Keen to expand on the individuality of thought and bring in new team members with a different point of view, Benedict Brogan, Group Public Affairs Director and the senior team at Lloyds Banking Group discussed their hopes of hiring differently with Lucy Cairncross, Executive Director at VMA GROUP. 

Lucy could clearly see that the team at Lloyds Banking Group were keen to affect real change within their corporate affairs department and had the means, capability and desire to support learning and development for individuals.

Lucy was keen to support them in the hiring process and worked closely with the team to understand what they really needed, where they had flexibility on previous experience or sector knowledge, and whether they were genuinely able to support those with the potential to rise up to the challenge of working in the demanding and fast-paced financial services sector. 

After a detailed and transparent search of the marketplace, Lucy was able to provide a shortlist of candidates from very different backgrounds and help steer them through a thorough interview process with the Lloyds Banking Group team.  This culminated in the appointment of two fantastic new members of the Group Public Affairs team, with both starting their new roles in the Autumn of 2021. 

Benedict Brogan, Group Public Affairs Director said: 

"I want to thank you for everything you did to bring these two individuals to Lloyds Banking Group. You should be really pleased - they are proving to be everything we hoped for and discussed all those months ago, and are already making a difference to the team in all kinds of ways. 

I really appreciated the way you took the brief, didn’t blink when we unilaterally expanded it, worked with the team and persisted with our processes to get not just one but two candidates through the door. 

I’ve had amazing feedback from the team about how much they appreciated their dealings with you, which made all the difference.

We’ve made a point of sharing our positive experience with the wider corporate affairs team here and I hope that they too will benefit from working with you and VMA GROUP in future as and when opportunities arise." 

Lucy Cairncross, Executive Director at VMA GROUP said: 

"It has been an absolute delight to support Lloyds Banking Group’s Public Affairs team with these hires. The commitment and interest from the whole team at LBG throughout the hiring process was of the highest quality. 

It can be quite a rare thing to get such engagement from the top, particularly around delivering honest and quality feedback to candidates and it makes all the difference to the candidate experience and level of commitment. It also makes them a complete pleasure for me to support on the recruitment side." 

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VMA GROUP is a leading international interim, contract, temporary and permanent recruitment and executive search specialist. We are specifically focused on providing support to the communications, marketing, digital and change communities.

Our specialist practice areas cover: communications, corporate communications, internal communications, change communications, PR, media relations, financial communications, CSR, public affairs, investor relations, marketing, brand, digital marketing and agency services.

We have a reputation for providing expert consultancy services and advice, supported by in-depth knowledge of the professions we recruit for. Our thought leadership and benchmarking studies have become go-to resources for the communications, marketing, digital and change industries, supporting planning and decision-making for organisations of all shapes and sizes.

In the UK, VMA GROUP has offices in London, Bristol and Manchester and in Europe, VMA GROUP has offices in Amsterdam and Brussels, but we work with organisations and individuals on a global basis.

VMA GROUP is committed to equal opportunities and is a Diversity Pledged Recruiter.