Follow the Leader!
Thank you for choosing to follow the leader.
Thank Goodness!
Well, the summer is over, and the fall colours are showing albeit briefly. At least, as of the writing of this newsletter, we haven’t had winter thrust upon us like other parts of the province. Thank goodness! Another reason to have been thankful over the past Thanksgiving weekend.
Can We Really Scour the Country?
Within the past few years, more and more clients are asking us to search for candidates across the country. It used to be more common for the scope of a search to be more local (within the City or even just the province). Increasingly though, our clients are asking us to find outstanding talent – wherever it resides.
So, here’s a question we get asked regularly,
“Can a specialized boutique search firm in Edmonton, with only a handful of professionals, really scour the country for talent?”
The answer is absolutely. The search world has changed drastically over the years and a big factor has been technology. In the “old days” (all of 20 years ago), you hired a recruiter with the biggest Rolodex. Hopefully, he/she had offices or colleagues in other cities with similar sized Rolodexes to find candidates across the country suitable for the sought position. Today’s Rolodex is now the World Wide Web. We all have it and we all know how to use it, especially since Google recently stopped by with their Grow with Google tour, providing local entrepreneurs with training to use their digital platforms.
From our office on 104 Street and Jasper Avenue, we can confidently find individuals in any sector, any functionality, from any industry anywhere in Canada. Not only can we identify and initiate contact with these potential candidates, we can conduct a “face-to-face” meeting without leaving our respective offices (Facetime, Skype, etc.). Don’t get me wrong, there is always a preference to be physically “face-to-face” when meeting someone and we certainly strive to do so once we have narrowed to a selected pool of candidates. But we can now effectively and efficiently meet, screen and assess people wherever they live.
Over the past 12 months our firm has successfully completed 11 searches for our clients requesting a national candidate reach (5 of those with repeat clients). These searches generated 873 candidates in total (259 from within the Greater Edmonton area) with:
- 90 within Alberta, but outside the Greater Edmonton area;
- 461 across Canada, excluding Alberta; and
- 47 from the United States; and 16 internationally
Ultimately 7 of the 11 placed candidates required relocation to Edmonton – exciting news for us and for our city. Keep in mind, once a successful candidate is chosen, The Vogel Group’s work doesn’t end there. For those requiring relocation, any assistance to ensure the candidate’s move is as smooth and successful as possible is made by providing city and community information. We ensure they arrive with their parka, or know where to get one, and know that Edmonton’s most dangerous predator is the mosquito!
Our Festival City has grown immensely; in fact, we are listed as one of the World’s Best Cities 2018 (as compiled by Resonance Consultancy).
So, when we say our firm has local expertise with national scope, we can truly back that up. Besides, who best to sell the attributes of living in Edmonton than us – the people who work, live and play here?
What Have We Been Up To?
Since our last issue of Follow the Leader, searches we have completed or currently have on the go include:
- Chief Human Resources Officer for the College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA)
- Government Relations Lead for CARNA
- Registrar for the College of Alberta Denturists
- Board of Directors Members for the Edmonton Screen Industries Office
- Vice President, Fund Development for the YMCA of Northern Alberta