Recruitment is the biggest indicator as to whether there is an improvement and Jersey has certainly seen an increase across the board – from junior through to senior roles.
With this in mind does that mean it is an employee’s market or an employer’s – a question many of my clients will ask, be it in Jersey, Switzerland, Liechtenstein or Singapore.

In short - neither. Things have changed in respect of both parties but the emphasis is on the employer when sourcing the best talent. As times change, finding candidates with strategic qualities and importance will be paramount for an organisation seeking to develop and grow especially in changing and uncertain times.

It is true to say that the methods of recruitment are much different when recruiting senior level staff compared to the recruitment of lesser experienced candidates. Trust officers, fund administrators and others can be recruited through conventional means such as the local press and via various websites and job boards.

However, the recruitment of strategic, senior level candidate is different. It requires the recruiter / head-hunter to research and source the best candidate “in the market”, and not “the best on the market”.

Some recruiters, when securing a retained search, believe that the next step is to advertise. I cannot emphasise how wrong this is. Advertising attracts the good at best, at worst the disaffected and demotivated.

If the client company is seeking excellence, that excellence will not be reading the paper at situations vacant nor will they be searching the job boards. Excellence is happy, motivated and has no reason to move from their current employment. However, that candidate can be persuaded to consider the concept of another opportunity if such an approach from out of the blue is made.

In order for the candidate to consider any potential opportunity the recruiter has to provide a business case to the hunted candidate. This can be done through disclosure and support from the client company seeking to attract such excellence.
Whenever a project is taken on, I will insist that my client is transparent and provides the necessary facts and figures, within reason, in order to gain a potential candidates’ interest. The reasons for such strategic recruitment must be made apparent.

Any form of strategic level recruitment involves some form of change to the business and its culture. The client company must reveal if there are any key stakeholders that may be resistant to such recruitment as this will allow both recruiter and candidate to prepare and counter any objections.

The recruiter has to reveal such information to a potential candidate in order to gain the initial commitment – the headhunted candidate will need as much information as possible in order to justify leaving an environment that he or she has no reason to move from
Once the commitment of the candidate has been secured the interview process is two way. During interview both parties must then sell themselves. In order to secure excellence the client company must be prepared to sell the virtues of the organisation, its culture and its opportunity for the candidate, not just now but in the future.

In turn, the candidate must justify why the potential employer should invest in them and highlight the benefits of bringing in an outsider to their organisation.

At strategic level recruitment both parties have to justify themselves in order for such recruitment to be successfully concluded. However the recruitment itself is different and this is why the use of the head-hunter / recruiter is essential in these changing times in order to source and attract the talent and excellence that is not consciously seeking to change

If you need excellence you will not find it through the conventional means.