Boss takes staff on holiday as work perk

An HR advisory firm practiced what it preaches by tweaking its bonus model to include an all-staff getaway reward/

Scottish employment law advisory firm, Solve, revamped the idea of a bonus scheme by taking all its staff on a sun-kissed holiday to reward excellent performance.

The company's directors paid £5000 to take the seven-strong team on a four-day trip to the Algarve in Portugal after they helped steer the firm to its £300,000 turnover target.

Founding director Stephanie Robinson launched the business in 2011 to help clients unlock the benefits of good HR, which includes keeping staff happy and boosting productivity. 

But it was an anecdote from her father which inspired her to use the promise of a sunny getaway to bond and motivate her own team.

“My dad catered for major functions and used to tell me about a huge event he was involved with for a big American company in the 1980s. The company brought all of its sales staff and their wives to Scotland," Robinson said.

The idea was they would reward their top performing people by taking them around all of Scotland’s most prestigious venues and give them a 'money can’t buy' experience. That would reinforce that their company was a fabulous place to work and to drive growth.

It also incentivised staff to look forward to a similar trip the following year, allowing them to retain their best talent.

“With my own business I was determined to reach £300,000 turnover, not least because lots of people in the world of SMEs told me that getting past £250,000 could be a real challenge and I didn’t want to get stuck there.

Robinson told her team that if they could all work together to break £300K, then they'd all go away on holiday. "It seemed to work because towards year end there was a real team effort  to drive sales and more and more projects started to come off."

“What was most important to me was that it did not happen in a pushy sales way, because that is definitely not we are about. It was more about everyone pulling together and supporting each other toward a shared goal.”

Solve has an ambitious targets for growth to reach 50 retained clients, £1 million turnover and 50 staff by 2020.

The business is built on allowing the team to work flexibly, which invariably means working from home.

While each member of the team will have individual bonus opportunities, en route to realising the firm’s growth plans, Robinson has already promised them another holiday if they reach the next target – breaking through the £400,000 turnover mark.

She added: “For me this is about the big picture of encouraging high performance work. To do that you have to engage your people. Part of that is about having individual targets and bonuses, but more important is having a shared goal to strive for.”

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Eurociett reveals growth for European recruitment agencies

New research by Eurociett, the European Confederation of Private Employment Services, has revealed sales revenue growth for European recruitment agencies across all of the countries in which data was collected.

According to the September 2016 Agency Business Indicator, year-on-year turnover agency revenue rose in all of the eight markets covered. Revenues were greatest in Poland and Finland, with turnover up by 17% and 8.2%, respectively.

Based on data from Eurociett members in 10 countries, but excluding the UK, for which no such data is available, the number of hours worked by agency workers rose by an average of 2.3% year-on-year.

Two countries – Switzerland (-8.6%) and Italy (-6.2%) – were below the average, while Denmark saw the growth in hours worked by agency workers increase by 8.9%, more than any of the countries where data was collected.

PERM: private employment agencies can place ads

In a recent case, an employer used a private employment agency to place an ad for professional recruitment. The agency put its own name in the ad and not the name of the employer; as a result, the Department of Labour denied the Programme Electronic Review Management application.

Requirement to include employer name

The PERM rule specifically requires that an employer's name and location be included in the two mandatory Sunday newspaper ads that form part of the basic recruitment requirements described in Section 656.17(f). However, it does not state that the employer's name must appear in other forms of recruitment as described in Section 656.17(e).

In a series of decisions – including an en banc ruling in Symantec Corp (2011-PER-1856, July 30 2014) – the Board of Alien Labour Certification ruled that, while an employer's name must be included in Sunday newspaper ads, the Department of Labour cannot extend this non-regulatory requirement to other forms of recruitment.

RML Construction, Inc

The recent decision in RML Construction, Inc (2012-PER-1774, August 31 2016) is noteworthy because it limits the power of the Department of Labour – an administrative agency with wide discretion – to interpret the PERM statute and regulation.

RML clarifies that agency memos and other forms of guidance are mere opinions, while statutes and regulations are laws that must be followed. Although the Supreme Court has held that agency opinions should be accorded deference because they are presumed to be well-founded, agencies cannot create laws through interpretations unless they flow directly from the clear intent of the law.

In RML, the Department of Labour focused on the section of the PERM rule regarding the requirement to place two Sunday newspaper ads that include the employer's name, which it confused with a different section stating that ads placed by private employment agencies can be used as an optional form of recruitment.

On appeal, the judges – finding in the employer's favour – held that the Department of Labour should have focused not on the employer's name, as is normally the case for newspaper ads, but on the occupation in a more general sense.

Comment

Symantec – a pivotal precedent – states that the PERM rule's purpose is to permit employers to "advertise for the occupation involved in the application, as opposed to the specific job opportunity for which certification is sought." Basically, this means that the employer's identity need not be included, because only the existence of a job opportunity is important.

The requirement to include an employer's name has been problematic, as employers do not always want to include their names in ads and cannot include their company name in those placed by private employment agencies; if the private agencies were to advertise the name of the employer, they would have no way to reap the rewards of their labour.

RML asserts that not all forms of recruitment are equal, but employers should remember that each form of PERM recruitment has its own nuances which will be interpreted by the Department of Labour and administrative law judges. In RML, the board discussed only the optional recruitment step to use private employment agencies.

For further information on this topic please contact Joel Stewart at Fakhoury Law Group PC by telephone (+1 248 643 4900) or email (joel.stewart@employmentimmigration.com). The Fakhoury Law Group website can be accessed at www.employmentimmigration.com.

Recruitment agencies new 'normal practice' in hiring doctors

General practices are turning to "very expensive" recruitment agencies to lure overseas doctors as they struggle to find Kiwi doctors willing to move to the regions.

Some practices have spent months trying to find doctors, and end up paying large sums to recruitment agencies just to be considered by doctors who only use agencies to look for jobs.

Picton Medical Centre practice manager Leeanne Gardiner used recruitment agencies to find doctors when she struggled to find a replacement for a doctor taking maternity leave.

"I think it is a nationwide problem, rather than just a localised problem. There's just not enough Kiwi doctors coming through the ranks. They're all going to the cities or overseas."

More doctors seemed to be using recruitment agencies to find jobs, as it was a free service and easier than contacting individual practices to look for work, she said.

However practices had to pay significant amounts to have agencies refer doctors to them. Gardiner would not say how much the service cost her practice.

"It can be very expensive."

Using a recruitment agency allowed doctors to be more particular in the type of jobs they were looking for, taking location, hours of work and salary into consideration.

About a quarter of graduates from the Auckland and Otago medical schools left the country the year after graduating, a study by the New Zealand Medical Association showed.

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Many doctors preferred to work as locums, or doctors on a short-term contract, for anywhere from a month to a year, possibly as a means of travel, Gardiner said.

Redwoodtown Doctors practice manager Diane Chalmers said the number of locums looking for work meant there was a much higher turnover of doctors in practices than in previous years, which could be unsettling for elderly patients.

"They turn up and they don't know who they'll see. Gone are the days where you'll have a doctor for life."

There was one GP for every 1675 patients in Marlborough, higher than the Ministry of Health's recommended ratio of 1 to 1500.

A steadily increasing population was stretching GPs, and the only general practice in the region taking on new patients was Picton Medical Centre, which only accepted Picton residents.

Redwoodtown Doctors lost two permanent GPs in August last year, with locums filling the gaps and other doctors working extra shifts.

Chalmers said two permanent GPs had been hired and were due to start in October, but the practice would still be too busy to take on new patients.

"The doctors have done a stirling job of keeping appointments going, but it has been a huge workload for them and the nurses."

Primary Health Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said she was looking at ways to help general practices use recruitment agencies to find doctors.

"Using recruitment agencies seems to be normal practice now."

She was considering ways to help and would put her ideas to the PHO board, she said.

 - The Marlborough Express

Petersburg to hire search firm to find new city manager

PETERSBURG, Va. – Petersburg city council voted to hire an executive search firm to find a new City Manager, despite public outcry not to spend additional funds while in a financial crisis.

Sources tell CBS 6 Rochelle Small-Toney, who was thought to be the city’s leading candidate, withdrew her application for the position this morning

Tuesday night, Petersburg residents made their voices heard over the fact that Petersburg's city council even considered hiring a woman to manage the city who was forced out of her last job as city manager.

“We going to bring someone like this in this city?” said Petersburg resident Raymond Crockett to applause.

“That's not at all the type of leadership we need in Petersburg,” said another Petersburg resident.

Small-Toney is currently the deputy city manager in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but before that she was the city manager of Savannah, Georgia.

She was forced to resign amid allegations of mismanagement in 2012.

One taxpayer highlighted that and passionately told the council the woman currently holding the position in an interim role should get the job.

In fact, some residents have created a petition in support of acting city manager Dironna Moore Belton. It currently has 107 signatures.

Belton wants the job but council did not take action to hire her.

Instead, they voted to hire an executive search firm to find a new city manager, something Crockett wonders how they can afford.

“We are going to spend money we don't have,” said Crockett after the motion was approved.

CBS 6 took Crockett’s concerns directly to council members.

“How are you possibly going to afford to pay an expensive executive search firm?” CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit asked council member Darrin Hill.

“We will look at finances and see how we can do it and maybe some of these search firms know the situation we are going through right now and they will be lenient on us,” said Hill.

Sounds like you guys feel you didn't do the proper background check on the last candidate?” Hipolit asked regarding Rochelle Small-Toney.

“It's possible,” said council member Jon Hart.

Executive Search: Finding the Needle in the Haystack: An interview with Jim Searing, HBS ‘79; Founder, Lochlin Partners

“It is like looking for a needle in a haystack“ describes Jim Searing with a mild chuckle, when asked to describe the executive search business. The founder and retired CEO of Lochlin Partners, a top notch executive search firm, has spent an impressive 32 years in the “head-hunting” industry. A Marine Corps veteran, he graduated from HBS in the summer of 1979, before setting out to hone his sales and marketing skills at behemoths like AT&T and Arthur Young. After learning the executive search consulting business at Arthur Young, he became driven by the desire to start-up on his own, anchored with his core skill and interest of personal sales. He struck out with a partner to found Kirkman & Searing, and grew it into a highly successful Mid-Atlantic search firm.

The executive search industry can be broadly classified into contingency search and retainer search. Contingency search is typically for entry or mid-level positions, where agencies get paid a commission upon recruitment. It typically involves quick and efficient matching through database searches. Retainer search, which is the space in which Searing has always specialized, is the more elite search space where firms are paid a retainer fee to find the perfect person for the upper echelons of the managerial tree. The search often involves several months of vetting scores of candidates, narrowing to a finalist slate of a handful, interviewing them many times, as well as, often, their family, friends and business colleagues.

After running his own firm for about ten years, his firm was acquired by the largest global retainer firm, Korn / Ferry Inc. As a senior partner, he headed their mid-Atlantic market and technology practice. After several years there, he was again driven by the entrepreneurial motive and moved to help found Foster Searing, Ltd. which was eventually renamed Lochlin Partners to ensure perpetuity beyond just the founding members.

Searing explained that some searches can be quite difficult; such as finding an outsider to run a family business for the first time. Yet, Searing recalls one of as his most difficult assignments as the search for a Chief Information Officer for the IRS. “The IRS has some of the most archaic technology systems that could be put in a museum, while also having some of the most advanced IT systems in the world. When tethered together, the end result is that it almost never works” he mirthfully remarks. “We had to find a CIO who could not only make sense of and improve upon all of this, but who was willing to move to the IRS salary level which was about one-tenth of what that level of expertise commanded in the IT industry”.

How does one go about these searches? “Putting on the HBS market segmentation hat is the first step” he says. The search process begins by narrowing down the entire universe of applicable industries into specific, relevant sub-segments. A list of companies is then populated, from which evolves a list of potential executives. “But this linear and logical process must be complemented by a more random and parallel process of networking” he says. A search person’s labyrinth of network becomes critical to obtaining informal pieces of information and other referred potential candidates. After all, recruiting firms seldom look for someone who is looking of job, in fact, they usually prefer someone who isn’t necessarily looking for a situation.

Once the finalist potential three or four candidates have been identified and vetted, they are interviewed multiple times in multiple settings. Their references and spouses are interviewed too, and flags will be raised if only positive attributes are heard. It is equally important to understand their shortcomings while evaluating the overall fit. The whole process involves around 80 interviews from start to finish. “We brief and debrief not only the client firm’s executives but also the candidate to make sure that each understands everything possible about the other” says Searing. Candidate selection is only one part of the process. A smooth onboarding process until they are well settled into their role is another part of the consulting. Helping them negotiate and find their way through the complicated maze of a new company and culture, having an open dialogue with them and the firm to ensure alignment and redressal of teething problems are all part of the retainer firm’s work. There are no typical metrics in place to measure the success of a candidate search, but if the hire stays in the job for about 3-5 years, it is reasonable to assume that the search was a success. And whenever it doesn’t work, it is seldom for lack of skills. It is almost always a case of cultural or expectation misfit.

Do recruiters look for candidates outside the client’s industry? “It all depends on the client’s requirements. At the CXO level, some clients do look for people with specific skills rather than industry expertise - but that is somewhat rare. When an industry is faced with a major shift, or when the company is looking to change its focus, candidates may be hired outside their traditional industry. IBM recruited Gerstner who didn’t have a tech background because they wanted to focus more on marketing. Most client companies do have a strong preference for candidates within their industry. Even if the client is open to looking at outsiders, at the interview stage the connection is usually stronger with people from their own industry and most companies end up hiring them. As a recruiter, our role is to find what the client wants. We do advise them if we find an exceptional outsider, but this isn’t the norm and is not our primary role. If someone is looking to change their current industry, my suggestion would be to use their functional expertise to pivot. Changing industries is easier earlier on one’s career and, again, at the CXO level, but is more difficult in the 5- 20 years experience bracket.”

How has he seen the industry transform throughout his long career? Searing says technology, especially Linkedin and Google searches, has drastically changed and shortened the candidate identification piece of the search cycle. “In the dark ages, candidate identification was about 60-70% of the work; it was pretty labor intensive” he laughs. Now, it’s also easier to directly & confidentially connect with candidates. But it is harder to “administer the truth serum” in interviews as candidates have become much more interview savvy. Therefore, candidate evaluation and fit are now some of the most difficult and value-added parts of the search process.

What is Searing’s advice to the batch of HBS graduating 37 years after he did? “I have three pieces of advice to give. First, if you know what your passion is - just go do it. No excuses there. If you do not know your passion, join a large firm. It provides you with more scope and leverage to experiment while looking solid and legitimate on your resume. And whatever you choose, do the job really well. It simply provides you with more opportunities”.

“Second, network. Develop relationships not only with colleagues and bosses but also with juniors, vendors and clients. 80% of jobs are sourced through networking, and 90% of those are through networking with a person who is about three to five degrees-of-separation away. Figure out smart ways to keep in touch: it could be a simple act of emailing relevant articles once in a while. Create a list of 50 most important people you’d like to stay in touch with, refresh the list periodically, and make sure you actively reach out to them. Don’t hesitate to ask people out for coffee”.

“Third, save ‘exit money’. If you find yourself caught in an ethical dilemma or a tough spot, having saved money can make your correct exit that much easier. And, if you followed my first and second pieces of advice, your exit shouldn’t be tough either”.

I promptly asked him out for coffee as the interview ended, when he visits Boston that is.

Did Searing find the right CIO for IRS? “Yes we did. We found an extremely qualified candidate who didn’t mind the drastic pay cut as he was looking to give back to the society. We not just find the needle in the haystack, we find the perfect needle in the haystack - at least 80-90% of the time” he laughed.

Singapore headhunters expect hiring freeze in 2016

SINGAPORE - Job hiring has so far been only modestly affected by the recent stock market turmoil and China's economic slowdown, Singapore headhunters say.

But they predict hiring could be halted completely in the second half of next year (2016) as the full impact of these factors flows through, leaving employers far more cautious.

Recruitment agency ScienTec Consulting told The Straits Times: "Overall, due to the volatile global market, we feel that there will be a possible slowdown in hiring in certain sectors and the impact will only be felt in the second half of 2016."Ms Karen Tok, ScienTec Consulting's chief executive, added that its junior recruitment and executive search divisions foresee the slowdown. She added that hiring will be affected by the global business slowdown, a mix of competition from emerging technologies, and online businesses.

The firm has not seen major changes in hiring patterns or heard of any hiring freeze or expansion delay in the last six months, compared with the same period a year ago.

Recruitment firm Randstad also has yet to see a direct correlation between the volatility in markets and hiring sentiment but other firms note a slight difference.

The volatile markets have had a negative effect on hiring strategies in general, said Mr Mervin Chui, ZW HR Consulting's managing director. "It has been decidedly more difficult to get new headcount approval and employers are also generally more cautious."

He noted that the life sciences, chemical and the aerospace sectors are where prospective employers are ultra-cautious, and "have either been extremely selective or have held off on hiring completely".

Mr Chui also said that there has been a noticeable drop in clients following through on expansion plans not just to Singapore, but to South-east Asia, too.

Hiring managers are definitely taking longer to make recruitment decisions, noted Mr Toby Fowlston, managing director of Robert Walters South-east Asia. It sees "restricted job markets in certain industries" like investment banking.

But he is not surprised because there already has been downsizing and offshoring, with a number of banks moving to cheaper locations.

Mrs Lay-Hoon Johnson, associate director of financial services and governance at Michael Page, concurred: "Restructuring is very common in the banking scene which is often times driven by cost considerations."

However, Mr Fowlston notes a positive job market "especially within the technology market as companies continue to focus on their online and digital content". He said that more companies are starting to consider contract staff, especially where they do not have approval to hire permanent staff.

Activity on professional networking website LinkedIn has also been robust in the last six months, especially in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and media and entertainment.

Ms Feon Ang, senior director of talent solutions for LinkedIn in Asia-Pacific and Japan, also noted "a healthy double-digit growth" in the volume of jobs posted by companies over the last six months, compared with last year.

She said: "This is a positive sign showing that perhaps businesses in Singapore are continuing to invest to acquire talent to stay competitive, regardless of market conditions."

Mr Max Loh, Asean and Singapore managing partner at consulting firm EY, agreed: "In the current economic climate, businesses seek out best practices and advice on effective organisational structure, operational excellence and risk management."

That has created opportunities for professional services firms, he added. "EY has been seeing continued demand for business advice, and has been aggressively hiring in Singapore and Asean in existing and new areas of expertise."

KPMG in Singapore also has increased headcount across each of the audit, tax and advisory areas of business, particularly at a more senior level, by more than 14 per cent over the past year, it noted.

Mr Quek Shu Ping, its head of people, performance and culture, said the company had anticipated the growing needs of its client base in Singapore and the Asean region.

news via http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/singapore-headhunters-expect-hiring-freeze-in-2016

Why U.S. companies pay headhunters $15,000 to fill manufacturing jobs

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (MarketWatch) — When Kevin Nading needed to hire nine skilled craftsmen with at least five years of experience for Caterpillar Inc.’s factory here in the Midwest, it took him six months to find them. He has paid recruiters finder’s fees of as much as $15,000 for experienced workers with the right mix of skills. He’s even had to pay relocation costs.

Using a headhunter to find blue-collar workers may seem unusual, particularly as politicians, including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, bemoan the loss of American manufacturing jobs. But in places like Lafayette, companies are discovering they can’t rely on posting job openings on employment websites like Monster Worldwide MWW, +0.56% Those who do the hiring in this area an hour northwest of Indianapolis complain about how difficult it is to find workers. That’s true for entry-level workers but even more so for senior electricians, mechanics and other higher-skilled employees who keep factories humming.

Companies say they are being hit by the looming retirement of longtime employees with specialized skills, a tight labor market and a poor image of manufacturing jobs that has resulted in parents and high school guidance counselors steering teens toward four-year colleges. And when they do hire younger, unskilled employees, they find many fall short on so-called soft skills, such as communicating effectively and working in teams. Too many miss days of work and appear unmotivated.

The squeeze is painful for Indiana, where almost 30% of the economy is tied to manufacturing, more than any other state and more than double the national average. More than 520,000 people work in factories scattered across the state, including 17,000 in Tippecanoe County, where Lafayette is located. The jobs pay well: an average of $72,000 last year, including overtime, according to the Indiana Manufacturers Association, compared with $48,000 across all other sectors.

To be sure, Indiana hasn’t won back all the manufacturing jobs lost during the Great Recession. And even now, some companies are laying off workers.

Almost 30% of Indiana’s economy is tied to manufacturing.

Statewide, unemployment was only 4.5% in August, below the national average of 4.9% and less than half the 10.9% peak hit during the Great Recession, in early 2010. In Tippecanoe County, unemployment during the first six months of this year averaged 4.4%.

Read: Half of the high-paying jobs in America now require this skill

“In Indiana, we’ve seen nothing but growth” in manufacturing jobs in recent years, says Brad Rhorer, a senior executive in human resources at Subaru of Indiana Automotive’s factory, located a few miles from Caterpillar in Lafayette. He, too, has had to use recruiters in some cases.

The company, owned by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. 7270, +3.70%  in Japan, is in the midst of another expansion that will bring employment to more than 5,000 people. The challenge to find assembly-line workers is noticeable, despite being one of the top-paying manufacturers in Lafayette. In 2006, when the company added 1,000 jobs, it received 23,000 applications. This year, as it has added 1,200 jobs, a little over 4,000 people applied. But many quickly fall out of contention as the company reviews their work skills and those soft skills. It recently tried recruiting those discharged from the military at Fort Campbell, Ky., more than 300 miles away, figuring veterans have a strong work ethic.

At Caterpillar CAT, +2.17% 395 applications yielded only two hirings as skilled electricians.

“Teamwork is our biggest hurdle,” Rhorer says.

In southern Indiana, recruiter Joshewa Meurer says his most difficult searches can involve jobs for skilled maintenance technicians, machinists and machine-tool operators. But even filling some production and warehouse jobs can be challenging. Sometimes employers aren’t willing to budge on pay; other times, a rival is offering a better shift of better working conditions, such as indoors or climate-controlled, he says.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a lack of positions as a lack of people to do the jobs,” Meurer says.

He estimates he talks to 20 people that lead to five interviews and eventually one job for a maintenance technician. He talks to about seven people to fill a job for a general laborer.

To replenish the pool of workers, Brian Burton, the head of the Indiana Manufacturers Association (IMA), says his industry needs to do a better job reaching out to school administrators and teachers, even in junior high, and telling them about opportunities in manufacturing.

The IMA says the shortage of skilled production workers will only get worse in the coming years and is holding back companies from expanding. In 2015, 36% of about 275 companies surveyed described a “moderate shortage” of such workers, while 34% described a “serious shortage.” Asked about the coming three to five years, 44% predicted a “serious shortage” of such workers and 25% foresaw a “moderate” shortage.

“Before, we would recruit only as needed,” said Chad Gibson, operations manager at voestalpine Rotec, which makes seat belts not far from the Subaru factory in Lafayette. “Now we try to recruit ahead of time.”

A new rising star of an executive search company in Singapore - Intellisearch HR Solutions

Today we have the privilege to interview Mr. Zac Ng of Intellisearch HR Solutions Pte Ltd, who runs a boutique executive search firm in Singapore since 2014. With slightly more than 2 years in the recruitment industry in Singapore, the company is already making some distinct and remarkable footprints in the industry.

At the age of 27, Zac has an undying spirit and passion for business, evident through his growing up years when he reads more of company brochures and flyers than storybooks. In schools, he established community websites and associations and in his later part of his school days, set up his first micro business providing telecommunication device rental service.

Shortly after National Service (NS), he joined a community orchestra, playing the Trombone, and eventually took up leadership positions in the Executive Committee until recently due to work commitment.

His company, Intellisearch HR Solutions, is a full service executive search company in Singapore that is specialised in some highly-niche areas such as education and engineering industries for mid-to-senior professionals.

In 2014, the company started off with only Zac and a staff, and it grew slowly but steadily ever since, to 4 members as of writing. Size is not all, as Zac’s personal belief favours a well-defined customer experience over the number of clients he serves. This proves to be somewhat a testament of his good strategy as compared to other similarly-staffed firms, the company raked in a revenue of about S$580-650K for a period of 12 months ending July 2016 – pretty impressive for its size.

As for its fees, the young search company charges somewhere between 15-25% of annual packages – not yet the highest but definitely not the lowest – as the company strongly believes in offering more value to its clients than simply reducing its fees. It also does placements on retainer basis. As for the turnaround time for each placement, it ranges from any time between 1 week to a long  6 months depending on the complexity of the search.

According to Zac, his plan for the near-term would be to grow the brand’s presence in such a way that would satisfy demands from companies along the same supply stream. Nothing else to disclose at this moment, as he remained rather tight-lipped on other possible expansion plans. The company might also look towards expanding its office space ‘in due course’.

The company has recently snapped up industry awards in 2 consecutive years, putting it alongside other much more established firms such as Scientec Consulting, AYP, and Capita Staffing & Search. The first award won was in 2015, where it was minted bronze for the Recruitment Agency of the Year 2015, and for 2016, Best Recruitment Agency, also a bronze. The award event was organized by the HR-specific media company Human Resource Magazine, under the event name Asia Recruitment Awards.

He added that soon after getting these awards, more better qualified candidates started to see the brand as a reliable source of job opportunities and are more willing to let its consultants keep them in their contact loop. Zac hopes that more potential or experienced recruiters would partner his company to make the most out of their capabilities.

As for Zac himself, the most satisfying part of his job is that he could personally develop new staff, help them realize their potential based on each of their character, and do what they are good at. The company adopts and practices an open communication culture such that anyone can speak out their mind, provided they put forth their thoughts in a tactful manner.  This way, he thoughts, is the only way his staff feels a part of the start up family. In fact, he sees more of a unique partnership with each of them than an employee.

In the midst of growth, as much as he’s in a rush to expand his team, he’s not in a rush to hire fast, as – the same belief goes – quality beats quantity. He’s only looking for recruiter candidates who have the right attitude and a can-do spirit with a highly collaborative personality, who would see the company as the right platform for professional and personal growth.

On his views about recruiter candidates who expect instant overnight success, he understands where they are coming from, but added that those who successfully created a strong career in this industry tend to be someone who is down-to-earth, high in Emotional Quotient (EQ) and is comfortable being a ‘people-person’. Potential candidates should conservatively expect a timeline between 6 – 18 months to see substantial results in terms of income and personal growth - for which Rome is not built in a day.

On the future of the recruitment agency model, he feels pretty optimistic even though there are saying that introduction of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) would take over the role of HR selection process. He strongly believes this industry is far from seeing its sunset, as human touch is still an essential part of a professional networking. He, in fact, embraces new technologies and uses them. He said: “We’ve seen the greatest technological invention of today’s world – the Personal Computer (PCs) – and people back then were actually worried it might replace them in their jobs. With rampant adoption and usage, do we all work part-time today? The answer is no. It in fact helps us to be more efficient with our work!”

Via http://dougleschan.com/the-recruitment-guru/interview-with-recruitment-agencies/a-new-rising-star-of-an-executive-search-company-in-singapore-intellisearch-hr-solutions/ 

Headhunter Names Financial Services Head

Nasdaq listed executive search and consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles has announced a new partner in Tokyo to lead the firm's Financial Services Practice in Japan and the Insurance Sector for Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Steven Greenberg has joined the firm as Partner in the Financial Services Practice, based in Tokyo. He will lead the firm's Financial Services Practice in Japan and the Insurance Sector for Asia Pacific and the Middle East. He will also be a member of the CEO & Board of Directors Practice.

Fluent in spoken and written Japanese, Greenberg has nearly 10 years of executive search experience in Japan and the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, he was a consultant with executive search firms Russell Reynolds and Egon Zhender, also in Tokyo.

Prior to entering the executive search and leadership consulting industry, Greenberg was the representative director and president at The Gallup Organization Japan.

Leadership and Succession Planning

He has also served as director of business development, Asia/Pacific at Thomson Financial and as a manager of the global financial services industry group at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting.

«Global financial institutions operating in Japan and Japanese financial institutions abroad require advice in all areas of senior executive talent management from executive recruiting to leadership consulting and succession planning, Steven is well known in Japan with his extensive knowledge in the Insurance and Financial industry, bringing tremendous value to clients on various challenging and stringent leadership issues,» said Frazer Wilson, Managing Partner of Heidrick & Struggles' Financial Services Practice for APAC.