Case Study: Legal & Compliance Officer – Superannuation

CLIENT

A growing superannuation fund recently engaged Kaizen Recruitment on a retained executive search assignment to identify and secure a lawyer / compliance manager for their Melbourne office.

CHALLENGE

Recruiting for this position was critical to the fund because it came at a time when they were going through a merger with another superannuation fund. The compliance obligations that are imposed on a fund during a merger are vast, hence our client’s need for a candidate familiar with the relevant APRA prudential standards whilst also having experience in reviewing marketing materials for superannuation related products.

The client advised in their brief that they were seeking a short list of talent coming from key industry regulators, in-house lawyers and compliance professionals from within superannuation funds or a practicing lawyer from a private practice law firm. In addition to this, they were also seeking an individual that could work collaboratively with the business and share similar values in terms of corporate culture.

SOLUTION

Kaizen Recruitment ran an executive search process sweeping a cross section of the legal and compliance market in Melbourne targeting individuals at superannuation and investment funds, key industry regulators and law firms.

From this we compiled a list of ten candidates which we proactively headhunted, screened and vetted for the role. A shortlist of six professionals along with their resumes was compiled which was presented to the client. For the client’s perusal, Kaizen Recruitment also included information relating to the candidates intangible skills, salary expectations as well as their long term career goals.

Further market data on salaries and bonus structures was compiled during our research which was supplied to assist in the negotiation process.

RESULT

The fund chose to interview four out of the six shortlisted candidates. After much deliberation they ultimately made an offer to a candidate from an industry regulator.

The ability to deal with internal stakeholders, sound knowledge of the superannuation products in reviewing marketing material (key in the merger process) and strong cultural fit with the Head of Compliance and the General Counsel made this individual a standout fit for the role in the eyes of the client.

The client subsequently made an offer to this candidate and Kaizen Recruitment was able to secure the candidate through the offer/negotiation process. The fund was extremely pleased with the result and satisfied that the number one selection from the interview process was successfully added to their team.

TESTIMONIAL

The successful candidate was thrilled to secure this exciting rare opportunity providing the following testimonial:

“Edward and the team at Kaizen Recruitment were very professional and helpful in securing me a new legal and compliance position. Edward gave me a very thorough understanding of the opportunity and was helpful throughout the recruitment process. He is also the perfect advocate for any prospective candidate.

I highly recommend speaking to Edward if you are looking for a new role in the compliance/legal sector, and recommend Edward and the team at Kaizen Recruitment as specialist superannuation recruiters.”