Client FAQ

Yes, you will have an assigned contact at our company – your Account Manager.

Their job is to get to know you on a very detailed ‘granular’ level, and translate those needs to our wider team, stay in touch with you, and generally add value to the process. Although you have the benefit of a close relationship with that person, through them you will also have access to the wider team who all bring their different candidate networks for your company’s different needs, giving us both speed and accuracy on various searches. Everything is overseen by our team of Directors at Funds Talent, who are always present, especially on any challenging work, or at any other moments when you really need them.

A tried and tested method for a particular role in a specific market is probably the best overall answer to this question.

Recruitment agencies like us actually utilise a range of approx. 6-8 different methods and tools to source the right person for a role – varying amounts of each method, and reviewing them constantly, depending on the role, and the feedback of each client.

Recruitment looks a lot more simple on the outside to the client, as they see only the CVs that have passed our screening. On our side, there is a plethora of work to do on each mandate (even junior roles) before we get to a strong first handful of CVs.

Of course the visible tools that we use are a range of internet job boards, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites, but this is backed up by a unique candidate database of 35,000 local profiles in Funds alone, and a history of mapping companies in our market even before LinkedIn existed. We employ a mix and range of these tools, doing whatever it takes to find the right person. We always get to the right person.

Although we have filled roles across Europe over the years, Luxembourg is our core market where today we are completely specialised.

Our agency previously filled roles across all the funds locations in Europe (London, Frankfurt, Paris, Jersey and Dublin). While this gave us a very good understanding of the Funds business in general, as our Luxembourg business grew much more quickly and we are a niche, highly skilled team, it made sense to focus our efforts on one main location.

Our candidate qualification method goes beyond reading CVs; we spend a lot of time getting to know the person, their story, and their attributes before trying to fit them to a role. We don’t just qualify candidates either, we spend an enormous amount of time trying to understand our clients, and it’s the combination of both that makes our offering so strong.

The qualification process for each profile varies based on the needs of the job. We start by trying very hard to understand ‘what good looks like’ to the client, and the key metrics for the role. Based on this, we identify the main criteria and therefore the kinds of questions and answers we are looking for during our qualification calls. All our candidates are carefully screened in a similar way in order to remove unconscious bias, and they are then compared and contrasted before presentation. In all cases shortlists are reviewed by Directors and Senior Team Leaders before agreeing on the final lists that our clients see.

People remain central to our processes, so you as the client will find that you have frequent connection points throughout, in a way that is always adding value to your own observations and thoughts about the roles you have. You could think of our team as an extension of your own HR team – we will get to know you that well!

Many companies recruit directly these days, they have access to channels like LinkedIn, and all the same job boards that we use. So why are recruitment companies growing?

In candidate-scarce markets like Luxembourg, where you have a population growth of 1% and a booming financial sector, there are always more jobs than people. Even good companies struggle to find the right profile of person within a reasonable time-frame. But it’s not just that. Recruitment, despite appearing easy, is actually one of the most complicated things to get right.

Recruiting well is extremely time-intensive. We do this job for nine hours a day with our 10 team members. We place two-three team members on every project. Good recruitment, like all other professional service industries, can be done well, or it can be done badly. If you have the time to spend selecting CVs, interviewing, head-hunting, and reviewing hundreds of candidates against their work histories then there is a chance that you could do your own recruitment, but you still won’t bring 15 years of doing all of the above within this market, and you won’t know the tools of the trade to meet the best people, and get them on-board with your brand.

Investing in your staff is one of the biggest differential decisions that you can make. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking recruitment is expensive, making people mistakes is easily much more so. The cost of an open role, the cost of a drop-out at late stage, the feeling in the team when someone who has been hired three months ago isn’t strong enough. All these things can be mitigated by working with a strong recruitment firm.

Yes we do! We create and share a lot of helpful information for clients in our core market – from salary data to advice on hiring, the latest recruitment trends, and anything impacting the workforce in Luxembourg. Reach out to your Account Manager or one of our Directors who can help point you in the right direction.

Because it is! We provide staff to our clients, but it doesn’t end there. We believe in really going on the journey – one that is sometimes many years long, of building and supporting the best companies in the market. (Those that invest in their people are de-facto building the best companies).

We advise our clients on every matter of candidate attraction, retention and even provide training and workshops as needed. We advise them during processes if salaries are too high (yes), too low, or if their benefits strategy doesn’t match their target candidate pool. We let them know market-typical organisational structures, employment law issues they are likely to face, and protect them at every turn.

We not only support our clients, but make our clients better recruiters themselves, training them on ‘people’ aspects they have been missing or didn’t see before. Many of our clients have been with us for years, and credit us with some of the best people and job design decisions in their company.

If you’ve seen any of the above, and /or have worked with other agencies in the past, you will realise it’s really a very different story when you come to work with us. This is why clients that come to us, often end up working with us only, and not because of a contract that we ask them to sign, but because they just like the process of working with us. It’s just easier for them that way because we get things covered – quickly and efficiently, but also we are just really nice people to work with.

• We are very organised and have a method of working that is entirely unique – we are a genuine team. The success of your project does not rely on one person’s shoulders, so it is much less likely to fail.
• For every project you have not only your contact point, but up to five other staff members available to you as needed, each bringing their own networks and personalities to the project.
• You will have access to our company directors whenever you need them, and they will know all your projects, your brand, your story.
• We know our core market better than anyone, just ask us a question.
• We have 15 years experience of doing exactly this – we know all the common pitfalls, what clients like, and how to make excellent recruitment a reality.

Don’t take it from us, we’ll be happy to introduce you to one of our clients who has a similar business to you, who can tell you a bit about what it’s like to be a client of Funds Talent.