Yes, you guessed it – early next year I will be getting married. Not only am I working most hours under the sun; trying to fit in an hour of gym every day and trying to ensure that my family remember who I am but now I need to plan a wedding. I am by no means doing this alone as my fiancé is very supportive but being the control freak that I am; I have taken the bull by the horns and am trying to have everything sorted in as little time as possible – like a week!
I have worked in the Recruitment Industry for nearly 10 years now so I have always been the one who has been hunting for business and dealing with awkward clients and candidates (of course not all of them are awkward but I have been the one providing the service). Now it is the turn of others to be the service provider and I am actually finding myself to be a tough customer. I know there are several people in Johannesburg who could be the DJ at our wedding, but I want nothing but the best. If he doesn’t keep everyone on the dancefloor all night I am not going to be impressed!
I also understand that as a recruitment consultancy we have lots of competition. There are a lot of other agencies that are cheaper than us but they will not be as thorough and professional as we are. The same goes for Ministers; DJ’s; caterers, photographers and flower arrangers. This got me thinking about what sets us apart from other consultancies and why we should be on speed dial when you have a staffing requirement.
What makes It’s About People different, and better, from other Consultancies:
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We truly care about our clients and candidates. We are not merely trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. We really take care to match our client and our candidate’s cultures as well as obviously making sure that the candidates can carry out their jobs.
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We provide coaching for our clients when they are ‘not quite sure what they are looking for’. We have also taken the time to help our clients to put together a job spec so they know what they want before we start the search. We also assist candidates to represent themselves as best as possible, on paper, by making sure that their CVs are concise and aligned to the job spec.
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We are prepared to travel! We ensure that we meet with every client so we can see their offices and get a ‘feel’ for their working environment. We also will do our utmost to meet with every candidate face to face, even if this means that we are travelling great distances to interview them in their lunch hours. If the candidates are living overseas we make sure that we still conduct a full interview via Skype.
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Finally, the best value add that I feel that we offer is that we deal with the highest calibre of candidates. We are all incredibly well networked (we do not claim to have a massive database as a database is stale and worthless). We are very strict about the candidates we send through to our clients and if they do not match the client’s requirements 99.9%, we often pull them from the interview process.
So just like wedding planning, go with the best. You do not want to have any long term repercussions of hiring the wrong candidate just because the Consultant representing them provided a cheaper service. Go with the best consultancies, with the best candidates to make sure that your business stays the best.
Originally Posted Here http://www.itsaboutpeople.co.za/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=115
