The challenge
French international skincare and beauty company, Guinot Mary Cohr, were already a client of ours when they asked us to recruit for a senior-level financial role.
In October 2022, Myriam Welsh, the company’s Managing Director, requested our help in finding a British finance and operations director – preferably with French language skills and experience of working in a European company’s UK subsidiary.
Myriam stated: “We needed a recruiter who understood the position itself, the context, the main challenges, the required mindset and strengths for a successful integration into the company, along with the budget.”
Philip Watts, Reed’s Regional Manager and finance specialist, said: “Following the initial interest, I arranged a briefing meeting with the managing director to ensure I fully understood the need, the business, the managing director’s plans, and the key attraction for this role.
“The main challenge was the preference for someone who was fluent in French, although this wasn’t mandatory.”
The solution
Philip launched a full recruitment campaign involving targeted adverts aimed at finance professionals with language skills and connected with talent already in our network.
Throughout the process, Reed kept Myriam engaged from “the initial job briefing, CV discussions, to full interview debriefs, and by keeping to agreed deadlines. We advised on suitable salary and benefits for the role, arranged all interviews, travel arrangements and offers,” Philip summarised.
Reed put forward several people who Myriam said were “strong candidates”, and we attracted the right person after a two-month search.
Laure Filippi, now the Finance & Operations Manager of Guinot Mary Cohr, had already signed up to Reed and was looking at several roles with similar offerings. She came across our advert and applied directly through Reed.com.
Laure said: “Philip briefed me prior to the interviews, answered any questions I had, and kept in regular contact with the hiring director. Once the first email contact was established, he kept in touch regularly, not only before the first and subsequent interviews, but also during the offer stage and beyond.
“Once I accepted the role and signed the contract, Philip proactively called me at regular intervals up to my joining date and also made contact after I’d started to check all was well and the job was in line with my expectations.”
The results
Six weeks after Laure started, Myriam praised her rapid assimilation into the role: “Laure picked up very quickly on our priorities and main challenges. While still absorbing information, she is already proactive and helpful. I can see her progressing quickly as a great support to help me better manage our financial monitoring and performance.”
On Reed’s service, Myriam added: “I felt the brief was correctly understood, and strong candidates were put forward. Finding the right mix of background, expertise, mindset, and character within a fixed budget is not an easy job, but I am very satisfied with the candidate selection, and our final choice. Thank you very much.”
Laure also shared she had a “very positive experience” of finding a role through Reed: “I would say the overall experience was seamless; the process was efficient from first contact with Philip to job offer and onboarding.
“I’m very happy in my role; it is the challenge I was looking for and feels like the right cultural fit too.”
Philip concluded: “We’ve received fantastic feedback. Guinot Mary Cohr was a brilliant client to work with as it was a true partnership – that is always a real pleasure. Myriam is very happy with the selection and Laure feels she is fitting in well and can see the opportunity to take her career further”.
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