The Company with the BEST People Wins!

So why does the Exclusive Retained Search work so well? It has PRIORITY. It shows COMMITMENT by both sides. The client and search firm are equally vested in the search partnership. The Exclusive Retained Search is a more PROFESSIONAL and RESPECTED process. Clients are represented with a consistent and pre-approved message in the marketplace. It ensures that their reputation is protected and that their marketing message is consistently delivered. This process provides an ELEVATED experience from a candidate’s perspective. Candidates are more receptive when targeted for exclusive retained opportunities because it provides them confidentiality and time to truly evaluate the benefits of your opportunity. It SAVES TIME and MONEY. Only through the Exclusive Retained Search process can you avoid dealing with multiple firms on the same issues, or seeing the same candidates from multiple sources. It allows clients to FOCUS on what they do best while the search firm focuses on what they do best. The Exclusive Retained Search ensures that the BEST available candidate is hired.

At AGORA Consulting, their elite team of professionals is guided by one prevailing principle – the company with the BEST people wins! They believe the Exclusive Retained Search allows them to be trusted advisors for their clients. Their philosophy is that they are more interested in your business over the long term, through the building of solid relationships, thorough communication, exhaustive research, screening, and dependable follow-through.

Relationships: not just another search firm… more like a trusted partner

Each company has its own personality, a fingerprint unique to its own market. Finding excellent people to mesh with those unique roles is both an art and a science, requiring insight into what makes a company flourish.

“That’s why we start with building relationships,” says AGORA President Rob Lauer. “We invest significant upfront time and effort familiarizing our team with the company and with the people we serve. When we understand the goals, the culture, and the personality of our client, our search becomes a whole lot easier, and we see quick results.”

AGORA Consulting has built a team of professionals who take ownership of the corporate culture, requirements of the job and desires of their clients. They are invested in winning long-term business, and willing to work upfront as consultants to provide their clients with future strategies that get great results. As Jody Richardson of AGORA says, “A win for one of our clients is a three-way win. A candidate takes a positive career move, a corporation grows from the addition of a talented executive, and we win because we put the two of them together.”

Communication

Communication and customer service are benchmarks of the AGORA culture. One of the invaluable tools that AGORA utilizes is a commitment to ongoing weekly meetings with their clients. This helps build trust for the client by keeping them informed of the progress at all times. Our Clients are participants in the search process as we surface and retain only the very best talent that matches specific requirements

“We strive to gain insight into our clients’ needs. We ask probing questions, and listen for the core of their specific needs, which may not be evident from a simple job description,” Dave Bechtold, Director of Executive Search says. “Any agency can process a one-page job description and match it with a folder full of resumes. Effective placement takes significant communication and a commitment to understanding the true needs of the client. We find the key that unlocks the search.”

The other side of communication is in understanding the talents and personalities of potential candidates. AGORA relies heavily on what they call “intangibles” – those talents and character qualities which are not always apparent on an executive summary or even on a resume. “The intangibles are often what differentiates a good candidate from an excellent candidate for your organization,” says Lauer. “And it takes asking the right questions at the right time to discover the intangibles.”

Research and screening

These days deciphering a resume has a lot in common with checking out a used car. The owner has a desire to make the product look a lot better than it really is. They shine it up and gloss over smudges, little dents, and worn spots on the carpet. To hear him tell it, you’d be a fool for not wanting to buy his car. That’s the way the resume game is played.

AGORA has a different approach. Through relationships and networking they search for the perfect candidate as they would for the perfect car. When they find one, they inspect it, talk to the mechanic, find out where it’s been, how reliable it is, if it has had any crashes, if it’s fuel efficient and how fast it will go. When they discern that it is the right car, they call the owner and ask if it’s for sale. And frequently, owners aren't really planning on selling until AGORA calls them. Their candidate prospects tend to be excellent, creative individuals who are focused more on their work than on the next job. Burke Walls, Vice President of Business Development says, “If you’re focused on winning business over the long term, it’s in everybody’s best interest – the clients, the candidates, and ours – to take that layer of gloss off the fender.”

Searching to match outstanding candidates with excellent companies is a complex process. “We are charged with finding experienced professionals with skill sets that didn’t exist five years ago,” says Dave Bechtold. “The high-tech industry creates a new executive technology-based position weekly, and we have to understand the position, know WHERE to find the right people and be knowledgeable when we to talk to potential candidates.”

AGORA utilizes a disciplined, comprehensive 15-step Search & Selection Process that leads to consistent, repeatable results every time. “Our research goes beyond the bench marks and accomplishments on an executive summary,” says Rob. “When we say that relationships are important to us, that extends to candidates, too. For example, we were assigned to fill a position for a high tech company that was ready to expand into international markets. From talking to the client, it seemed like this candidate had to be superhuman – experienced in advanced programming, secure internet commerce, management skills, sales forecasting, as well as significant international traveler. We got to work, and came up with a list of potential candidates. But it was the intangibles that we probed for with the client at the beginning of the search that gave us insight into the real compatibility of the final three people.”

Rob continued. “We had extensive conversations with the most promising candidates and discovered some insights that aren’t always evident on a resume. We found out that one particular candidate spent six weeks over seas on a missions trip, building a church and working with a Christian school. It didn’t seem that significant until we dug a little deeper and discovered he was responsible for designing and implementing a remote computer lab, interfacing with French-speaking technicians. The candidate was responsible for raising the money, managing the team and implementation. He was a perfect fit. Effective research makes all the difference.”

An additional value of research is surfaced recently during the “getting-to-know” process with a potential client when they asked the questions, “At what point should HR functions be brought into a start-up?” Based on that simple question, the AGORA team pulsed their network, researched the topic and presented the new client with a white paper that covered the topic from multiple angles. The value of this work will be seen for years to come. It is only when the long-term relationship is earned, can this type of value be seen by clients.

Follow-through: it’s why you buy bread from “Bernie”

Dave Bechtold puts it this way. “We want working with AGORA to be like doing business with “Bernie” at your favorite neighborhood bakery. Bernie knows your name, he knows what you like, and you know what to expect from Bernie... excellence bread at a fair price. That’s why you keep buying bread from Bernie. He pays attention to his service, his product and his customers.”

Professionalism and customer service are a benchmark at AGORA. Executive Recruiters work on only three to five searches concurrently, while other firms work as many as 20-30 searches simultaneously. Clients partner with one point of contact and have the support of the entire team. If AGORA says they’ll have candidates for your review next Thursday, you can count on it. Follow-through means integrity in communication, in research, in confidentiality and in relationships.

Turning a candidate into a client

AGORA prides itself on the ability to turn a candidate into a client. This is only accomplished by providing the most professional, ethical and honest experience for the candidate. Recently, our placement of a candidate with a Fortune 50 client proved to be such a positive experience, that he quickly insisted on adding AGORA to the approved vendor list.

AGORA Consulting is an executive search firm that believes in the power of people. Every day, their consultants come to work with one goal…to make their client's businesses more successful. The outstanding team at AGORA is just that, a team. They each have individual strengths and talents, and they compliment each other’s skills. Their business is not about simply filling one position; instead they create lasting relationships with their clients and help them fulfill their long-term goals.

AGORA is in the business of finding leaders. They believe that finding and keeping the best talent is priority number one in today's business climate. In a world where products rapidly become commoditized, human capital becomes one of the last remaining sources for competitive advantage. “The company with the BEST people wins!”

To find out how AGORA can begin partnering with you to surface and present outstanding talent for your organization, please visit http://www.agoraconsulting.com.