Recruiter and Researchers Get Engaged

Kate Dann, one of the UK industry's best known specialist recruitment consultants, has teamed up with researchers Peter Goudge and Jill Bowden-Doyle to provide employee engagement studies and consultancy in response to enquiries from clients.

Dann says the research industry is going through a period of change both on the client and agency sides of the business. 'Whether it's a re-focus away from producing research results to providing strategic guidance, or a restructure to accommodate a merger, change almost always brings opportunity but it can also be very uncomfortable for those who feel that they have lost control of their own destiny. Our clients tend to be senior managers who want to know more about how their employees are reacting or what resources and support they need to maintain efficiency and enthusiasm. There is no doubt that companies tend also to have satisfied clients when their employees are strongly committed to their work - engagement is crucial, hence it is the term we have adopted'.

The 'Engagement initiatives' are designed to provide employees with a confidential opportunity to make suggestions about how obstacles might be removed or how resources might be arranged or provided to enable optimum performance. Recommendations after the exercise might include training and skills upgrading or the setting up / overhaul of an appraisal system. 'Recognising existing potential not only avoids unnecessary recruitment activity' says Dann, 'but can also motivate and challenge employees'.

The team's experience and skills-set cover a wide range of professional activities, including:

• Team skills analysis
• Psychometric testing
• Career coaching and counselling
• Skills auditing
• Training in recruitment interviewing
• Setting up/overhauling appraisal schemes
• Output/performance assessment (team and individual)
• Client (internal and external) expectations/satisfaction measurement.

'Our combination of skills and experience allows us to explore every aspect of the Employer - Employee - Client connection from a third party, unbiased position' says Kate Dann. 'This produces the honest responses needed for effective plans and solutions'.

Dann trained in assessment interviewing, career counselling and job evaluation with the Manpower Services Commission and then spent five years as a market researcher. Since 1985 she has specialised in recruiting for the MR industry, founding KD Consulting in 1989. She is a founder member and recent Chairman of the Association of Search & Selection Consultants. She is a Fellow of the MRS and a member of its Professional Development Advisory Board.

Bowden-Doyle was a board director at Conquest Research, after spells as Research Manager and then Marketing Manager at Kraft Jacobs Suchard, where she trained with Edward de Bono to run creative thinking workshops. She recently acquired the BACC accredited Certificate in Counselling Practice.

Goudge is the current Chairman of the Employee Research Group and author of the Best Practice Guidelines originally published by that Group. He worked as Senior Research Manager at NatWest and more recently as a Board Director of BPRI. He is a fellow of the MRS and a former Chairman of AURA.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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