Case study:Achates Recruits: Streetwise Opera

Rachael Williams – Chief Executive

Streetwise Opera is an opera company that enables people who have experienced homelessness to find inspiration and empowerment while they rebuild their lives and identities. They support participants to develop as creative people and, as they amplify their voices, change how society views homelessness.

Achates Recruits were approached by Streetwise Opera in Spring 2022 to provide support for the recruitment of a new Head of Development at an exciting time for the organisation, with a new executive team in place and plans to focus on live performance across the regions Streetwise is active in.

With Streetwise Opera’s Chief Executive and senior leadership, we explored the key attributes needed for the new Head of Development in terms of the abilities and capacity they would bring to the role, and potential working practices, to ensure that we recruited from as wide a field of candidates as possible. The assignment also utilised an anonymous application process, mitigating against unconscious bias and focusing on candidates’ abilities.

This approach, allied with extensive search, led to a strong shortlist of five candidates being interviewed and the successful appointment of a new Head of Development in June 2022.