We take the utmost care to understand your business, your role, and the kind of person most likely to succeed.

This is agreed with you in our Specification of Requirements – a highly professional marketing document and reference point for the whole exercise.

With a solid structure and sequence, we will then agree with you the Search strategy – identifying the sectors, companies and individuals, refining the targets and taking your views into account.

Our Researchers are chosen according to the individual Assignment; they are also dedicated specialists and take great pride in the precision and presentation of the Target Lists.

But at Parkinson Lee, we believe the first contact with the candidate is crucial. And so – unusually – that first approach is typically made not by the Researcher, but your Partner (who is accountable directly for the formation of both the Long and Short List of candidates).

As seasoned Search specialists, we know that no candidate is the same and every interview is different; at the start, for example, we have to assess and respect the individual motivation of the individual candidate (who may well not be looking to move in the first instance). The best interviews are therefore epitomised by intelligence, insight and intuition and in our specialist areas, ours are second to none.

With our judgements, we are therefore confident about those candidates combining the correct capabilities and cultural fit. But we are not complacent. Which is why we also conduct competency-based interviews (the questions for which can, once again, be influenced by your priorities and views).

And finally, if you’d like to conduct psychometric and wider assessments, we also retain a penetrating Occupational Psychologist with a broad range of tools and proprietary techniques.

Each shortlisted candidate is profiled with a detailed CV and written assessment – including the highlighting of any notable points of interest – and then discussed with you, typically in a face-to-face meeting.

We will then agree and arrange the interviews on your behalf.

If you so wish, we will also attend them. This is a distinctive commitment that offers a variety of benefits – some obvious and some subtle – and we will be pleased to discuss these with you. (Of course, the bottom line is, we won’t waste your valuable time – or indeed ours – by shortlisting “possible fits” or mediocre candidates; your interviews will be pleasing and productive).

In our pivotal role between you and your candidates, we work really hard to ensure that all parties are well informed and perfectly-positioned to participate in a precise process.

Communication is key and so is our typical contribution to the remuneration discussions, managing expectations, minimising mismatches and ensuring a positive outcome at the negotiation stage.

If you so wish, we will be pleased to take out formal references on the successful candidate on your behalf. (And before this, we always take out informal references and soundings on the final shortlisted candidates for you to consider).

In due course, we arrange at least one structured Review meeting or call with each client and new employee individually, to probe and verify and ensure that it’s all “plain sailing”.

And you’ll also have the chance to tell us what you think: our Client Service Reviews are a continuing process to evaluate our performance and to avoid complacency.