A Day in the Life of Mike Powell: Recruiting Top Talent at the British Business Bank

Meet Mike Powell, the Senior Resourcing Manager at the British Business Bank, whose dynamic role defies the concept of a typical day. From recruiting top talent to ensuring robust headcount plans for various departments, Mike's week is a whirlwind of strategic planning and execution.

What does a typical day look like for you?

The day-to-day is recruiting people to work for the British Business Bank. That’s the key driver in what I do. There is no typical day really.

This week, for instance, I’ve been looking at headcount plans for the coming year and determining where we’re going to need people across different departments. Last week, I was looking at our intern programme and starting to shortlist the many applications we’ve had for this year. Apart from that, I run training sessions to help line managers interview candidates more effectively.

How did you land your current role?

I’ve always believed my career is my responsibility – that I’m the one who has to drive it. And I know that whatever I want to do in this role, there’s support for it, whether that’s attending different webinars, events or training sessions.

My team is responsible for ensuring that we recruit and attract the best possible talent for the organisation. So we’ll go out into the job markets and promote the opportunities that we have. And then make sure we take candidates through a fair process.

We have the opportunity to undertake professional courses and development ourselves, so we can continue to provide the right advice and guidance. I get a lot of time with people across the organisation to sit and look at ways to do things better.