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Ethos BeathChapman continues expanding in Hong Kong

We sat down recently with Richard Bradshaw and Nick Pelling; Rich has been with the Ethos BeathChapman (EBC) business for close to 3 years and has just been promoted to Managing Director, whilst Nick has been newly appointed as Director and General Manager of the EBC Hong Kong business. We put some questions to them…

1. We know that a big focus for you now is expanding the Hong Kong office. What insights can you share with us about opening the office, and what are the key objectives?

RB: EBC Hong Kong is a key step towards our longer-term North Asia strategy. With EBC’s focus on client experience and service delivery, an expanded Hong Kong office will give us the ability to service clients within Greater China with a more defined local touchpoint, heightened efficiency and value. Additionally, with the Greater Bay Area in China set to grow in the technology sector, it represents an important dovetail for our areas of expertise and clients’ key markets.

NP: EBC has built strong reputations and long-standing client relationships across Singapore, Southeast Asia and Australia through our Singapore and Sydney hubs. Based on these strong foundations, as Richard points out, we are now in a position to expand our presence to Hong Kong, which will allow us to support our existing clients’ needs in the Greater China markets.

Some of our busiest practices (Technology, Financial Services, Fintech and Governance) are all growing in Hong Kong, which makes it an obvious choice for EBC’s expansion. We will be looking to build practices within our Hong Kong business that complement what we already have across other parts of APAC.

2. Will EBC Hong Kong look to leverage the firm’s offices in Singapore, Japan and Australia with respect to clients? Is this or anything else proving to be a particularly important competitive advantage?

NP: Definitely. Our clients are central to what we do and as a partnership we already work internationally anyhow – with many being in Hong Kong. So this will feel like a natural progression to strengthen relationships with existing client networks, as well as develop new ones across both Hong Kong and Greater China.

RB: EBC has launched several successful overseas offices over the last few years. It has been a combination of being sensitive to prevailing local market conditions, as well as leveraging the blueprint of our other offices’ successes, which we feel gives us that extra edge in the market.

We’ve also been able to utilise the extensive network and shared resources of the Will Group, our parent company. They are providing us with the extra sponsorship and support to take EBC HK to the next level, and deliver our service to some areas of North Asia that in the past we didn’t have access to.

3. Which market sectors are you focused on mostly?

NP: Our Hong Kong team already works from a strong foothold within the Financial Services, Banking and Fintech sectors. A natural extension would be to broaden the business in areas where EBC globally has existing expertise: Technology, Insurance and Governance (Legal, Risk and Compliance) sectors.

4. Can you expand a bit on the management structure of the Hong Kong office, as well as regional reporting lines?

RB: For EBC Hong Kong, it was important to appoint not only someone who knows the Hong Kong market very well, but also someone who could ‘transplant’ the successful EBC culture there, too. That was critical for us. Hence, Nick – who has been with the EBC business since 2016 as an Associate Director, very successfully running our Fintech business in Singapore – will lead our EBC Hong Kong entity and be based at the new Causeway Bay office. He officially commenced his new role as ‘General Manager, Hong Kong’ on April 1st 2019 and will continue to report to me as Managing Director, Asia.

With Nick established as GM, office support hired and four consultants there already (including two current employees of EBC), we are looking to continue our search for top-performing Consultants as well as Managers who are able to work alongside Nick to build out the next level of leadership for EBC Hong Kong.

5. What type of recruiter excels in the EBC culture?

NP: Consultants who are proven performers. Those who can operate with maturity and are able to be hands-on and entrepreneurial in mindset. Many of our consultants who have spent significant time within large network / MNC-styled agencies consistently tell us that the draw of EBC is our culture of agility and autonomy, as well as the more consultative approach we have with clients.

I have also always felt that it is due to our family feel and culture of trust. We do not agree with the ‘one size fits all’ philosophy. EBC applies this mindset of agility to our consultants too, allowing them to operate in a manner befitting their strengths and the markets they service.

6. Why would a successful recruiter join EBC?

NP: Firstly, for the autonomy and the opportunity to build an agile, high-performing business while taking full advantage of EBC’s existing platform and reputation in APAC. Secondly, to be working alongside like minded, successful individuals who are equally committed to a high-performance culture. We are fully committed to providing a supportive platform and varied opportunities to develop and grow our consultants.

7. Given the current EBC branch network of 6 countries, what’s next for EBC?

RB: To ensure our clients – both old and new – receive the service which we’ve been synonymous with for many years. Our clients are central to not only determining our country of entry, but also to ensuring EBC’s early success in those locations. Being a boutique firm, we want to genuinely partner with our clients to the best of our ability; this means working with them in multiple countries, as mentioned. Growth is only a bi-product of our ability to continue the high levels of commitment and delivery that we’re dedicated to.

We sat down recently with Richard Bradshaw and Nick Pelling; Rich has been with the Ethos BeathChapman (EBC) business for close to 3 years and has just been promoted to Managing Director, whilst Nick has been newly appointed as Director and General Manager of the EBC Hong Kong business. We put some questions to them…

1. We know that a big focus for you now is expanding the Hong Kong office. What insights can you share with us about opening the office, and what are the key objectives?

RB: EBC Hong Kong is a key step towards our longer-term North Asia strategy. With EBC’s focus on client experience and service delivery, an expanded Hong Kong office will give us the ability to service clients within Greater China with a more defined local touchpoint, heightened efficiency and value. Additionally, with the Greater Bay Area in China set to grow in the technology sector, it represents an important dovetail for our areas of expertise and clients’ key markets.

NP: EBC has built strong reputations and long-standing client relationships across Singapore, Southeast Asia and Australia through our Singapore and Sydney hubs. Based on these strong foundations, as Richard points out, we are now in a position to expand our presence to Hong Kong, which will allow us to support our existing clients’ needs in the Greater China markets.

Some of our busiest practices (Technology, Financial Services, Fintech and Governance) are all growing in Hong Kong, which makes it an obvious choice for EBC’s expansion. We will be looking to build practices within our Hong Kong business that complement what we already have across other parts of APAC.

2. Will EBC Hong Kong look to leverage the firm’s offices in Singapore, Japan and Australia with respect to clients? Is this or anything else proving to be a particularly important competitive advantage?

NP: Definitely. Our clients are central to what we do and as a partnership we already work internationally anyhow – with many being in Hong Kong. So this will feel like a natural progression to strengthen relationships with existing client networks, as well as develop new ones across both Hong Kong and Greater China.

RB: EBC has launched several successful overseas offices over the last few years. It has been a combination of being sensitive to prevailing local market conditions, as well as leveraging the blueprint of our other offices’ successes, which we feel gives us that extra edge in the market.

We’ve also been able to utilise the extensive network and shared resources of the Will Group, our parent company. They are providing us with the extra sponsorship and support to take EBC HK to the next level, and deliver our service to some areas of North Asia that in the past we didn’t have access to.

3. Which market sectors are you focused on mostly?

NP: Our Hong Kong team already works from a strong foothold within the Financial Services, Banking and Fintech sectors. A natural extension would be to broaden the business in areas where EBC globally has existing expertise: Technology, Insurance and Governance (Legal, Risk and Compliance) sectors.

4. Can you expand a bit on the management structure of the Hong Kong office, as well as regional reporting lines?

RB: For EBC Hong Kong, it was important to appoint not only someone who knows the Hong Kong market very well, but also someone who could ‘transplant’ the successful EBC culture there, too. That was critical for us. Hence, Nick – who has been with the EBC business since 2016 as an Associate Director, very successfully running our Fintech business in Singapore – will lead our EBC Hong Kong entity and be based at the new Causeway Bay office. He officially commenced his new role as ‘General Manager, Hong Kong’ on April 1st 2019 and will continue to report to me as Managing Director, Asia.

With Nick established as GM, office support hired and four consultants there already (including two current employees of EBC), we are looking to continue our search for top-performing Consultants as well as Managers who are able to work alongside Nick to build out the next level of leadership for EBC Hong Kong.

5. What type of recruiter excels in the EBC culture?

NP: Consultants who are proven performers. Those who can operate with maturity and are able to be hands-on and entrepreneurial in mindset. Many of our consultants who have spent significant time within large network / MNC-styled agencies consistently tell us that the draw of EBC is our culture of agility and autonomy, as well as the more consultative approach we have with clients.

I have also always felt that it is due to our family feel and culture of trust. We do not agree with the ‘one size fits all’ philosophy. EBC applies this mindset of agility to our consultants too, allowing them to operate in a manner befitting their strengths and the markets they service.

6. Why would a successful recruiter join EBC?

NP: Firstly, for the autonomy and the opportunity to build an agile, high-performing business while taking full advantage of EBC’s existing platform and reputation in APAC. Secondly, to be working alongside like minded, successful individuals who are equally committed to a high-performance culture. We are fully committed to providing a supportive platform and varied opportunities to develop and grow our consultants.

7. Given the current EBC branch network of 6 countries, what’s next for EBC?

RB: To ensure our clients – both old and new – receive the service which we’ve been synonymous with for many years. Our clients are central to not only determining our country of entry, but also to ensuring EBC’s early success in those locations. Being a boutique firm, we want to genuinely partner with our clients to the best of our ability; this means working with them in multiple countries, as mentioned. Growth is only a bi-product of our ability to continue the high levels of commitment and delivery that we’re dedicated to.

Are you interested to explore a role at EBC? Please reach out to Roger in complete confidence:

Roger Smart
Managing Director
Email me at: roger@tiger-partners.com
Connect with me at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogersmart/

 

About Ethos BeathChapman (EBC)

Ethos BeathChapman (EBC) is a global boutique executive search firm growing across Asia, Australia and EMEA.

Tiger Partners media contact:

Tiger Partners

Cameron Smart

cameron@tiger-partners.com

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How well does your commission scheme measure up?

Due to the sheer number of commission schemes currently available in the market, it can often seem quite daunting to analyse just how attractive and profitable they may be to you as an individual fee earner.

The below analysis is based on the most common ‘vanilla’ commission schemes. There are so many variances to this that it is well worth assessing your current scheme; our advice would be to break a scheme down to its individual variable components…

Qualification Period

A qualification period is a measure of time in which individual commission is assessed. The most common period is a calendar quarter, but commission can be assessed in any combination of months in a year.

Commission in a qualification period is usually paid to a recruiter upon completion of the period, and only after the client has paid the invoice (of course, this can vary from firm to firm).

Threshold & Sales Targets

The threshold is the amount of fee income that a recruiter needs to generate before commission becomes payable. It is usually expressed as a multiple of salary payments payable in the qualification period; thresholds can be as low as 0x, 1x or 2x, but the most common multiplier is 3x. More often than not, the threshold becomes an individual recruiter sales target.

Typically, the higher the threshold multiplier, the higher the percentage applied. Conversely, the lower the threshold multiplier, the lower the percentage applied.

Some schemes run a deficit into the next qualifying period, i.e. if the recruiter is below target, then the missed fee income can be carried forward and in effect added to the next qualifying period’s target.

Commission Percentages

Commission is paid above a threshold in a qualification period and at a percentage of fee income generated. It is no surprise that this is also variable! Typically, the payout above threshold commonly starts in the 25-35% range.

Tier Payments & Total % Return

Performances up and above the threshold / sales target attract greater percentages, and more often than not are based on a tier system (see example below). We believe, however, that all recruiters should calculate total % return taking into account salary, commission and any applicable bonuses.

Example Payout

Qualification/Threshold

 

Qualification Period

Calendar Quarter

Recruiter Base Salary

US$ 5,000 per month

Recruiter Threshold

3 x base salary per month

Threshold Calculation

US$ 5,000 x 3 x 3 months = US$ 45,000

 

Commission Example

 

Fee Income Billed

US$ 109,000 in a single quarter

Commissionable

US$ 109,000 minus US$ 45,000 = US$ 64,000

Commission Tier 1 (30%)

45,001 to 60,000 ≈ 15,000 x 30% = 4,500

Commission Tier 2 (35%)

60,001 to 80,000 ≈ 20,000 x 35% = 7,000

Commission Tier 3 (40%)

80,001 to 100,000 ≈ 20,000 x 40% = 8,000

Commission Tier 4 (45%)

100,001 to 109,000 ≈ 9,000 x 45% = 4,050

 

Total % Return (in the Quarter)

 

Total Salary paid

5,000 x 3 = 15,000

Commission Paid Put

4,500 + 7,000 + 8,000 + 4,050 = 23,550

Total Salary + Commission

15,000 + 23,550 = 38,550

Total % Return (in the Quarter)

38,550 total comp / 109,000 fees = 35.4%

Bonuses Up & Above

Some firms may offer bonuses, kickers, accelerators, retention schemes, incentives (financial & non-financial) up and above the commission scheme, and are usually based on achievement or over-achievement. They may be individual or team-based.

So, does your commission scheme stack up? Please reach out to Roger in complete confidence to find out:

Roger Smart
Managing Director
Email me at: roger@tiger-partners.com
Connect with me at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogersmart/

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The Importance of Marketing in Recruitment

How important is the role of marketing in recruitment? Is a strong marketing team an essential ingredient to success or an unnecessary cost? Rena Tan, Randstad’s Regional Marketing & Communications Director, speaks to us exclusively about how marketing has influenced candidate attraction, business development and employer branding – all for the better.

1. You secured your first role in recruitment marketing in 2006. since then, we have seen the introduction of industry-changing technologies such as social media. how has marketing in recruitment changed?

The shift to incorporate social media channels into marketing strategies can be witnessed across all industries and not just within recruitment. I would say that social media is passe. In any role, regardless if you are in marketing or recruitment, social media should be something that you are already familiar with. Marketers worth their salt need to know how to communicate on social media in this post-digital age.

The marketing function is increasingly expected to evolve from being a cost centre to a sales driver. Instead of just delivering standard marketing collaterals and organising events, the marketing team is now expected to drive activities that will result in revenue. By leveraging technology and automation, marketing teams can re-allocate their resources to projects that have the potential to deliver stronger business outcomes, or have a greater impact on the sales funnel.

For example, recruiters used to struggle with cold-calling and the ratio of cold calls to meetings is approximately 20 to one. Big data and artificial intelligence when used in tandem can provide powerful analytics to help develop razor-focused lead generation strategies, so consultants no longer need to spend an exorbitant amount of time on cold calls, but instead focus on providing more personalised services to clients and candidates.

2. How important is marketing for a recruitment agency like randstad when competing in an increasingly crowded industry?

Randstad understands and values what the marketing team can bring to the table. It’s actually quite rare to see a company that truly views the marketing function as a strategic business partner rather than a ‘back-office’ function. With 11 marketing staff, we have one of the largest marketing teams in the recruitment industry in Southeast Asia. Within the recruitment industry, we have built a reputation for having strong thought leadership, as well as robust branding and content marketing strategies. We work closely with the consultants and leadership team to develop marketing strategies that will have high return-on-investment. This not only ensures that our marketing strategies are aligned with business goals but they can also attain full buy-in and confidence from the management team and consultants.

In the last 24 months, the marketing team has also been trusted to spearhead and pilot a number of digital initiatives, and we have started to see some of these projects reap amazing results and conversions for the business. This absolute trust in Marketing to experiment, drive and deliver is what really differentiates Randstad from other recruitment companies.

3. Would you agree that marketing is business critical for a recruitment entrepreneur when starting up a new company in SEA?

Marketing is a critical function that is absolutely necessary to build a strong brand, regardless of the size of the company. Whether you are an MNC or a start up, having a compelling brand keeps you top of mind among your clients, candidates and even potential employees, especially when you are operating in such a competitive industry. Without a strong marketing strategy to develop your brand, even if you have clients and candidates, you might find it challenging to find the right talent who would want to work for you – which in turn will impede your company growth.

Before you decide to take the plunge, it is advisable for entrepreneurs to understand the market and find out what they are up against. The recruitment landscape in smaller markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong is highly saturated with some large incumbents who already have an established brand presence, as well as a large number of boutique agencies providing specialised services. Therefore, it is important to identify your sweet spot, typically a service offering that can set you apart right from the beginning.

Recruitment entrepreneurs also need to develop a robust pipeline of engaging content and fresh insights to stay competitive, along with a well thought-out marketing and channel strategy to engage with their target audiences.

My advice is if you really want to jump onto this bandwagon, get it right from the get-go.

4. Some of the main purposes of marketing in recruitment include candidate attraction, business development and employer branding for internal hiring. which social media platform is most effective for these purposes?

It depends on the industry you operate in and who you are trying to engage. For example, McDonald’s teamed up with Snapchat in the United States to target its recruitment campaign at millennials – a group of workers who makes up the majority of the food giant’s workforce. We have also seen some technology companies use Twitter to reach out to Java developers or IT specialists with niche skill sets, rather than the traditional channels such as job boards or email marketing.

Professionals working in banking and financial services, sales, marketing and communications, human resources, IT as well as accounting are more likely to engage on professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn. Facebook and Snapchat are better platforms for B2C brands (e.g. FMCG, retail, hospitality, food and beverage) to engage with the younger audience.

In general, companies in Southeast Asia tend to use LinkedIn as a primary sourcing channel, particularly for middle to senior level professionals.

5. With a limited talent pool of recruiters in SEA, how important is marketing when hiring internally?

When I first joined Randstad two years ago, I found out that the general brand awareness of Randstad was relatively lower than other recruitment companies. Many people did not know who Randstad was, which meant that they were even less likely to join us, and that was an immediate problem that needed solving.

We worked very closely with our human resources team to deepen our understanding of Randstad’s employee value proposition, and started building compelling employer branding campaigns aimed at attracting and retaining employees. Using a blend of content marketing strategy, social selling, employee advocacy and proactive media engagement, we managed to raise our brand profile significantly – which ultimately had a knock-on effect on our employer brand.

Some of our other talent attraction strategies include employer brand videos to showcase our vision and culture through visual storytelling, employees stories via LinkedIn testimonials as well as our newly-launched social media campaign, #HumansOfRandstad.

Within the past three years, the number of employees at Randstad Singapore almost doubled in size and we have since expanded to cover more specialist functions and industries to cater to the increased demand.

So in my humble opinion – I do strongly believe that marketing has a profound impact on our ability to attract and engage talent.

6. In terms of candidate attraction for your clients, does marketing generate more leads in certain industry sectors than others?

It depends on the sector and the type of candidate our clients are trying to attract. We mainly use social media channels to reach out to junior candidates, but for the middle to senior level professionals, we find that offering high quality and targeted content and providing career consultation services are more effective attraction strategies.

Besides the run-of-the-mill channels such as career fairs, job advertisements, email marketing, advertising and more, we have also started to explore digital initiatives to generate client leads and build candidate pools. For example, we recently launched an AI chatbot to connect with and qualify candidates from the technology sector. That project saw a strong passive-to-active conversion rate, and even successfully managed to place some of these candidates in new jobs.

We have also built an online algorithm to automatically match our web visitors to their perfect job based on their career requirements and personal expectations. Through the ‘live chat’ function on our websites, web visitors can also become potential candidates for our clients as our agents not only help them with their job search, but could offer professional career advice as well.

The idea is to set up as many access points as possible for different types of candidates to reach us – this multi-pronged approach allows us to easily attract talent from any sector.

7. Randstad’s SEA marketing team is one of the industry’s largest in the region with more than 10 members, but is the marketing function built into the recruitment process of billing consultants too?

The marketing team is understood and perceived as a revenue driver instead of a cost centre in Randstad. We collaborate with recruiters to gain insights into different client touchpoints and develop engaging marketing campaigns to address clients’ needs. Through these collaborations, we are not just breaking down silos but we are also discovering new ways to interact with our clients and candidates.

We leverage the latest marketing technology to develop more high quality campaigns and help our recruiters generate new leads. We also constantly use marketing analytics for end-to-end measurement, so that we can better advise our leadership team on their return of marketing investment, and how we can better impact their sales funnels. The team uses campaign insights and data to drive automation strategies, as well as to find out which clients are more receptive to new content and what kind of content they like – so that we can provide more targeted content for their outreach. Our recruiters are also strong advocates of our brand and the content we produce, and have played (and are still playing) an instrumental part in pushing our content out to their networks.

8. In your experience of leading award-winning marketing teams, do the best recruitment marketers come from a recruitment or marketing industry background?

Attitude trumps experience in my opinion. A good marketer does not necessarily need to come from a recruitment background, but he or she needs to have the passion to make a difference, be able to think strategically and possess strong business acumen. A great marketer is someone who is commercially-savvy, innovative, highly agile and can embrace change. They have high standards and are always uncomfortable with how things are done so that they will constantly push the boundaries and challenge themselves to be better.

Marketing professionals can no longer just look at ‘fluffy’ measurements such as the number of likes on a Facebook post or the number of participants at an event. The CEO of today is not interested in engagement rates, the number of followers you have or how many people are sharing your posts. He/she will be looking at how your marketing strategies can provide business returns, how your initiatives can impact candidates, clients and recruiters on a daily basis and how quickly these can happen. A great marketer is always viewed as a business partner, never a support function.

9. What are your predictions for the future of recruitment marketing over the next decade?

We are currently living in a post-digital age and it is critical that recruitment marketing is part of the driver in this transformation. There will be a greater need to develop and target engaging content through automation and technology, so that we can gain higher efficiencies in our client and candidate outreach. Marketing professionals should also start acquiring the ability to predict trends and needs of the business, clients and candidates through the strategic use of big data. Predictive marketing analytics will increasingly be a critical topic on the CMO’s agenda as it can help business leaders make more informed decisions on where to focus their resources.

Marketers will also be expected to cultivate stronger partnerships with recruiters at the desk level, so that they can engage with both clients and candidates to understand their pain points and micro-moments, and offer more personalised services and content.

Marketing professionals who have successfully honed their skills in customer experience, marketing automation, demand generation and artificial intelligence can help shift the needle for the team to become a key revenue driver. The marketing team will also be depended upon to mobilise every coworker in the business, including the management team, to promote and reach the organisation’s objectives.

To find out more about Randstad SEA, visit their websites:

http://www.randstad.com.sg

http://www.randstad.com.hk

http://www.randstad.com.my