One of the world’s leading independent providers of solutions for long-term savings and pensions, Skandia, recently undertook a major business restructure. Central to this was a restructuring of the senior management team and moving the business to a shared services model from its original structure based on four business units with individual groups such as HR, IT, Marketing and Finance scattered throughout the units with no coherent structure.

Mark O’Connell, HR Director of Skandia, identified a requirement for a new senior HR executive who could bring an objective approach to the subsequent business restructure. He wanted to bring on board someone who could manage the restructure of the operating business and work with the CEO, Nick Poyntz-Wright, to create a new top team for the company. Second to this would be filtering the new top team structure throughout the organisation as a whole.

An essential requirement was to find someone who had organisational re-design experience, had taken a company through a restructure and someone who had generalist HR experience at a senior level. As Skandia was going through a potential acquisition with Old Mutual, experience in company integration was also a key requirement.



What makes a good interim?
HR Interim’s Alistair Cook

• They need to remain impartial and independent from the organisation they are working for
• They should have experience beyond what’s immediately required so they can start delivering results as soon as possible
• They need to be good at building relationships quickly
• They need to be driven by delivering results
• They need to have the ability to work alone and as part of a team
• They need authority and gravitas
• They must be able to deal with a large workload during assignments
• They must have the commitment to do whatever it takes to get the job done
• They need to be flexible
• They need to have good industry experience

An External Perspective

It was a tight and very specific brief. Skandia wanted someone who could come into the company with an external perspective, was not caught up in company politics and who could take an objective approach to the project.

In order to fill this key role with the right candidate as soon as possible Mark O’Connell turned to HR Interims, the dedicated interim division of Digby Morgan which is, in turn, the UK’s leading specialist HR search and selection consultancy.

“From the outset we knew that although this role was incredibly important to the organisation, it would not necessarily be a permanent position so recruiting an interim seemed like the most logical step to take. Additionally, we needed to find this candidate with the correct background and experience as soon as possible to get the project moving”, commented Mark O’Connell.

Skandia had not recruited an interim in a role this senior before, so looked to HR Interims to provide the expertise needed to recommend the most suitable candidate for the job.

Alistair Cook at HR Interims said, “From our success placing interims at other large organisations in similar situations to that of Skandia we had the insight and knowledge to identify the candidate that would be suitable for such a role and ensure that Skandia’s objectives were achieved”.

And that candidate was Steve Pratt, a highly experienced HR professional with more than 20 years experience under his belt working in senior National and European roles as well as experience as an interim HR Director at Direct Line and Bookham Technology.

Commenting on the opportunity, Steve Pratt said, “ Having worked as an interim HR director at two previous companies I was looking for a new challenge and, with the experience in company restructure that I acquired whilst at Direct Line, the role at Skandia seemed like an ideal opportunity that I would be well suited to.

Short and Long Term Objectives

“The initial, short-term task was to work with Skandia’s CEO to establish and create the new senior management team and structure, which included everything from defining the role of the top team, establishing the competencies needed to fulfil those roles through to carrying out assessments of external candidates for the team. This was completed on-schedule within the first three months of my interim assignment.

“The second phase was the implementation of the new top team and structure throughout the organisation. To do this I became part of the project team with the remit to put the team into place in the organisation – my focus was to work on how a new top team structure can be replicated in the rest of the organisation successfully. This was a much more long-term role and involved general organisation re-design, assessment of the current state and evaluation of the current operating model compared to the target model. In simple terms it was to ensure the company got from A to B with the restructure and what the implications would be for the staff involved.”

Alistair Cook added: “Steve was originally recruited on a three month interim placement. However, due to his success in the role it was extended to another two and now he and Skandia expect him to continue in the role for another six months on top of that.”

“The interim route with Steve is proving highly successful here at Skandia”, commented Mark O’Connell. “Steve has been able to bring in a wealth of outside experience and a fresh perspective on how to manage the company restructure.”

Steve Pratt added: “Working at a company as an interim means you can be much more objective in achieving the targets. You can maintain a distance from the office politics that often comes with the territory in large organisations and can provide invaluable clarity and focus on projects”.



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