About

The AA is the largest and most popular breakdown recovery organisation in the UK, attracting more than 15 million members since its launch in 1905. ​

The brand is also the UK’s biggest independent car and home insurance broker, as well as providing an extensive range of services in the finance and leisure industries, from travel guides to smartphone apps. ​

Transformation

Richard Phillips joined the AA in February 2015 as Programme Director, responsible for a £15 million spend on digital transformation across the entire business. The programme is aimed at changing and improving the way customers view, interact with, and buy products from the AA, and includes the development and creation of new sales channels, digital self-service, new mobile apps, a new digital CRM, and a new marketing strategy. ​

Richard engaged with La Fosse to help deliver this complex and extensive change and recruit a number of key positions, from programme and change managers to business analysts. Since redesigning the website, online sales have hit record highs, with double-digit growth. FCA risk has also been removed on direct sales through a tablet app. ​

Project scope and results​

Richard first offered La Fosse an opportunity to fill four contract roles (2 x PM, 1 x BA, 1 x Change Manager) against other agencies. We rapidly filled all four and were added to the preferred supplier list. Over the course of a six-month period, we then placed ten more individuals into the programme across the AA’s entire IT and digital team. The way in which La Fosse operates, and the quality of our candidates, has contributed hugely to the AA’s digital transformation and their transition from a Broker to an Insurer.  For this reason – and due to our 100% success rate and seamless approach – Richard has made us an exclusive partner to the digital transformation team, as well as the rest of the AA following his recommendation.​

Placements

Leadership​

  • Head of Content x 1​
  • Interim Head of Digital Self-Service x 1​

Technical​

  • Web Editors x 2​
  • UI Designers x 2​
  • UX Designer x 1​

Management​

  • Programme Manager x 1
  • Change Manager x 1​
  • Scrum Master x 1​
  • Project Managers x 5​
  • Business Analysts x 2​

Testimonial

“When I joined the AA, we started off using numerous agencies to source candidates. What quickly became apparent was that La Fosse was, in terms of delivering right first time and ease of working with, easily the best to deal with. This showed itself in the big things like understanding what was required and delivering quickly benchmarked CVs to check they were on target, to the fine-tuned details like sending well-structured emails to enable us to quickly follow process and digest candidates’ cultural fit, key skills, and strengths. ​

They have undoubtedly helped us recruit some key programme stars and have branched out into helping other areas of the business, such as marketing to help quickly fill positions. La Fosse has always been utterly professional and discrete in reacting to challenges and issues as they arise. My recommendation for them as a resourcing partner is cemented by their demonstrated ethics. This shows itself in their honesty when confronted with a new brief, in whether they can deliver it well or not, and turning down those few roles where they have no expertise – a refreshing change in this industry where everyone will try and recruit everything, often at the expense of service quality.”​

Richard Phillips​, Programme Director, AA​