Recruitment Firm to find Top Managers
The following is a news article taken from the Western Mail, published 28th November 2007 and written by Siôn Barry.
A South Wales recruitment agency has launched an executive search division to meet rising demand for senior managers across the economy.
New Directions want the new division to complement its existing corporate recruitment service, which already places hundreds of staff each year into specialist, supervisory and junior to middle management roles in both the private and public sectors.
The fast-growing company has now appointed leading executive search specialist Rowland Roberts to head the new team, which will focus exclusively on helping employers in all sectors to find high-performing middle and senior managers and top directors.
The operation, to be known as New Directions Search, will use extensive contacts across the UK, and in all parts of Wales, to identify the top management and leadership talent needed by ambitious enterprises, many of which are planning major expansion.
Mr Roberts, who has held senior posts with some of the UK's top executive search agencies over the past 15 years, said, "We believe there is a substantial and growing market for these services in Wales because the economy is vibrant and many medium-sized companies are looking to expand."
"We know, both from our research and from our wider involvement in the Welsh recruitment market, that there is strong demand for talented managers at senior level, whether they are home-grown, ex-pats seeking to return, or other accomplished professionals interested in progressing their careers in Wales."
He said the new search operation would offer clients the combined benefits of an extensive UK-wide network of contacts, the research resources of an established £15m business and the advantages of understanding the local market thoroughly.
Mr Roberts added that grasping the ethos of a client company was the key to finding the most suitable person to fill a senior role.
"Cultural compatibility is vital, so we will spend time with each client getting a feel for the culture of their organisation and an insight into how their senior management team thinks and operates. We will also search across a broad range of sectors to get the right person because, at that level, management skills are transferable between different industries," he said.
The market for managers at all levels was "very buoyant", because the complexion of Welsh industry had changed, he said. "According to Wales Management Council there are now almost 200,000 people in supervisory or management positions out of a workforce of 1.2 million. That reflects the fact that Welsh businesses today tend to be more knowledge-driven and sophisticated than in the past."
Latest figures from the Association of Executive Search Consultants confirm the healthy prospects for this segment of the recruitment industry. The association recently disclosed that the market for these services will grow around 20% this year.
Jeff Tune, managing directory of New Directions said the creation of the new division was the latest move in a strategy designed to provide recruitment solutions at all levels for employers in all sectors of the economy. "We were very pleased to secure someone of Rowland's calibre to lead the new team."
Mr Roberts, who is a first-language Welsh speaker from Aberystwyth, had previously been with the high profile recruitment firms Norman Broadbent, TMP Worldwide and Harrison Willis.
The New Directions group employs a total of about 80 staff.