If you are simply looking for a job and need the help of an agency that might find you one, International Recruiters is probably not the ideal firm to seek out. The emerging recruitment agency, situated at 195 F Camp Street, Georgetown, sees its mission differently. The firm’s Managing Director Ewan Shanks prefers to have the entity seen as having a far more meaningful pursuit. “We don’t find jobs for people,” he says. “We find people for jobs. “
That pronouncement sums up, in a handful of words and with unashamed bluntness the perspective that the Guyanese-born remigrant from Canada brings to what he does. It is, simultaneously, and in a society where public and private sector alike bellyache over a shortage of skills, a considerable challenge. That, however, may be less the case with Shanks, whose new local company is simply setting him up to continue in a pursuit that he has been practicing for 25 years.
Inevitably, Shanks must work as much with the firms (and their bosses) seeking the skills, as with the potential employee. He believes that if his own efforts to find the right person for the job are to be successful, he must understand the firm seeking the employee, the true nature of the job and exactly what the firm expects the new employee to accomplish. Accordingly, he talks much more about the attitude of the people he seeks to recruit as he does about their academic accomplishments. He insists that to recruit the right people, particularly for key positions, you frequently have to look beyond the ‘paper qualifications.’ Indeed, he believes there may be instances where those might even take second place to other particular attributes.
His approach is perhaps best likened to sandwiching himself between the recruiting firm and the prospective employee. What that means is that he must work at both ends of the spectrum, seeking, simultaneously, to prepare the firm for the recruit he recommends and to prepare the recruit for the job.
In a society where some skills are scarce and hard to find, the pursuits of a firm like International Recruiters can assume some discomfiting dimensions. Sometimes, by his own admission, Shanks must become a “headhunter,” seeking out scarce skills wherever he can find them, at home, overseas and sometimes by luring people from one job into another.
He wants it to be made clear that there is nothing wrong with what some purists may describe as poaching. It is simply a matter of getting the best for your client; so that there are several aspects to his job. Finding the right person for the job frequently requires that Shanks be afforded what one might call certain ‘latitudes.’ Luring a highly skilled worker from one job to another means that Shanks must have a clear understanding of ‘how much’ the potential recruit is worth to the prospective hirer.
At the same time, Shanks must work with the potential recruit through at least two interviews, seeking to marry both aptitudes and attitudes to what he understands to be the job requirements. He understands that the call that he makes could help or harm his client.
Arriving at a determination of the fee his client pays is not always an uncomplicated pursuit. A lot, he says, depends on what he and his client agree the recruit is worth and what it takes to hire him or her,
Shanks says he wants International Recruiters to be known as a “search and talent acquisition firm that incrementally enhances the efficiency of the private sector by raising skills levels.” The company, he says, is focused on “direct recruiting across all levels of the business sector.” Its range of services include executive searches, confidential searches and direct sourcing.
Shanks says that his firm favours meeting in person with key client stakeholders in order to, first, secure a “position overview” and develop a “go-to-market strategy.” Afterwards the firm sets out to find the talent, utilising what Shanks describes as “a multi-pronged approach” that includes behavioral interviews as well as what he says are “collaborative client interviews.” Subse-quent assessment and negotiation exercises with prospective recruits eventually results in offers being made.
In a private sector where most Chief Executive Officers concede that scarce skills impact negatively on production and productivity Shanks believes that part of the solution reposes in companies having the vision to recognise the nexus between high performance and the preparedness to invest in recruiting talent from outside of Guyana if necessary. Equally important, he says, is taking the recruitment process beyond criteria presented by the candidate. Often, he believes, it is a matter of getting expert help in finding the right person for the job.
