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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Grays Grows Again With New UK & International HR Search & Selection Practice

The executive search, selection and interim firm, Grays Executive Search, has launched an HR practice specialising in the UK and International placement of senior HR professionals and headed up by newly appointed HR recruitment expert, Nigel Bastow

The executive search, selection and interim firm, Grays Executive Search, has launched an HR practice specialising in the UK and International placement of senior HR professionals and headed up by newly appointed HR recruitment expert, Nigel Bastow.

This announcement comes just two months after the opening of a second office in Birmingham and the unveiling of Grays Executive Interim search division.

Now Nigel Bastow, a Resourcing Professional with over 20 years' experience, joins as Director. Nigel will lead and develop the HR division from Grays' offices in London and Birmingham to service both regional and international markets. The practice will be dedicated to placing executive professionals in permanent and interim positions across all sectors. 

For 10 years of his career, Nigel held Group Head of Resourcing roles with Barclays, RBS,

Standard Bank of South Africa and Commercial Bank of Qatar. As well as leading these functions, he was personally responsible for Executive level hires. Nigel is also qualified to BPS Level 2 in psychometric assessment.

Prior to this, he spent 10 years in Board Director positions responsible for managing successful HR and Interim practices for leading recruitment businesses such as Capita Resourcing, Barkers Norman Broadbent and MSL Group (now TMP Worldwide).

"Nigel was the perfect person to head up our new HR practice as he has experience of HR search and selection businesses as well as leading in-house global resourcing functions," said Simon Bell, Group Managing Director for Grays Executive. "He is conversant with the entire breadth of an HR function and the myriad operations and has a strong network of candidates across international markets; all of which ensures that we continue to respond quickly to the needs of our clients and we deliver high levels of candidate care."

Nigel Bastow, Director of Grays Executive HR Practice, commented on his appointment, "Poor client and candidate service is where many search firms fall down particularly in HR. Sadly, HR is often not considered on par with other roles such as CEOs, CFOs or CTOs in terms of its value and importance to the Board and the business. Many search and selection firms tend to treat HR as a second class citizen or add-on, prioritising other board roles above HR executive appointments so both the candidate and client lose out.

"Grays HR practice bucks this trend by having a division dedicated to serving the regional and international HR markets and one that has the specialist knowledge needed to assess and deliver against client needs."

Grays Executive HR practice will recruit for roles including HR Directors, HR Business Partners, HR COOs, HR Change Managers, Heads of Reward/Compensation and Benefits, Heads of Talent and Resourcing, Heads of Learning & Development, Heads of Organisational Design/Effectiveness/Development, Heads of HR Shared Services, Heads of Employee Engagement/Relations, Heads of Policy and Governance, Heads of Pension.