FEA Intelligent Search – A Fresh Approach to Executive Search and Recruitment in the FE Sector

Since the start of the current financial year, the FE Associates Executive Search team has seen a significant upturn in search and recruitment activity, meaning this wonderful team of professionals has been working tirelessly to provide excellent support to clients and candidates alike.

Given this significant level of activity, as any good leader would, I decided to step up and deliver an end-to-end search and recruitment assignment myself. Whilst supporting colleagues in this way is always appreciated, there was a motive for me going back to the shop floor, so to speak: I wanted to check out our unique technology offering – FEA Intelligent Search – and see these tools in action from the perspective of consultant, client and candidate.

Our FEA Intelligent Search tools were built by our AI partner, Leading AI, and the use of this cutting-edge technology is truly unique to FE Associates – no one else in FE search and recruitment is harnessing it the way we are. Essentially, FEA Intelligent Search is about using technology to provide organisational and role diagnosis, data-enabled discovery, human-led engagement and smarter candidate attraction and evidence-led assessment. By adopting a people-first, consultant-led approach to using this technology, we have combined the best of what FE Associates has always done with technology, data and insights.
So, assigned to lead the search for a new Deputy Principal for Curriculum and Quality at Stoke on Trent College, off I went to lead, launch and manage the search and recruitment process.

As with any standard search process, I conducted my initial engagement with the college and its leaders. I took the brief, researched the organisation and its priorities and reviewed a whole range of documentation. The difference this time, however, was that I provided all of this information to FEA Intelligent Search and the technology produced a Leadership Success Profile, an in-depth exploration of the college, the role, the behaviours and values expected and the success factors for the role. The Leadership Success Profile is far more insightful than the usual job description, person specification, and related information – it provides candidates with incredibly useful insights and is very helpful in decision-making.

Once we got past the shortlisting stage of the process (by the way, we don’t use any technology in the shortlisting process – this is purely human-led), we then invited our shortlisted candidates to complete our standard personality profiling questionnaire, which now comes as standard with any FEA search assignment. We then took all of the information we had on our candidates, gathered through their applications, the transcripts of meetings I had with them and the outcomes of their personality profiling and applied FEA Intelligent Search to produce a Candidate Insights Report mapped to the Leadership Success profile.
The Candidate Insights Report was used only with the candidates’ permission – they had a first look at the report and the right to challenge or amend as they saw fit. We apply our technology in a completely transparent manner and candidates have sight of what the selection panel see.

The selection panel was then provided with a clear overview of the strengths of each shortlisted candidate relative to the college’s requirements and the role – thereby giving them stronger indications of alignment, skills and values.

So when it came to the selection process, our panel had a truly rich range of information to base their decisions on. They knew where to probe, quickly identified strengths and areas for support and development, and gained a strong sense of the candidates’ leadership achievements, behaviours, and values.

Having taken the leap into developing this new technology and now road-tested it myself, I know we have made the right decision, as we now have more tools and insights available to deliver real service improvement.  At FEA, we have always set out to be innovative and ahead of the game and the development of FEA Intelligent Search demonstrates our commitment to moving forward in the interests of the FE sector.

Discover how FEA Intelligent Search can transform your next leadership appointment. Contact our team for a confidential discussion:

• recruitment@fea.co.uk
• 01454 617 707