Financial Services RPO Implementation

Client: PEXA (PwC Client)
Acquisition: Optima Legal, formerly part of Capita Group
Sector: Financial Services
Objective: Recruitment Workstream led by Mel Kelly: Design and implement a recruitment delivery model to enable business continuity post-acquisition

• Optima’s recruitment activity had previously been delivered and owned by Capita Group
• Following the sale to PEXA, there was no recruitment function, system or process transferred with the business
• Recruitment was critical to maintaining BAU operations and supporting future growth
• A new recruitment outsourcing solution was required from day one to deliver all hiring activity
• The project was governed under a Transitional Service Agreement (TSA) between Capita and PEXA, requiring collaboration across all three businesses
• The integration involved complex interdependencies with Capita’s security vetting, HR systems and shared services
• Stakeholders geographically dispersed with PEXA’s leadership team based in Australia

When Capita sold Optima to PEXA, recruitment services did not transfer under the deal. As a result, PEXA was acquiring a business with no internal recruitment capability, infrastructure or delivery mechanism in place.

Recruitment was business-critical, with high volumes of regulated roles requiring enhanced security vetting. Without immediate intervention, Optima risked being unable to meet hiring demand, maintain compliance or deliver a smooth transition for employees.

The challenge was to identify, design and operationalise a new recruitment model that could go live from day one while managing the dependencies between PEXA, Optima and Capita under the TSA.

Leading the recruitment workstream within PwC’s Mergers & Acquisition team, I worked across PEXA, Optima and Capita to design, operationalise and stabilise a recruitment model from the ground up.

The priority was to ensure recruitment delivery could continue seamlessly post-acquisition while creating a scalable, compliant and future-ready solution.

This involved:

• Conducting due diligence to assess existing structures, dependencies and risk
• Designing the future recruitment operating model and identifying the right RPO partner
• Managing transition and implementation to ensure delivery capability from day one
• Establishing governance, reporting and frameworks to maintain operational stability and performance

The project successfully enabled Optima’s transition to PEXA without disruption to recruitment operations.

• New RPO model operational from day one providing full recruitment delivery capability
• Business continuity maintained across all three parties during a complex TSA period
• Improved time to hire through defined processes, ownership and accountability
• Enhanced governance and visibility across recruitment performance and compliance
• Established a scalable recruitment solution aligned with PEXA’s long-term integration and growth strategy