This Year I celebrate 23 years in Executive Recruitment – 18 years as founder and Principal of Options Consulting Group. Having done the math I calculate my output to be;
§ Recruited well over 1000 executives
§ Interviewed around 7000 people
§ Had contact with over 40,000 people
Over the 20 or so years, I've experienced the impact of the "worst recession in Australia for 60 years" in the early 90's, the y2k and dot.com boom/bust, explosion in the use of assessment technologies for candidate profiling; transition from paper based to electronic data storage/management systems, more jobs than candidates/more candidates than jobs, the online recruitment revolution….
Organisations have adopted – or attempted to adopt the philosophies and urgings of Oliver Wight, Tom Peters, Edward De Bono, Ricardo Semler, Jack Welsh, Stephen Lundin and scores of others - usually read in flight on a business trip - in the quest to be leading edge; employer of choice; a learning and development organisation; high performance organisation, Class 'A', lean, win the war (it's now a global war) on talent…..
….. and what about the burgeoning list of acronyms covering every imaginable people, process, organisational, work and lifestyle activity!
It's true that attitudes to work have evolved to the point that skills, once acquired, are offered for use where the challenge and stimulation of the job is apparent and where the balance between time committed to work and available "free time" is in harmonious balance with income expectation. Employment decision making today also takes into account the culture and values of the employer – as demonstrated by the leadership group in particular. The employment decision is further influenced by the employer's reputation and public perception.
Through this evolution, I've also observed some constants in the recruitment and selection process which have; and will, stand the test of time. I refer to the critical blend of;
§ Competencies to do the job
§ An apparent and demonstrable level of expertise to do the job
§ Behaviours consistent with the organisation expectations
§ Values and attitude under-pinning behaviour and performance
§ Related experience
Given today's employees are more empowered and independent than years gone and the current market offers multiple opportunities for career change, the emphasis is clearly with the potential employer to articulate and demonstrate why they should be successful in winning the services on offer – and it's not all about the money!
Recruitment Consulting is a very demanding and satisfying activity. It is not to be confused with recruiting which is mostly perceived as a process "selling bodies". I continue to be actively engaged in recruitment consulting – I Love it!
My greatest satisfaction is derived from influencing a job brief, identifying high potential candidates and seeing them move through the organisation based on their performance.
A successful recruitment consultant must have sound business acumen, an ability and desire for establishing a comprehensive understanding of the client organisation, capability and energy for innovative and multi faceted approaches to candidate sourcing and finally, an ability to implement strategies and outcomes which ultimately deliver on all stakeholder expectations. After all these years, I am still finding my job immensely satisfying.
I look forward to 2008 and beyond with enthusiasm and want to hear from you to discuss your Recruitment & Selection strategy. The focus of our effort continues to be Executive level positions, across the professional disciplines.