As a Sunday Times Top 100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies, VoCoVo is on a steep three-year growth trajectory, with stretching strategic goals.
CEO Beth Worrall and her executive team knew they needed a Chief of Staff to help them reach their goals. Someone to introduce and uphold operational excellence, bring focus and connect strategy. Without this role, things would get more complex, and alignment would be harder to maintain.
Instead of hiring someone permanently right away, they offered a 9-month fixed-term contract. This let them test both the role and the person before making it permanent. They partnered with Akaina Talent to find the right candidate.
Key requirements for the Chief of Staff role
Across all roles, top performers are eight times more productive than average hires and help companies reach growth targets significantly faster.1 But apply that to a Chief of Staff role, and the impact is even more pronounced.
This hire was about more than just filling a position. It was about finding someone who could help the entire executive team work better together.
They were looking for someone who understood VoCoVo’s mission, could work with the CEO on strategy and coordinate with the executive team, and could earn the trust of various stakeholders
They needed to think strategically, manage daily tasks, bring order to rapid growth without slowing progress, and handle uncertainty with confidence.
The Search
Great hiring isn’t luck. It’s a process. And it starts long before we post a single job ad.
It starts with the intake call, when we focus on more than just the job description. We get to know the CEO’s vision, the team’s dynamics, the culture they want to create, and most importantly, what success should look like in the year ahead.
From there, we build a profile around outcomes, not just skills. We find people who have already solved the challenges their businesses face today, not just those with impressive CVs.
Then we do a full assessment: competency-based conversations, in-depth screening around values and purpose and a real read on cultural fit and growth potential.
The result? We find a candidate who does more than fill a seat. They make a real impact.
The Successful Candidate – and his 90-day impact
Just 32 days after we started our search, Jim Morris accepted the role. He had extensive experience working with C-level executives and a proven track record of bringing structure to rapid growth, making him a top candidate from the start.
His ability to manage stakeholders, his emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and hands-on approach, along with his genuine connection to VoCoVo’s mission, made him the ideal fit.
Within ninety days of starting, Jim had:
- Established clear, strategic priorities aligned with VoCoVo’s growth objectives
- Created coordination mechanisms across the executive team
- Implemented systems that accelerated decision-making without adding bureaucracy
- Built strong relationships across the organisation, becoming a trusted partner to the entire leadership team
“Outstanding”
VoCoVo’s executive team said that both the hire and the recruitment process had an outstanding impact.
“Akaina focused on quality over quantity, really listened to what we needed and swiftly but diligently brought us people who met the brief – resulting in a stand-out hire who brought highly credible experience and capability to the role and our senior leadership team. The experience with Akaina was outstanding – so much so that we have since worked with Akaina on placing other Executive roles.”
Beth Worrall, CEO, VoCoVo
And for Jim, it was “a genuinely brilliant experience”.
“From beginning to end, Akaina has been supportive, considerate and insightful which, as a candidate, has been refreshing and much appreciated.”
Jim Morris, Chief of Staff, VoCoVo
