Researcher (Hospitality and Leisure Sector)

Job Profile Document

November 2014

Society aims to be the executive search firm of choice for responsible businesses and purpose-driven organisations. We work on a retained basis for an international client portfolio, including companies with strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas, social enterprises, charities, universities, public sector bodies, and schools.

Our Sector

Executive search (colloquially called ‘headhunting’) is a form of recruitment support, typically used to source candidates for senior or highly specialised roles. Clients approach us with a vacancy that they want to fill, and we help them by identifying and attracting suitable candidates. We also carry out initial screening of the candidates, and often assist the client in salary negotiations with their preferred individual.

Our Firm

Society is still a young firm. We were set up in late-2009 and reached profitability within our first 12 months. A year later we had paid off all our start-up costs, and we remain debt-free to this day.

For more information about Society, please visit www.society-search.com.

You can also view our corporate brochure by clicking here, or a short YouTube video about us by clicking here.

Our Values and Ethos

Our firm prides itself on being different. Each year we give at least 10% of our profits to charity. We are active members of the Business in the Community network (www.bitc.org.uk), and we remain careful and selective about the types of client we will work for.

The recruitment sector has a reputation for being shallow and transactional: motivated

solely by the bottom line. We believe that it doesn’t have to be that way. In today’s world, ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good’ needn’t be mutually exclusive. Recruitment can be a positive, enabling force. We can help organisations to appoint talented and transformative individuals who will spur them to make a more positive impact on the wider world.

Hospitality and Leisure

The hospitality and leisure sector covers a broad category of businesses within the wider service industry, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, entertainment venues, convenience food, pubs, bars, breweries, gyms and health clubs, catering and conferencing, facilities management, travel, and tourism.

It’s estimated to worth a staggering £79.7 billion to the global economy.

The sector depends on the availability of leisure time and disposable income. It’s consequently quite a mature market in the UK, but also one with significant growth potential in emerging economies – particularly across the Middle East and South East Asia.

Our client portfolio within this sector has been growing rapidly and already includes several big names, including Melia International, the Maybourne Hotel Group, the InterContinental Hotel Group, and Starbucks.

Background…

We are currently looking for a new Researcher to join our Hospitality and Leisure team. Society’s researchers are the engine room of our business. They provide the crucial underpinning of all our assignments. Through creative, original and advocacy-rich research, we seek to distinguish ourselves from our competitors and to deliver the best possible results for our clients.

As a researcher, you will be responsible for identifying, contacting and engaging with talented and impressive senior people around the world. We will train you to carry out comprehensive and creative desk-based research, in order to identify potentially suitable candidates. You will get to speak to these exciting people, and to solicit their interest. The role also involves a significant element of project management, including overseeing the preparation of key client reports. As you develop more experience, we will begin to expose you to business development responsibilities as well, and there will be early opportunities to begin managing certain client relationships.

Specific responsibilities will include:

Headhunting

delivering research projects to a high standard and to agreed deadlines;

developing and managing a coherent research strategy for each assignment;

carrying out comprehensive and creative desk-based research to identify potentially suitable candidates;

advocating roles over the telephone on behalf of our clients in order to solicit interest;

assessing the suitability of candidates through initial telephone interviews;

attending and/or leading candidate interviews where appropriate.

Project Management

producing high quality client reports including Candidate Review Documents and Proposals;

advising on the drafting of candidate information packs and public advertisements;

booking media space on behalf of clients and negotiating rates where appropriate;

enhancing team performance through effective knowledge management;

handling reference calls and conducting regular updates with the client where required.

Business Development

developing and maintaining relationships with key clients and candidates;

crafting an approach to business development within a designated area or specialism, in conjunction with a senior colleague;

helping to raise the profile and reputation of the firm.

Job Description…

We’re building our firm to provide innovative and ethical leadership within the recruitment sector at large. Each hire we make is crucial to fulfilling this vision. We need people who can help to shape and mould the culture of the firm and the quality of its work. We need people to assist us in forging Society’s reputation and solidifying its brand identity.

Good headhunters are typically academically high-achieving graduates, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

We want to hear from articulate, intelligent and driven people, with integrity, quick wits, excellent attention to detail, and investigative minds.

Essential Criteria

a genuine interest in working for clients across the global Hospitality and Leisure sector;

an upper-second or first-class degree from a good University;

excellent natural communication and interpersonal skills;

a probing, inquisitive, investigative mind;

the ability to build rapport with people from a wide range of backgrounds;

a positive, friendly and confident outlook;

tenacity, bravery and quick wits;

excellent attention to detail;

the ability to produce high quality written work, including reports;

excellent personal organisation, including the ability to deliver to deadlines;

high levels of integrity and a genuine personal commitment to Society's values and ethos;

the potential to progress and grow into additional responsibilities over time.

Person Specification…

New researchers are usually appointed on a starting salary of between £22,000 to £24,000 per annum, dependent upon their prior work experience. We also offer an incentivising quarterly bonus scheme, which recognises every colleague’s contribution to the firm’s financial success, as well as additional benefits such as Death in Service cover and employer pension contributions.

Working Hours

Standard hours for all colleagues are Monday to Friday, from 8.30am to 6.00pm, with up to one hour for lunch, however there is the option to work more flexible hours after completion of your initial six month probation period.

Culturally speaking, we prefer to judge people based on their results, rather than the number of hours they spend sitting at their desk!

Holidays and Volunteering

All colleagues are entitled to 25 days per annum plus public holidays.

You would also have an annual volunteering entitlement, allowing you to spend up to three fully-paid days per year out of the office on a community project or cause of your choosing.

Location

Our serviced offices are based on Baker Street, in the heart of central London. The office has its own roof garden – which is a blessing in hot weather!

We are within easy walking distance of several Underground stations, as well as Regents Park and Oxford Street.

Paddington Gardens – with its two outdoor ping pong tables – is just across the road.

Applicants from Outside the EEA

Due to the burdensome requirements currently imposed by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA), we are currently unable to offer visa sponsorship for people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

If you do not currently possess the right to live and work in the UK, we therefore regretfully suggest that you do not apply.

Further Details…

If you are interested in joining our team, then we would be delighted to hear from you. Please email us at recruitment@society-search.com with a copy of your CV, along with a brief covering letter or message. We must stress that applications without an accompanying covering letter or message will not be considered.

Some Tips

in your covering note, please try to show us that you’ve looked into our firm and done a bit of background reading about the executive search sector in general;

don’t just list your skills in generic terms, give us a little concrete evidence for how your experience and talents match up with our Person Specification;

if you want some general guidance on how to write a good CV or covering letter then please visit the Careers Advice section of our website.

Next Steps

The deadline for receipt of applications is 9am on Monday 8th December. From that point the recruitment process will consist of three stages:

stage one will be a short telephone interview;

stage two will be an hour long face-to-face interview at our offices in London;

stage three will be a two and a half hour long assessment session at our offices in London, where you will be asked to complete a written exercise and a short verbal presentation.

How to Apply…