Neil Jowitt joined Campion Willcocks in January 2004 as Operations Director. Since then, he has been identifying and acting on opportunities for improvement

"As a specialist provider of change management professionals, and with client requirements constantly changing, it's imperative we constantly review our approaches and develop new ways of delivering an even better service," he explains. "We have to constantly evolve our capabilities - there's always room for improvement."

Neil joined NatWest Bank from school and spent 23 years working in various roles. Latterly, this focused on strategic operations and change management positions. These included a major multi million pound nationwide productivity programme throughout the whole of NatWest's UK Banking operation and he was also engaged in a national TQM programme to embed the EFQM model. In addition to holding positions such as Senior branch manager; Corporate lending manager; Area Retail Manager covering three different and diverse central London areas - Neil also undertook a variety of troubleshooting and performance improvement engagements. Prior to joining Campion Willcocks he spent two years with a mobile telecoms company in a role that combined sales and operations with the specific remit to improve performance, helping drive phenomenal business growth.

"At Campion Willcocks I've been working to enhance the abilities and responsiveness of our resourcing team," he continues. "This meant looking at the entire process end-to-end, and in particular focusing on the type of information our account directors gather from clients and how this is communicated to the resourcing team. For instance, the team has undergone targeted training to help them better understand their roles and to ensure they fully appreciate the precise nature of a client assignment and can therefore identify the exact match. This rigorous approach also extends to how we recruit and look after Associates."

He says that a personality and cultural fit is just as important as skills and experience. "We spend a great deal of time with prospective Associates. To develop an accurate Associate profile - to meet client demands and continue achieving our success rate - we look at many areas that aren't necessarily covered by a CV. Ultimately, the payoff is better for both client and Associate. Of course, the client benefits in that they get the best-fit person in terms of skills and personality. This approach reduces risk, brings down costs and leads to far more successful outcomes." Less than 10 percent of applicants are called for interview to become an Associate; at the other end of the process, Neil says Campion Willcocks is successful in identifying suitable Associates for 90 percent of the 'winnable' client requests it receives.

"We are growing the resourcing team to meet demand as requests from new and existing clients continues to rise," continues Neil. "We are structuring the team on a role-specific basis to create real centres of excellence. In addition, we recently appointed Gill Kellard who has five years' contract Project Management experience, as well as holding a permanent position in the resourcing function of a major financial services player where she was responsible for sourcing interim change managers. This represents a 'win/win situation' in terms of understanding both client and Associate needs.

"My job is to challenge assumptions and achieve consistent improvements in how we engage with clients and Associates. And we're already seeing further improvements in terms of speed of response and client satisfaction levels."