by Chaim Coutts
from the UK Trade and Investment (British Embassy, Tel Aviv) newsletter:
Last year, Liverpool FC offered a large contract to Israeli football star Yossi Benayoun. This was all made possible by a football agent who had negotiated this contract for Yossi…
The use of agents is not restricted to the sports industry. There are industry-specific agents searching and selecting qualified candidates for the financial services sector worldwide.
My name is Chaim Coutts, and I have worked in the Executive Search/Recruitment industry for the last four and a half years; I am an affiliate of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK. Although I am based in London, my experience extends across Europe, North America and the Middle East.
So what would you say if you were to see this kind of unique search and selection service within the financial services sector in Israel in the very near future?
In general, there are three ways of sourcing the best candidate for a specific job:
1.) from your own, existing contacts
2.) from your own company supply database of candidates, or
3.) from a more active approach, which would entail a search mission, or what is more colloquially known as ‘headhunting’.
In both of these latter cases, a meeting is needed with the specific client to know exactly what the company requires with regards to the candidates’ skills, experience and personality.
You may ask why companies need this consultancy service, because, in theory, one would imagine that it is part of the Human Resources role to find the right candidate.
A majority of the companies are not always fully aware of the high-quality candidates available in the market, or of their attractive skills. This is especially true for overseas companies. The idea of international job changes and movement across the globe has gradually become more and more popular over the last decade. This trend is likely to continue. The task of knowing and learning about the good quality candidates in the market is clearly a separate profession, complementing HR and easing the load on them.
One of the main services that I can offer to Israeli companies is for my team and I to use our knowledge of the financial sector, ranging from banks to insurance companies, wealth management houses, fund management, hedge funds and investment banks and provide the right candidates for your business to grow.
