Recruitment: Executive search and selection

Emma Kieran from 4c Executive Search talks about to NI Business Now about the world of recruitment and why it is important to love your job.

Describe your role: 

As a Search Consultant at 4c, I provide our clients with a valuable service that helps them to identify and recruit the best available talent for their business critical roles. On a daily basis I typically find myself meeting with clients, drafting bespoke assignment briefs, working with our retained researchers who are based across GB and Europe and shortlisting candidates, and assisting clients with interviews.

What is the best part of your job?

There is a great sense of reward when one of our candidates is appointed and the feedback we get from them is that they have made a great career move, whilst our client is also delighted with their appointment and contribution – that’s a win-win. However, it is also very interesting to meet business leaders from a range of blue chip companies across NI and further afield, and learn how these companies operate internally and externally.

What aspect of your job do you find the most challenging?

I genuinely enjoy all aspects of my job but having to let down even the most exceptional of candidates because they haven’t been successful at the interview stage of the process is never easy.

What are the key challenges facing your sector at the moment?

I think one of the key challenges facing the business community in general is finding the best people for senior roles within organisations, since a lot of the best talent out there are happy in their current roles and aren’t seeking new opportunities. In a sense though, as well as providing us with a challenge, this provides us with a great opportunity to demonstrate the value of executive search and selection as a unique solution to this problem.

How is your organisation responding to these issues?

In every single assignment that we undertake we are consistently proving to our clients that executive search and selection is the most effective method for finding the best available talent for the business-critical roles within their organisations. For some clients it is very much a case of ‘tasting and seeing’ because they haven’t engaged the services of a search firm like 4c before, but once tried and tested we find that clients come back to us again and again because they have very much bought into the search and selection process and have reaped the rewards of doing so.

What is the biggest goal on your agenda for the year ahead?

To date we have placed 100% of roles assigned to us by our clients; a figure that is really unheard of in an industry with a much lower average. We have also grown in less than two years from a team of just three people to eight people now. To ensure this level of growth continues and that we continue to successfully recruit for our clients would be the number one goal.

If you had to give one piece of business advice, what would it be?

I have always been a firm believer that you should do something that you love and have a passion for. We spend a significant portion of our lives working so ensuring it’s something that makes you happy is essential. In my role for example, you have to take a real interest in individuals and enjoy working with and for them.

What work experience and qualifications helped you to get to your position?

I had a background in recruitment when coming into this role and a Certificate in Recruitment Practice awarded by the Institute of Recruitment Professionals has really supported and complemented that further. 4c’s Principal Search Consultant, Gary Irvine and Head of Delivery, David Winterburn are extremely well-respected and experienced in the recruitment industry and they have been fantastic mentors since I have been at 4c.