Celebrating the finest gems in talent acquisition across Singapore’s recruitment function, Human Resources Online’s first-ever virtual edition of the Asia Recruitment Awards 2020 took place on 24 July.

The awards ceremony, in its sixth year, honoured winners across 26 highly-contended categories, including Best Specialist Recruitment Agency, which saw Lim-Loges Masters’ (LLM) taking home the bronze title.

In this interview, Lelia Lim Managing Partner, Asia Pacific, Lim-Loges & Masters, shares with Priya Veeriah the firm’s winning strategy, ROI measurement, the impact of digitalisation and more.

Q. How does your organisation’s recruitment strategy fit into the bigger HR priorities, and do you work closely with the CEO for this?

Our strategy is to champion multinational companies across Asia and to help build their sustainability and talent proposition. We seek to transform organisations through their people. Our streamlined processes, provided through our three core services of Disruption Management, Executive Search and Transition Management, are designed to support CEOs secure a transformational change.

We are specialists who understand and anticipate the complex challenges of change in this age of technology revolution and digital disruption which has affected the way businesses operate, and the way they manage employees and talent. We work with typically, the board of directors or senior executive leaders in Asia to gain an in-depth understanding of their specific direction, so as to craft a robust talent strategy that looks beyond simple recruitment and which accommodates the disruption and transition requirements of the organisation.

Q. What were the key business drivers behind this strategy, and how have you executed it successfully?

We understand the complexities of change; and provide a broader perspective to our clients in ever-evolving business challenges in Asia Pacific. At LLM, our recruitment capability includes reactively responding to recruiting requirements, for example targeted strategies to find the right profile, advising on attraction of candidates, changes in compensation strategies, and also on the reverse, proactively advising on changes in future job specifications and talent expectations around mobility, contribution and retention.

We strive for a very client-centric end-to-end delivery of services and bring the right skills to each phase of transformation/advising. We seek first to understand the disruptors to the business.This helps us craft the search strategy.

Thereafter, we provide comprehensive support and expertise throughout the recruitment process – from the search strategy and mapping to identifying, qualifying, negotiating, verifying and, most importantly, onboarding new placements. Onboarding may include our advice around transitioning which may include coaching or training for the individual placed or his/her entire team.

We are incredibly flexible and customised with how we work with each client. It’s not a one-size-fits-all service proposition. Hence this explains our high rate of repeat clients as they see value in a continuing dialogue rather than a single transaction.

Q. No execution is free from unexpected hurdles. In what shape or form did you experience challenges, and how did you overcome them?

The only failures in execution are when the partnership with the client or candidate is not sufficiently deep. We support clients to look and think beyond just filling a position. Our holistic approach to the recruitment process is augmented by a personal on-boarding service for the first nine to 12 months – this is critical as it drives commitment, connectedness and successful integration.

Additionally, as individuals, a team and a company, we are always evolving and improving on our client solutions – which are vital in this era of continual disruption. Our focus on service quality to clients and the constant changes in the market have meant that we have to adapt, learn and grow perpetually. For example, we formerly offered interim management solutions.

However, due to constant disruptions across all sectors, we recognised that clients needed more help in Disruption Management and evolved this service to meet these changing needs.

Q. On to the most important part – results! How did you measure the ROI or milestones of this initiative, and what are you most proud of?

Clients require more than just talent acquisition from their recruitment provider. They’re demanding a more dynamic and strategic approach to finding candidates. We provide total solutions around their Change agenda in Asia Pacific as part of the talent management program.

We can expand our scope for clients to include disruption strategies, integration advisory, coaching and training to accommodate a client’s organic and inorganic growth plans across Asia.

As we work consistently with senior profiles, our integrity is essential, and we are proud to state that:

• 98% of searches have resulted in successful placement
• 100% placements remaining for more than 2 years
• 75% of business from repeat clients 

Q. It would be too simplistic to believe that digitalisation is the only game changer when it comes to recruitment. What are some of the other key factors to take into consideration, going forward?

Career ambitions are evolving as gig economies arise and loyalty is no longer the only measure of promotional prospects. Employee engagement is not limited to engagement during work hours, but understanding the employee at play and at work. Recruitment solutions have changed as access to information is easier.

At LLM, we believe in being future-ready. We are currently the only organisation in Asia to offer Disruption Management, Executive Search and Transition Management services to organisations as a response to driving transformation. We believe that this is the century of the 4IR, and we believe in Asia as the future flag-bearer. The clients we work with are committed to a long-term investment in Asia and to serve them we focus on what’s essential for their business, which are high quality work, integrity and professionalism.

The future will be all about helping our clients remain sustainable and relevant. We will continue building our Intellectual Property so that we can continue to contribute in all markets in Asia.