Below we have briefly outlined some of the more frequent activities we conduct on a day to day basis, together with our approach. These specifically relate to candidate selection and representation.
We believe that the development and promotion of these standards and approaches across all Curtis Partnership consultants has contributed significantly to our success to date.
Once we have a clear understanding of the scope and objectives of any individual role we will set about sourcing applicants.
Our recruitment model has been designed to offer our clients a response based on a structured CONTINGENT SEARCH methodology. Using a variety of resources including original industry and functional research, proprietary databases, company information and open-source networking we will identify the relevant skills and markets.
Historically this model has only been available to companies who wish to engage RETAINED SEARCH firms where a significant portion of the placement fee is paid in advance of the search even commencing.
Our processes differ to the extent we aim to offer a thorough SEARCH of relevant markets where our placement fee is 100% CONTINGENT on our success. We will not expect a placement fee until the successful candidate is in situ and has commenced employment with our client.
Scarcity levels are high for the best talent, this is an unchanging reality for all companies wishing to hire, regardless of market conditions at any given time. As such we employ our CONTINGENT SEARCH model across all levels and it is not reserved only senior appointments.
Regardless the level of your desired appointment, we strongly feel that you should be looking for the BEST available talent, whilst we do maintain a strong presence across all interactive, social and online media, this alone does not deliver a nearly adequate response.
We use a variety of techniques including;
All candidates represented through Curtis Partnership will have met with one of our staff face to face. Our preference for interstate opportunities is to meet those candidates face to face, where we are unable to do this we will utilise comprehensive Facetime or Skype as a medium for interview.
For more senior positions or where we have a larger volume of response our consultants will travel to that location to interview face to face.
Dependent on the complexity of the role we will adapt our interview and screening techniques accordingly; however as a minimum we can provide assurances that the following criteria have been verified;
In addition we are able to facilitate both psychometric and technical testing where appropriate. We would look to discuss where these assessments would be required on an individual role basis.
We will represent candidates for a specific role with a Curtis Partnership headed PDF document together with supporting comments either in the body of that document or in the corresponding representation email.
Our policy in terms of short-listing candidates dictates that it is unlikely we will represent more than three applicants per individual position unless we have agreed on a number greater than this with the client. This is based on our view that it is incumbent on us to select the most relevant applicants from the available pool and present those. In addition this provides the opportunity for us to receive feedback on the accuracy of our representations and if necessary adapt our search criteria if required.
We will at no time represent an applicant to our client without the applicant having been fully briefed on a specific position. Furthermore we will not represent an applicant unless we have the candidate’s express authority to do so and the candidate’s confirmation that they have not previously been represented for a particular role within the client. This authority will be obtained during the interview process.
Following any candidate representation to our client, our expectations are that we will receive feedback on the suitability of applications as soon as is possible. We will then respond to client requests to interview and work with our client to prepare the candidate for interview and assessment through to whichever outcome (offer/acceptance or candidate unsuccessful) is achieved.
During this period we will conduct comprehensive reference checking and if required we will tailor these checks to incorporate any specific questions or attributes where our client may seek specific clarification. Generally we will wait until at least the 1st interview has been completed before reference checking for this reason and to address any specific matters identified during initial interview(s).
