National Passenger & Customer Experience Director

The Brief

Network Rail retained our services to undertake Market Mapping and Executive Search to support with the recruitment of the newly created position of National Passenger & Customer Experience Director within the Network Services division.

This role was a critical post to drive forward the Putting Passengers First transformation of Network Rail. A strong leader with demonstrable experience of improving the customer experience in a B2C environment was required for this role.

The Process

Given Network Rail’s objective to be more diverse, we explored talent from inside and outside the rail sector and suggested several changes to the job description to make the candidate population we could consider broader and more diverse. Through discussion at the briefing meeting our challenge on some of the technical requirements was accepted and this helped to open up the candidate pool significantly.

The next step was a market mapping exercise to identify potential candidates suitable for the role, and then we contacted these individuals on a confidential basis to learn more about their experience, location preference, current remuneration packages and general level of interest in considering a new role. A market mapping report was produced detailing the locations, gender diversity, compensation, and level of potential interest of suitable candidates for the role.

Following a review by Network Rail of the market map, we were given instruction to proceed with our approaches to selected candidates and interview process. Competency-based interviews were used to assess each external candidate, as well as us interviewing internal applicants alongside them to provide a consistent selection process for all.

The Outcome

Our shortlist of 5 candidates recommended to Network Rail was 80% female and 20% BAME. The feedback from the line manager was that the final two candidates were both excellent, and we were successful in recruiting a highly experienced and diverse candidate with broad experience within, and outside of, the rail sector for the role.

The successful candidate performed extremely well in the role and was swiftly promoted to an enhanced role which encompassed freight as well as passenger services.

Feedback

Sinead Trudgill, Director of Human Resources was extremely positive:

Newsom Consulting were successful in their tender for our recent role for National Passenger & Customer Experience Director. The firm provide an excellent result having taken a detailed brief. They demonstrated great customer focus and delivered to our specification and requirements. They demonstrated both care and our customer values. I look forward to working with Newsom Consulting in the future.