Putting the cart before the horseHow Darwin attracts and retains the

talent that fuels 30% + growth

Darwin at a glance

At Darwin, we don’t send CV’s, we recruit

Specialist Areas; Application Development, Cloud & Infrastructure and Telecommunications

Recruiting for Permanent and Contract roles across Europe

Over 120 skilled search consultants

4 offices; UK, Amsterdam, Munich & Zurich

In 2013 we placed candidates from 100 countries into over 1000 clients

Let’s dispel a myth…

Employee engagement is might seem a cute and fluffy topic…

It isn’t.It’s deadly serious.

Some “fluff”

All true, all important, all intangible

“We want our people to be happy”

“Our business is like one big family”

“In our team, we love working together”

“We have loads of fun in our office”

The serious sideEvery member of staff we hire, train and lose in year 1 costs us £20,000

Engaged, productive consultants pay for themselves 4 times every year and convert 50% of net fees to profit

Internal promotions are 67% more likely to be successful than external management hires

Teams of consultants with tenure > 1 year and who are led by promoted managers that understand our business make twice as much per head as other teams

Trying to prove you’ve engagement can cost more than actually doing itKnow what you want attrition to be. “Churn” is healthy when controlled

Put the cart before the horse

“Attraction is simply telling people about your retention”

Start with your worst critics

“Your most unhappy people (or customers) are your greatest source of learning”

Finding out what doesn’t work?

Validate your findings

• Staff surveys • Keep them short, simple and infrequent• Make them multi-tiered• Think carefully about what you want to learn• Be prepared to share the good and bad

So how do we retain?

Be realistic

Visible leadership

Excellence in communication

Shared corporate and people goals

Competitive and constant reward and recognition

Benefits that mean

something*

Retention

And attraction?

Be realistic

Visible leadership

Excellence in communication

Shared corporate and people goals

Competitive and constant reward and recognition

Benefits that mean

something*

Attraction

It’s no secret…

Enjoyment, contentment, involvement, recognition, attention and reward all lead to productivity – Fact. Ask Jamie Oliver

Questions

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