Experienced Talent Insight

A comprehensive approach helps attract, retain and develop senior executives.

The process of checking a senior candidate's references is a critical component of a search process. A candidate whose performance is later proved wanting can cause not only embarrassment to the hiring company but also real damage if the executive fails to perform or "fit" into the new culture.

What's more, finding the right talent and the right fit is only part of the job; onboarding can make the difference between a successful hire and failed one.

A well conducted reference exercise can offer a clearer view of a candidate and how to best integrate them into an organisation and culture and work with them to continue to develop and best utilise the skills and experience they bring. The potential need to mentor an individual to ensure their success means that giving sufficient attention to the referencing process has a tremendous return on investment.

For a well-rounded and true understanding of how an individual operates and is perceived by others, it is essential to incorporate views from a range of contact points, both nominated by a candidate and independently sourced. The architecture of a solid reference includes questions that create context and open-ended queries provide plenty of "white space" to listen for what is being said and, importantly, what is not being said.

Within the suite of due diligence undertaken during any private equity or M&A transaction, gaining independent insight on the people involved is a critical component. Having the right management at the helm of an investment is fundamental.

The referencing of key individuals in a team provides an insight not only into current dynamics within that team, but will highlight gaps where future success would benefit from an injection of additional skills, experience or simply support.

Understanding how best to work with individual executives and management teams allows for a flexing towards and nurturing of environments which will optimise their ability to perform and therefore the ultimate success of the business.

Talent Sourcing is an innovative solution that can help you transform your approach to strategic resourcing through the creation of a sustainable pipeline of talent to meet current and future hiring needs.

Using a combination of telephone based research and rigorous interrogation of publicly available information we identify and engage with high performing individuals to help clients build relationships with key individuals, ensuring there is a strong connection established ahead of need and when appropriate positions arise.

The complete flexibility of the solution means it can be used to provide overspill support for in-house teams at times of peak demand, or as a fully outsourced solution.

Understanding how your business is perceived not only in terms of product and service, but more broadly within your competitor set, provides a meaningful baseline from which to continue to develop as an organisation.

The current, lapsed and potential client base of any organisation can give meaningful insight into a business' performance and potential. In addition, complacency at current levels of success can lead to long term problems if the wants and needs of the client base aren't fully recognised and appreciated.

Understanding the client perspective can feed into on-going strategy in critical areas such as:

• Key factors for the client in the buying      decision
• Perception of the brand (and ranking against      the competition)
• Where the organisation performs well and where      they can improve (including service, brand, communication, relationship,      innovation etc.)
• How/where an organisation can most effectively      market itself
• Potential barriers to growth