Gatekeeper Turned Poacher – Isn’t that hypocritical?

After 20 years as a HR professional, specializing in Resourcing and Development for a number of household brands, I decided to work for myself with the aim of having a small number of clients I could provide my expertise to.  I dare say there will be people in my network thinking that after my mantra of always use direct hiring or building your own L&D function first, this career move is somewhat hypocritical. 

So, let me tell you why it’s not….it’s about doing something I love, with variety and on my own terms.  That aside, my first question to any firm who wanted to engage with Rise Above Consulting would be, “Why not do it yourself?” – there are valid reasons for using a third party to work with but always assess whether you have the resource internally before engaging a supplier. 

Firstly, time.  And particularly for fee-earning businesses the well-worn cliché of time is money is so true.  Every hour, every day, every week a vacancy remains unfilled is lost revenue. In-house teams more often than not have the capability to recruit individuals but often have to balance with a whole host of vacancies and may not be able to apply appropriate hours required to fulfill the recruitment.  Too often HR functions’ resource allocation is squeezed so that outsourcing a piece of work is the quickest and most cost-effective way of solving the problem.

Secondly, capability.  Same again, more often than not the capability to perform a piece of niche recruitment or in-house training can be found within the organization.  However, there are those occasions when a specialist expert needs to be brought in externally to assist and partner with the organization.  A great example of this and one that is topical is the new guidelines on IR35 (wait for my blog next week!), which will see fundamental change in the way in which the contingent workforce is managed within the private sector.  A one-off audit and advisory assignment lends itself perfectly to this.  And yes, we can, before you ask 😊.

Thirdly, confidentiality.  Particularly pertinent in the Executive Search world, should a business wish to research and approach candidates who for example may be working for a competitor, it is much cleaner to have a third party represent them to avoid reputational damage.  However, there are occasions where confidentiality needs to be maintained within an organization as well as externally, allowing a third party to provide objectivity is often a sensible route.  Just make sure you have the NDA signed.

Fourthly, and specific to my business and I, beenaroundtheblockability.  I know that you don’t need to charge excessive fees to businesses, heaven knows I’ve negotiated £s of savings off standard terms over the years.  I know that you work with in-house HR teams and include them every step of the way on any project.  I know that if a client has a salary band you work within that, rather than tell them they are underpaying (unless you have evidence that they genuinely are – it is rare).  Unless the client wants something else, we work on fixed fees therefore projects and assignments can be effectively budgeted for, there are no hidden surprises and transparency reigns supreme!  If you want us to find you an interim, we’ll charge you an introduction fee, but we won’t be milking a margin on their daily rate.  That’s just not cricket.

So that is why I set up Rise Above Consulting.  As I said at the start, doing something I love, with variety and on my own terms.  Thanks for reading this, it’s actually been quite cathartic for me! If you think I can help your business, I’d be delighted to talk through our offering, but in the meantime have a look at our website www.riseaboveconsulting.co.uk