Calibrate Search

Calibrate Search combines a wealth of experience to provide the best possible solution to Employers Executive Search requirements.

Our Executive Search division is headed up by Calibrate Managing Director Geoff Cooper and Calibrate General Manager Tony Horrocks.

Why choose Calibrate Search?

• Success rate over 95% for retainer search roles
• Over 65% of our placements are promoted in the first year.
• Combined experience of almost 50 years in recruitment
• That experience specialises in Engineering and Technical.
• Comprehensive, consultative search process
• Identification, evaluation, assessment and recruitment of the “right” Executives to provide competitive advantage for our clients.
• Insight and discernment to understand client needs and evaluate candidates
• Passion, Energy and Commitment to achieving results.

Defining the Critical Business Issues

Our briefing begins with an in-depth discussion of the critical business problems that the search assignment will solve. Identification of Performance Measures defining expected results and timeframes, competencies required, experience required to successfully navigate challenges the candidate will most likely encounter, and qualification of the behavioral and cultural characteristics that the best candidates will require to succeed. Our consultants themselves make the critical difference, bringing insight in discerning clients’ needs and in evaluating candidates. The Consultant who takes the brief handles every aspect of the search through completion.

Sourcing Candidates

The Calibrate Search methodology identifies candidates from multiple sources including Consultant professional networks and relationships, worldwide network of affiliates via membership of the NPA*, systematic research, and where appropriate targeted advertising. The consultants’ own ideas will stem from their knowledge of your sector or function and their experience in Executive Search. Due to our collaborative culture, the pool of known talent is augmented by ideas flowing from other Calibrate consultants or one of 500 global affiliates. Hence, clients engage more than individual consultants; they engage the entire firm with all of its relevant sources and experts.

Approaching Candidates

Calibrate firmly believes that approaching candidates is one of the critical success factors of a search assignment and hence approaches are made by consultants. The consultants working on the assignment are best able to capture the attention of high quality candidates by presenting the opportunity in a compelling way and detailing the unique aspects of the position and the cultural aspects of the organization. The consultants will also be able to credibly address concerns candidates may have about the opportunity relative to their own careers and their prospects within the client organization. Given the experience and seniority of our consultants, most candidates feel the people approaching them are peers in the business world and usually value their insight and advice.

Evaluation and Assessment

Candidates are typically evaluated based on:

• Past performance – a predictor of future performance. Our consultants identify and verify past achievements that relate to the specific performance requirements of the job.
• Behavioural style – how a candidate does something is a better predictor of success than what qualifications theoretically enable candidates to do. Calibrate consultants focus on the “how” questions, following our competency-based interviewing model. Answers to these questions can be windows into the individual’s behavioral characteristics, enabling insight into the candidate’s ability to perform in the job and adapt to the client organization and culture.

Where appropriate Calibrate tests candidates for IQ – (Intelligence), EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and Behavioural style. Reference checking is a vital component of the recruitment process.

Securing candidate commitment

The second major point of leverage in a search is converting a mutual “fit” into an actual hire. In the war for talent, a skilled and insightful approach to closing a search can make the difference between success and failure. Since our consultants invest in the relationship with candidates through every step of the search process, they are better able to monitor and address concerns about the job or the practical and personal aspects of transitioning as they arise, minimizing barriers to closure at the final stage of a search. Our fixed fee approach assures objectivity on quantitative aspects of the hiring, allowing consultants to advise both sides in the negotiations without conflict of interest.

Post placement

Our consultants are passionate about assuring that hired candidates make a positive impact that exceeds our clients’ expectations. We follow up with candidate and client at regular intervals to check on performance and fit. The consultants’ diligence in this regard stems not only from professional pride but also from their long-term outlook toward clients and candidates. This continuing bond with candidates and clients is one of the reasons that more than two-thirds of our assignments are repeat engagements for existing clients. The knowledge that our consultants are motivated by repeat business for the firm’s single global ownership structure, rather than individual rewards, is the best assurance of superior professional execution.