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As an industry we seem to excel at confusion and contradiction. Are we a recruitment consultancy or a search-based headhunter? Are we both of those things? Is there a difference? Well, yes there is. For me a recruitment consultancy will typically endeavour to serve both candidates and clients fairly, while a headhunter is primarily focussed on fulfilling their client’s brief. A recruitment consultancy will offer a professional service, they will actively try to match applicants and database sourced candidates to the role. Headhunters on the other hand will often focus on the role first and then scout for the right candidate for their client. That’s not to criticise either approach. Both can be successful in matching candidate to role. However, at Barron Williams we do things differently. Take the best of both if you will.
Barron Williams is a different type of recruitment consultancy
We believe in a better way to recruit. A way to give clients and candidates a better choice. A way of working together in partnership to best place the right senior executives into the right organisations. When we started Barron Williams we’d become disillusioned with the recruitment industry norms. It felt like customer service was taking a backseat, the response to the client was database-driven and people were just a commodity. We’re an honest bunch who love what we do. We wanted to work together with both clients and candidates, listen to their requirements, and deliver informed solutions that generate results. But most importantly, we wanted to bring the ‘human’ element back to senior executive recruitment.
As the testimonials on our website will testify, we have adopted a partnership-driven approach that is genuinely client and candidate-centric. It is based on a mature and diligent approach to our work. We don’t operate like a traditional recruitment agency. And nor do we want to. This approach is the result of our experience in the recruitment industry, preceded by years of experience in senior management roles. We are a professional services business working in recruitment. It’s simple really. We want to help attract, engage and retain the very best executives and senior managers for our clients. The best way to do that is to treat potential candidates as potential future clients.
For us, the big advantage of this approach, is that many of our candidates often become clients. We achieve this because we don’t differentiate. We treat everybody the same. However, candidates don’t say the same for many in our industry. Recruiters often put on a different hat depending on who they’re talking to. If a person calls in their capacity as a client, looking to fill a role, that’s potential work, so they’ll give their time keenly. The same person calling as a candidate looking for a new role, not so much. When we started Barron Williams that was a big part of the disillusionment we wanted to address. How you treat people as candidates determines whether you get to talk to them as a client.
In a recruitment consultancy is the client or candidate more important?
Often candidates will inform you that when they’ve attended interviews, what follows is radio silence. Especially if they’ve been unsuccessful. No follow-up call, no feedback on what they did well, why they weren’t hired etc. That is incredibly frustrating. Research tells us that it is the biggest single negative candidates have with our industry. So why as a client would you employ a company that treats candidates like that? Treating people with professional courtesy should be a given, surely?
No matter if client or candidate, duty of care applies to both. No matter the interaction, from first call to start date, we should treat candidates the same way we treat our clients. One hat, one size, fits all. We see them as one and the same, they’re both equally as important, and it is essential for our business to have both. That network consists of good people wanting to help other good people, and we facilitate that. It’s not all about the successful candidate too. That duty of care applies to those that weren’t successful. We aim to provide useful and constructive feedback to all. Keeping in contact with the successful candidate after they’ve been selected is also vital. We maintain dialogue through onboarding, regular communication helps our clients to continually review the success of their new executive. I suppose you could call it our ‘customer experience’. However, the important part is that it is always a positive experience for both candidates and clients.
If you’re looking for your next role, then please feel free to Upload Your CV or Call Us for an exploratory conversation. If you’re looking for a senior executive for your organisation, please use our Client Upload Form or Call Us now.
