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Rio Tinto Case Study

A tricky search test from Rio Tinto passed with flying colours

Occasionally an executive search brief arrives that tests a recruiter’s capabilities to the limit. Such was the case when FTSE100 company Rio Tinto contacted Archer Mathieson’s James Aston looking for a senior reward expert. As well as being a highly specialised, niche area of technical expertise within the HR function, by definition only a very small pool of people have the requisite experience of working in remuneration committees for large, stock market-listed firms.

In recent months, numerous changes in compliance, regulation and corporate governance affecting listed companies have tipped the balance in the candidate’s favour.  As if all this wasn’t enough, reward specialists can be somewhat hard to please, adds John Beadle, global practice leader, total rewards, at Rio Tinto:

“As you’d expect, these people are skilled negotiators and completely aware of their own market value. I knew about Archer Mathieson from previous roles and that HR is one of its specialisations. Although Rio Tinto obviously has existing relationships with several large, multi-disciplinary search firms, I felt this particular assignment would be better handled by a smaller, specialist firm. That’s why I decided to give Archer Mathieson a try.”

This role was designed to strengthen Rio’s remuneration capabilities at a global level. A search process in this discipline and at this level can easily take a year, says Beadle.

“You are somewhat resigned to the fact it might take 12 months but we managed to complete this search in just 12 weeks; it was an impressive performance. I particularly liked James Aston’s approach. He quickly presented me with a short ‘long list’ and his candidate observation s turned out to be very accurate. In situations like this, I’d certainly use a smaller, specialised search firm like Archer Mathieson again. There’s a bespoke, personal touch to their service and they are highly motivated to go the extra mile,” he concludes.

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