Finding the right person for the job is key for your organisation’s reputation!

The right team is one of the most important tangible assets that an organisation has. High calibre individuals with a willingness to go the extra mile and help the business achieve its goals are paramount for any business to flourish. In many businesses, employees are the first point of contact for clients and set the scene of how that organisation is perceived and ultimately, what its reputation is. Employees can make or break a company, so how can businesses leverage off their recruitment to rise to the top? 

“It is incredibly important to have the right people in the right position,” says Regine le Roux, managing director at research agency, Reputation Matters. “Through the research that we have done for corporates, it is quite clear that employees play a very important role in how stakeholders perceive organisations. It is, therefore, crucial to know who is responsible for what in the organisation, and recruit staff accordingly. Especially with small organisations and organisations that need specialised staff, it might be best to invest in an expert who knows the industry and has a network of people on hand that can potentially help with the recruitment process.”

Lisa Wannell, founder and director of Halogen Search and Selection, specialises in placing senior-level candidates in the corporate communication and investor relations space. Wannell explains what a search and selection specialist does: “A search and selection specialist will go out into the market to identify people with particular experience, skills or expertise and from that pool of people select the most appropriate candidates for a client brief.” Search consultants usually operate within a specialist field,  giving them in-depth knowledge of a particular industry and an extensive network of professionals within that sector.

Wannell shares some tips on how to be strategic when it comes to your recruitment.

1. Why invest in a specialist recruiter? Simply put, it will save a client time and money. “Specialist recruiters have invariably spent years cultivating a network of professionals who are experts in a particular field. This enables them to quickly tap into a network and ask for referrals and recommendations to identify ‘passive’ talent; people who aren’t actively looking for a new position,” says Wannell.
2. Hiring search specialists should be evidence-based: Before hiring a specialist recruiter, it is important to ask them for evidence that they have successfully filled similar briefs, in the same or a relevant industry, in organisations of a similar size and operating structure. “Equally important is to find out which other firms they have worked for within your sector to avoid any conflicts of interest,” guides Wannell. An experienced search consultant will do their homework and ask the right questions to get a good sense of the job criteria, as well as whether the profile of the person they’re looking to hire is, in fact, the right one. An experienced search consultant would also encourage and challenge the client to re-think the role profile.
3. Get recruitment specialists on board from the start: Search consultants are sometimes brought in as a ‘last resort’ when internal teams and self-recruiting haven’t yielded results. There is a perception that it is an unnecessary expense. “There is enormous value in calling in specialist recruiters right at the start of a process to advise on all aspects of a role; from key skills to salary benchmarking and market mapping. Interview skills are also of utmost importance. Getting the best out of a candidate in an hour is a skill and not all clients are good at it. I spend a lot of time giving candidates interview prep; sometimes I wish clients would ask for it too,” mentions Wannell. Specialist recruiters should be seen as a business partner who can bring valuable insights into their company from the outside world. A specialist recruiter will save a client both time and money. “The big-name global search firms may trade on their strong, international C-suite network and their specialist sector teams but ask them to find a Corporate Affairs or an Investor Relations Director to help a company with its JSE listing or a major turnaround strategy and they invariably won’t deliver as quickly as a specialist will,” says Wannell. ‘’They don’t always have the candidate network.’’

Having similar values and a shared sense of purpose is one of the most important aspects of how employees can make a lasting impact at organisations. Especially in niche industries, the talent pool might not be as broad as one might think and in order to get the cream of the crop who shares your business vision, you need an in-depth understanding of the type of person needed to fulfil the role. “This whole process takes time and although you, as the hiring manager, will have the final say of who to hire, a search consultant helps to find that perfect match who will help boost your reputation. Having the right person on your team who believes in the organisation’s purpose and values, will create a space for the organisation’s reputation to develop in a healthy manner,” says le Roux.

The recruitment industry as a whole urgently needs to reinvent itself and be disrupted. “The competition for top talent is fierce and too often hiring new people is a knee-jerk reaction to a position becoming vacant or a restructuring that is already taking place. Job descriptions should not be too prescriptive. The companies climbing to the top of the list as the ones people want to work for, are those who hire the right people and then empower them to be the best they can be,” concludes Wannell.

For more information about Halogen Search and Selection visit www.halogensearch.co.za.

For more information about Reputation Matters, visit www.reputationmatters.co.za. Follow Reputation Matters on Facebook (@yourreputationmatters) or Twitter (@ReputationIsKey).