Permanent

“MEASURE IT TWICE AND BUILD IT ONCE”

William Alexander has an established and ‘best in class’ recruitment process which we employ for all our Retained and/or Exclusive assignments. We also adopt this method for certain contingent recruitment vacancies when working with a preferred client with the necessary degree of client commitment in order for our processes to be utilised effectively.

This process differentiates us from the vast majority of our competitors and gives us some of the best CV-to-interview and interview-to-placement ratios in the industry, resulting in significant time savings for our clients, our consultants and our candidates alike.

THE BRIEF

We invest significant time and effort with our clients up front to ensure we fully understand their work culture, benefits package, organisational and team structures and business goals.

We take a detailed briefing with each line manager for every new vacancy to make sure we fully understand the specific responsibilities and experience requirements for each role in order to identify the best possible candidates.

We also ascertain the information that will allow us to promote the opportunity properly to candidates and strive to ensure that your vacancy stands out above similar vacancies in the marketplace.

In our experience this initial stage is the most important part of the process and it is essential to get it right.

THE SEARCH

Only once we have gained a thorough understanding of your requirements do we begin a targeted and methodical search.

The Client Account Manager briefs our specialist team of Researchers who then carry out initial searches and preliminary candidate telephone screenings. They then provide Account Managers with a candidate long-list for each role.

We tailor our candidate sourcing approach for each vacancy but it generally involves a combination of advertising, database searching, on-line database searching, referrals and headhunting.

SHORTLISTING

The Account Manager then interviews long-listed candidates to establish whether they have the necessary experience, competencies and culture fit for your requirements.

We also take the time to properly understand a candidate’s needs, wants and aspirations to ensure that not only is the candidate a good fit for our client, but that our client is also a good fit for the candidate – something we view as equally important.

Once this process is completed the Account Manager selects a shortlist of 3-4 candidates and presents them to the client, preferably at a face-to-face meeting. We also provide a detailed report summarising our thoughts on the shortlisted candidates, making recommendations on those we believe to be most suitable for interview.

All candidates we represent will, as a matter of course, have been fully briefed on the identity of the client, the nature of the role and will have demonstrated a genuine interest in the opportunity, as well as being available within the timescales and budget specified by the client.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

We provide each candidate with all the necessary information they will require in order to carry out a successful interview and give the best account of themselves. We give them full details of who they will be meeting, directions, duration and format of the interview and make sure that each candidate understands the full specifications of the role and the client's expectations of them at interview.

Following the interview, we thoroughly debrief both the client and the candidates, and broker communications between all parties.

CHOOSING THE BEST CANDIDATE

Once all interviews have taken place we facilitate open communication, which includes full disclosure of both the client and candidate interests and concerns.

We work closely with the client to ensure the strengths and weaknesses of all potential matches are clearly understood and assist the client with their decision making to the best of our ability.

DEVELOPING THE BEST OFFER

We work closely with our clients to develop the right offer for the selected candidate – not only that the candidate will be happy to accept, but that will also represent a fair offer in the marketplace and achieve the best long-term value for our client.

OFFER NEGOTIATION AND ON-BOARDING

We present the offer to the candidate on behalf of our client’s organisation. This approach allows both parties to candidly express any concerns and ask questions openly.

Upon acceptance, start dates are determined and we coach candidates through their resignations, prepare them for any counter offers and maintain regular communications until they start on site, all the while ensuring your candidate’s interest does not drop or their enthusiasm fail.

We will also represent our client in the best possible light to all candidates throughout the whole recruitment process and take our role as client brand ambassadors very seriously.