We have learned many lessons in the first six months of our business.Looking back at our planning notes from April, it feels like that was already six years ago! Before we all went through our individual six-month reviews, we looked back at what we hoped and expected would be our USPs;

• 20 years’ combined length-of service together
• Specialists in financial recruitment
• Consultative, long-term approach

…. these were the top three, but we were wrong! All four of our team, found that….“Partner-lead recruitment has been the most valued and successful aspect of our service”

• Contact with Pratap Partnership will always be contact with a partner of the business, whether this is arranging an interview, planning a process or negotiating an offer
• It means that we have no Administrators, PA’s, Resourcers, BD Managers, Non fee-earning directors or Staff Managers.
• Our investment in technology means that every task from formatting CVs, arranging appointments and managing our CRM can be done by our Partners

What are the benefits?

• There are more touch points to build trust and stronger relationships
• We can provide the best, bespoke advice at every stage of the recruitment process (This is always fuelled by the drive and passion that only the business leaders can provide)
• Improved likelihood of “wildcard” candidates and jobs to suggest to our clients & candidates respectively.
• We do not rely on sending bulk email communications of “Candidate of the Week” to hundreds of clients. We handpick between ten and 20 clients where we know there is a technical or personal connection.
• A more cost-effective infrastructure for us and our clients

What are the challenges?

• We are always very busy. This is where our technology and agile working patterns support us
• It may take a while longer for us to return messages. This is the largest downside and is unfortunate. We prefer to have this as a challenge than to place “gatekeepers” in between us and our people. All of our individual mobile numbers and email addresses are on our website so everyone can always make contact
• How to maintain this? As we plan our growth, we will need to adjust maintain this aspect of our service. Key to achieving this is bringing in the right people and keeping them. Low staff turnover has been a facet of our team in the whole of our collective career.

Final commentRecruitment is all about people. This is a statement of the obvious, but it cuts down into a number of levels, one of which is;“the vast majority of clients & candidates trust and engage with a consultant rather than the consultancy they work for”For some recruitment businesses, the objective is to ensure that as many clients & candidates as possible have some contact with their leaders. We prefer to ensure that our existing clients & candidates receive as much contact with our leaders as they need.