Client Services

No assignment is the same — each one presents its own challenges, according to the supply of experience within the specific market and the nature of the role. We use various methods to source the best candidates for you, including either one, or a combination of the following:

Contingency Recruitment

Various resources are used in order to attract the best candidates for your company. This will include searching our own extensive database, advertising on major recruitment websites and in specialist trade magazines, headhunting from competing firms, as well as taking referrals from within our existing network. With this method of recruitment, you will not incur any fee unless you appoint one of our candidates.

Search and Selection

For the more unusual and generally more senior roles, particularly where there is a limited supply of experience within the local market, this method can be highly effective. After you have briefed us on an assignment, we will conduct extensive research in order to identify prospective candidates within your specific market. It is important to remember that most of the top people in the industry are very well looked after by their existing employers. As a result, these individuals are generally very happy in their jobs and not actively looking for alternative employment. These people are certainly very unlikely to be looking at job advertisements, therefore, it is our task to proactively approach them with an exciting opportunity that they are simply unable to ignore.

Retained Assignment

This is becoming the preferred method of recruitment by our clients for more senior positions, as it guarantees the best return on investment. We will structure an agreement whereby you pay a percentage of the fee on engagement, which allows us to dedicate our time to work solely on your assignment. You will then pay the second instalment of the fee once we have presented you with a pre-agreed number of shortlisted candidates to interview, and finally the balance will be paid once you have appointed the successful candidate. Depending on the nature of the assignment, we will structure an agreement tailored to your specific needs.

Working in Partnership

Recruitment can be a huge drain on a company’s resources, particularly where the hiring managers involved have other more urgent priorities. Working with Aston Charles as your recruitment partner allows you to concentrate on your core business, whilst we manage the resourcing process. We can help design and handle the screening and assessment procedures, create branded advertisements, design bespoke marketing campaigns, and even manage single or multiple agency relationships on your behalf, ensuring that you source the best available talent with minimal cost.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Whether you are considering your succession planning options, or seeking to make a complimentary acquisition, with a strong track record in this arena, we are well placed to help. We are actively representing a select portfolio of brokers who have briefed us to notify them of potential suitors. We recognise that the key to facilitating a successful partnership is about much more than ‘just the financials’. As well as helping draw up mutually beneficial terms, and sourcing brokers with a genuine commitment to seeing the process though, we take great pride in conducting a thorough fact find so that we can introduce brokers with a complimentary fit. This ensures a seamless transition and the highest possible levels of client and staff retention, to all parties’ benefit.

Team Moves

To help feed our clients’ ambitious plans for growth, Aston Charles has dedicated Consultants focusing on a number of niche areas of business and the ‘Team Move’ specialism is no exception. Involving a number of personalities, ambitions and contracts, Team Moves are infinitely more difficult to control compared to a standard ‘single person’ assignment. Understandably, they require a very delicate approach and, of course, the utmost discretion. With a national footprint, we are well versed in helping teams across the UK move ‘en masse’. Successful previous assignments include Sector Specialist Teams (such as Aviation, Haulage and Credit Insurance), as well as teams of ‘General Practitioners’ who transact miscellaneous general commercial / corporate business.

Benchmarking

We know how important it is for you to maintain a competitive edge and improve your chances of securing the best talent in the market. With our in-depth market knowledge, we can provide advice on salaries and benefits/ rewards packages, to ensure that your proposition is an attractive one. Equally, we can provide advice on job specifications to ensure that the role in question is both appealing and realistic.

Bespoke Training

We are partnered with a small number of carefully selected training providers who offer a range of interactive courses including, but not limited to, Leadership, Management and Sales. Founders and leaders of some of the UK’s most successful businesses, including our GI and FS clientele, have attended these courses and the results that past delegates have witnessed are phenomenal. Proven results include increased sales and headcount, enhanced productivity and improved staff morale. In fact, Aston Charles itself is enjoying exponential growth, directly as a result of these courses.