NRG’s recent feature for CONTACT Magazine

James Carss leads North East-based executive search and recruitment business NRG. Following extensive experience in the Far East and North America, James returned to his roots to help grow and develop the long established people business. Here, James talks to CONTACT about the approach, methodology and skills required to source top talent for companies and organisations.

Q: What difference do you and your team make to the executive search and selection process?

A: We work with a very specific focus to find top talent at executive level, as well as for non-executive and chair appointments.

Our approach differs from normal recruitment where people might place an advert to try and find someone, because we are not necessarily targeting people who are looking for a job.

Instead, we meet a client and spend time with them to understand their business and what they are looking for.

We then go and find the people who have the relative skillsets to fit organisations’ criteria – essentially, we want the best individuals within a specific function, industry, area or leadership.

In short, we find the right people while saving the client valuable time as we do the hard yards in terms of research, initial vetting and interviews.

Q: Which sectors do you cover?

A: We work across a number of sectors that include accountancy and finance, IT and digital, and engineering and manufacturing.

It’s important to note our flexibility – accountancy and finance, for example, covers both private and public sectors.

We have placed senior executives in health trusts and housing associations, as well as leading private and public companies.

Q: What makes your Executive Search and Selection process so valuable to clients?

A: We align ourselves with senior business leaders to understand the motivations, aspirations, culture and values of their business, working together to strengthen the leadership team – often as a result of private equity investment, significant market movements or business restructuring.

We conduct a rigorous search for every role, which involves a lot of market mapping through intelligence gathering.

Using data from our dedicated research team, we build a map, sometimes of 50 to 100 people, and then qualify and proactively target individuals, engaging with them about a particular opportunity.

I previously managed a leading global recruitment consultancy during a 12-year stint in Hong Kong, so I’d like to think NRG’s Executive Search and Selection offer provides clients with significant – and distinctive – support and reassurance.

Most of the people identified won’t be looking for a career change, so businesses need a trusted partner to sell themselves and the role.

There are many firms offering executive search support, most of which are based in London, but there are very few in the North East that are doing what we do or possess the background we have. And I’m incredibly fortunate to work alongside highly-experienced fellow consultants Scot McHarg and Ray Williamson.

One of our key differentiators is that every member of the Executive Search and Selection team has worked in the sphere for more than 15 years, and we are all experienced in working out of the region and placing multiple board level appointments globally.

We spend hours with clients before we start a search; we get close to a chief executive, or a board or chair, to understand how an organisation works from the inside out.

That helps us understand a particular role, its importance and what an organisation needs in terms of technical ability and softer skills.

Q: Are you able to provide a good example of a recent senior appointment?

A: A very relevant example of NRG’s Executive Search and Selection provision in action came recently when we worked closely with the North East England Chamber of Commerce to support the business membership organisation’s search for a new chief executive.

This is a really important role, and the Chamber needed someone they could trust.

I spent a long time with outgoing Chamber chief executive James Ramsbotham and its chair John Marshall to find out what they needed. I then put in place a rigorous structure that was fair and transparent and focused on delivering the right candidate.

As you can imagine, I’m now delighted to see John McCabe in the role and wish him the very best.

Q: Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the game in the world of work?

A: Yes, hybrid working is here to stay, and it is interesting to see its impact on senior candidates who may need to relocate.

As a company, we have done a lot of high-profile relocations of candidates to the North East.

Some of them have been boomerangs (North East natives returning) but others have been new to the area.

One of the issues people always face is the trailing partner, and the logistics of them coming to the region and finding a job.

The pandemic has changed that to an extent, though, because now a husband or wife can go to their employer and say, ‘my other half is moving up to the North East – can I do my job remotely and visit the office once a week or fortnight?’

But relocation nevertheless remains tough; it isn’t easy for the job candidate or their family.

I’ve seen both sides, from being the person who went to Hong Kong by myself in 2004 with one suitcase, to the man who, when NRG contacted me in 2016, moved across the Atlantic with his wife and three children all aged under five.

It provides me with points of reference and allows me to speak to people with real empathy.

NRG

www.nrgplc.com

@nrgplc