Last year enough was spoken about my 50 years in business to spur me on for another 50 years. Thank you to longstanding colleagues, clients, candidates and industry stalwarts who were in touch and recalled our times together. (Eating carnations from the vases on the tables after a big boozy dinner in the 1980s was one I’d forgotten, but the year we hired over 50 executives for the one organisation was one I still remember – long days and satisfying results.)
Other than to sit and watch some good footy on the weekends, I’m a restless soul; thinking, adapting and staying abreast of sector trends and new ways of working. Celebrating the first 50 years gave me to time to reflect, but my mind is clearly focused on the future.
In this blog I thought I’d share the fact that in recent years we’ve restructured the broader business and set ourselves up for future success. In doing so my Advisory Board and I considered a number of points:
- The future of recruitment and the balance between technology, people, systems and processes
- National and global trends
- Shifts in market expectations
- Shifts in employee trends
- Future proofing a professional services model for a new economy
- Succession planning (as none of the four Slade children is likely to come into the business)
We now have four discrete businesses, and whereas I was once the sole proprietor across the group, the future for professional services firms lies in distributed ownership and partnerships. I first stepped carefully into a new way of thinking (for me) and now three of the four businesses have equity partners and we’re seeing the growth and stability that comes from this model.
Yellow Folder was the first partnership I entertained five years ago, with Julian Doherty, Slade Group’s previous Director of Research. Now working with many in the ASX 200 and across education and also Government, it is a research-based management consultancy that delivers corporate knowledge advantage, providing clients greater agility in business planning and talent acquisition strategy.
The service offerings are:
- Competitor Profiling & Business Intelligence Analysis
- Talent Investigations & Capability Search
- Remuneration Benchmarking
- Talent Pools & Candidate Pipelining
TRANSEARCH. Most of us now agree with Peter Drucker’s comment “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. For many years, what I saw missing from the Executive Search landscape was an assessment tool or process that could untangle the knotty issue of culture fit at a senior executive level. Canadian Organisational Psychologist Dr John Burdett and Orxestra©, developed the tools that TRANSEARCH International uses to provide a unique perspective regarding culture, performance, leadership, and team ‘fit’.
As the result of a formal partnership agreement between TRANSEARCH International and Slade Partners, four years ago I brought two long standing executive search leaders Bill Sakellaris and Sandra Brown into the TRANSEARCH International Executive Search partnership. Recently Di Gillett has become a Partner of this global alliance with Grant White leading our Finance Practice. TRANSEARCH International is one of the foremost international Executive Search firms; a Top 10 in the sector by reach and reputation. TRANSEARCH is pivotal in identifying and securing Board members, ‘C’ suite executives and senior functional experts who have led the growth of global organisations.
Slade Group. My name’s still on the door and I hope will be for many more years. Securing high performing talent at the professional, specialist, middle management and senior levels has been the mainstay of Slade for years. The development of technology, AI, Boolean searches, job boards and social media have for the most part been a blessing, but sometimes also a curse. There is so much happening in the HRIS space that it’s sometimes hard not to be distracted by the next ‘tech start up offering’. We decided a few years ago that we would, until Artificial Intelligence finally eats our lunch in 40 years or so, wisely invest in systems, and even more wisely in our people.
This year, for the first time, I’ve also welcomed the first equity partner into the Slade Group business, Chris Cheesman. Chris, in his mid-30’s, is the future of recruitment and new ways of working. He has a very different leadership style to mine and his team of mainly Gen Y and Millennials work to a new work order – together with our clients who are also now mainly Gen Y and Millennials in that space.
We’re very focused on knowing particular industry sectors and talent really well. If I could sum up our strengths it would be in the following areas:
- Consumer, Digital and Entertainment
- Education
- HR
- Industrial
- Professional and Business Support
- Superannuation and Fin Services
- Technical and Property/Construction
The Interchange Bench. The name says it all. For the last few decades the business, then known as Slade Temps, placed mainly short and long term temps in administrative support roles. Two years ago that changed and a huge up lift in demand for digital, technical, marketing communications, events, accounting and payroll staff, as well as payrolling teams of casuals, meant we no longer felt the name served the business.
The Interchange Bench not only attracts premium talent for short term assignments but works with the 121 Modern Awards that cover the 1000s of roles our temporary and contract talent are asked to do. The team runs all day ensuring clients can secure talent on and off the ‘bench’ and into their workplaces for short and long contract periods. We’ve invested heavily in systems and processes and also reduced the risk for organisations who want to outsource their payroll as well as trusting us with their FairWork and the Modern Awards compliance.
When I recap where the business is right now, I feel we’re right sized, focused and structured for the immediate future. It will be interesting for me to re-visit this blog in five years and report back on how the business has continued to change and evolve.
What are you doing in your world @work to set yourself up for future success?
Geoff Slade has worked at the forefront of the recruitment industry for over 50 years. He is the Executive Chairman of TRANSEARCH in Australia and was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government in 2000 for services to the recruitment industry. A Chartered Management Consultant, Geoff is a past President of the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (RCSA) and was founding Chairman of the industry’s education body. As a tribute to his emphasis on staff training, many of the leading consultants in Australia have worked for and been trained by Geoff at various times in the last three decades. He is also a regular speaker at major industry conferences.
