Stage 1 – Meeting the client

We’ll meet with you and your team at your offices to take a full brief, provide advice, and propose the best solution including timeframes and fees.

Stage 2 – Candidate brief and search strategy

Once you’ve engaged Spectrum, we’ll deliver these two critical documents as a next step for your review and approval before we start approaching potential candidates.

Stage 3 – Short list delivery

After 5-6 weeks will present our final shortlist of assessed candidates for you to interview. Progress will have been reported weekly leading up to this stage.

Stage 4 – Negotiation management and referencing

Once you have completed your interviews, we will manage formal offer negotiations with your preferred candidate and complete the final stage of referencing.

Stage 5 – Post assignment report

This report will summarise the search and provide further market feedback gleaned during the search.

Our full Search process

Prior to our first meeting with a potential client, we will have undertaken our own research on the business, its key executives and any investors.

At this first meeting, our objective is to really understand – the business (past, present, and most importantly, future), the role, the company culture, the various key stakeholders, and the expectations of the business with regards to any new appointment.

As with any important and effective relationship, mutual trust is key. We ask clients for full disclosure of the facts in relation to the potential search, and we will have a list of questions based on our prior research of the client company.

We also establish our own credentials at this meeting, build chemistry and rapport, and outline our initial thoughts as to how we would best approach the search.

Almost certainly, there is a second meeting with other stakeholders should the client wish to continue the dialogue, before which we will have produced our:

The Engagement Letter outlines our understanding of our client and of the search requirement, and outlines how we will fulfil the search, who will be responsible for successfully delivering it, our fees, the process described in full, and our Terms of Business. If the client wishes to formally proceed, we then produce in week one of the search the:

These two key documents define the search. The Candidate Brief is the employment proposition to potential candidates, and should be compelling to attract the attention of the headhunted candidate. It will be a full document that includes a job description and person specification. Sometimes the company information is explicitly stated, at other times it is confidential if the appointment is in any way sensitive.

The Search Strategy describes our approach to identifying and approaching potential candidates. Our approach is multi-faceted, and typically includes formal search, our own database, our own network, and select and discreet advertising may also be appropriate.

Discretion and confidentiality are key to our approach. We have formal NDA documents which we can sign with both clients and potential candidates, as required.

As we progress the search, reporting is weekly in writing. Any ‘off limits’ (candidates that we should not approach, or organisations within which we should not search for potential candidates) are identified.

Typically, we deliver the candidate shortlist within six weeks of commencing the search, although some clients prefer us to present candidates on an ongoing basis rather than wait for the shortlist date. This approach can be helpful if speed is of the essence, but without impacting quality, or if the client is not 100% sure of exactly what they are seeking.

The shortlist documentation comprises each candidate’s own CV plus our detailed report. Typically, we present 5-6 candidates at shortlist.

The next stage is to arrange and manage the logistics with regard to the rounds of client interviews with candidates. This can be time consuming and complex given work and travel schedules. We fully manage this activity through to completion.

Following the first round of shortlist interviews, the client will typically select candidates for a second round, at which point we will conduct psychometric profiling of the preferred candidates, and provide these reports to the client as they are often helpful to define interview questions at the second round.

Once the client selection has been completed, we will manage the offer negotiations with the preferred candidate. This is almost always sensitive, very time consuming, often complex with regard to stock and LTIP elements in particular, but clearly critical to a successful outcome. Having a third party between the client and the candidate is one part of the value we provide as a firm.

At this point, we also take up an array of formal verbal references in addition to the informal referencing already undertaken, and document these findings to the client.

Once a verbal agreement with the candidate is reached, we work with the client to produce and obtain signed acceptance of a formal offer of employment. We can then assist with any first 90 days planning as may be required to ensure the appointed candidate becomes effective as soon as possible.

The Post Assignment Report includes the final version of the Search Strategy document, so that the client may see all the work we have undertaken for the assignment – who we have spoken to, who we have interviewed, and what the outcome of each dialogue was.

We also glean really valuable market information during any search and we document it confidentially and provide to the client. This information is particularly helpful as it allows clients to understand the perception of their business from very relevant sources.

On the completion of each search, we ask each member of the client team involved in the process, and each shortlisted candidate, for their feedback . The survey takes a few minutes to complete and enables us to ensure we are always evolving and improving our service.

The feedback from the completed surveys then feeds into our KPI measurement and enables us to produce the latest KPI statistics.

After 3 months we will meet with both the client and the candidate to check on progress.

“Many thanks for all your expertise, support and patience – we have very much enjoyed working with you. Your identification and assessment of candidates is unmatched in my experience.”

Katherine Ashdown, Managing Director, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, London

Spectrum Testimonial