An “information exchange” to clarify your position’s details and your ideal candidate. 

We will ascertain other critical components to fill your role such as culture, values, and the skills, experience and personality traits that will best match your organisation. 

If you have a position description and/or previously advertised the role, we’ll be interested in referencing these and ask you to forward for our review. 

Our experience will help determine if your expectations are realistic and if we can deliver in today’s marketplace. We will also determine negotiable versus mandatory characteristics, skillsets, and experience. 

When convenient, we’ll organise an onsite visit to better connect with the hiring manager and understand your culture. This will enable us to assist candidates with details such as your location, parking, accessibility, meeting staff, office set-up, etc. 

We provide written confirmation on what we can deliver and the anticipated timeframe to set realistic expectations – it’s important to us we can keep our promises and deliverour detailed brief will help inform us on the recruitment strategy we will recommend being implemented. 

These may include:

- Advertising – online and/or print

- Database mining

- Research backed search

- Networking

- Conversations; including reaching out to people who may not be actively looking for a new role

- Curating lists of industries and positions to target

Our proposal will also detail options to work together on an exclusive or retained arrangement and a quote to undertake the scope of work.

Upon agreement of our proposal and quote, we commence recruiting and sourcing your ideal candidate in accordance with the brief and agreed expectations. 

The methodologies we implement will be active, passive or typically a combination of both.

Active methodologies include promotional activities that encourage candidates to apply, such as print and online advertising. This approach usually yields results within two to four weeks.

Passive methodologies involve sourcing from our database and networks and conducting research to find candidates who are not actively looking for a new role. Whilst passive takes longer to deliver results than active, it can be enormously successful in finding hidden gems.

Regardless of methodology, a major step in the process is refining and shortlisting candidates against key selection criteria. 

At this point, we will have spoken with candidates extensively to help inform the best fit for the client. We will discuss with you who’s applied and/or who we’ve sourced, the pros and cons relating to individuals and whether they should be interviewed.

If we determine a suitable candidate is “hot property”, we’ll inform you to prioritise the interview process before you miss the opportunity.

What if there’s no appropriate candidates to shortlist?

If the recruitment and/or sourcing process has not delivered the right candidates for your role and organisation, we will review and discuss what’s not working. This may include revising expectations, the brief, advertising copy, salary, etc.

We will present the shortlist and organise interviews as agreed by the client.

We will brief the candidate about what to expect at interview – from the format to the number of interviewers to help alleviate any surprises and allow them to perform at their best.

Psychometric testing is becoming more important at this stage to further screen candidates’ suitability and ensure clients receive further independent insights on personality and values. Carrington King has a preferred provider if required.

We will debrief after the interview with both client and candidate, how it went and their feelings. We will mediate for both parties, as appropriate, to get the right match.

And, if we believe there’s disparity between our experience with client/candidate and the interview itself, we’ll uncover what happened and help resolve the difference.

Usually, our consultant will conduct the verbal reference checking, although it can provide our clients with an extra level of confidence in the hire if they conduct the checks themselves. We typically speak to former and/or current direct managers.

We consider this phase critical in corroborating experience and behaviours, gaining insights into how to get the best out of a candidate, and to verify employment. Our checking is forensic, ethical and thorough.

Once the decision is made to hire a candidate, we will guide both parties through the salary negotiation, help tidy up any outstanding items such as contracts, start date, police checks etc. We will remain in the loop throughout the first six months of employment, and provide a feedback channel for both parties to ensure the engagement gets off to the best possible start.

Where required, we collaborate with our clients to provide advice on how to settle in a new hire. We can help structure an onboarding program, provide specific follow up, identify training gaps, and ensure the right steps are taken to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone.