK, when it is especially difficult to obtain sought-after talent.

Nevertheless, they were aware that the right talent from throughout the membership sector would have a significant influence on them and their growth, and that is why we were engaged.

Our Solution

With every client, we aim to acquire an in-depth understanding of their goals, as well as their employees and culture.

For CST, we were assigned the task of finding the best-fit UK-wide, senior talent for five strategic hires to fulfil CST's growth - Membership, Professional Development, Marketing, Partnerships, and Communications.

By utilising our proven, tailored method of strategic targeting, we initiated a successful campaign directed towards the right talent, including:

Targeted advertising to leading employment platforms and specialist membership focused job boards
Search strategies encompassing our 15,000+ membership sector focused database
Our own extensive personal networks from throughout the membership and private sector

Using our expertise in the membership and education sectors, we managed the process, conducting comprehensive research, extensive screening, and interviewing.

Our Results

We accomplished the successful filling of all five crucial, senior roles for CST in a span of just one month, enabled further by our fast and accurate delivery of candidate short-lists within 2 weeks.

We collaborated with CST, and their expeditious two-stage interviewing process supported these timelines.

What the CEO of CST has to say:

“Daniel, I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you so much for the work that you did for us on recruitment to our five ‘heads of’ posts.

You delivered fields for us in the middle of the summer holidays in a period when recruitment is widely perceived to be challenging. We are really pleased with the service you offered and look forward to working with you in the future.”

Leora Cruddas, CBE
Chief Executive, CST