Our People

Coming from Hays’ finance recruitment division, the obvious differential for me was that I was now working in a multi-disciplinary offering – no longer just placing accountants. I was immediately pushed out of my comfort zone – and it was the challenge I was waiting for.

I’m providing far more strategic assistance to my clients – it’s not about sticking someone on a seat to perform a given task. The people I appoint have to make a major personal impact on the business they join. And they’re more likely to be running multi-disciplinary teams themselves, often with a remit to deliver organisation-wide change.

The recruitment exercises we conduct are highly visible, and a big success can really enhance your profile in your sector. If you succeed in convincing a client to make a brave appointment – for instance, bringing someone in from outside their sector who goes on to deliver above expectations – you can then harness greater leverage with similar employers. That’s a really satisfying part of the job.

To succeed, you have to be totally in touch with the market. It’s essential to constantly look forward and think strategically about key themes and how those may evolve into revenue-generating opportunities – as well as where I’m going to find the people my clients will need. That means being far more aware of the context in which they operate. I have to think ahead to what’s going to happen in their sector, as well as regulatory or legislative changes that could profoundly alter trading conditions – resulting in interim management requirements.

Building strong candidate relationships is critical. Most candidates have vast networks of their own, and they’re rarely skill-set-specific. So I could be six degrees of separation way from the ideal candidate for my next appointment. Maintaining contact and goodwill is therefore a crucial part of the job, and highly enjoyable.