We must never be distracted. Our craft is what it is: to choose only the best for our clients and their needs. Before we do that, we must make sure we get the best people for our team. Our team then focuses on the job.
Our job must be performed to the highest standard of excellence in every industry, anywhere in the world.
In this business, clients are quick to realise who is putting the hours in to do the job properly. So let’s not get distracted.
We get to know our clients’ industries in depth. It is key to know the client’s industry at least as well as they know it themselves. So we only take on one client per industry.
This lets us acquire the necessary knowledge and put in the work the job really involves. We learn alongside the client, and owe a duty to them.
We never work with more than one client competing in the same industry.
When we manage to mesh our industry insight with an awareness of our client’s culture that’s when things come together and the job goes well.
The value of what we do and the price we charge for it must continue to offer a uniquely high value for money. Doing our job the right way, and charging the right price for it, is and will continue to be essential to our reputation.
We will carry on doing this by working effectively, simply and swiftly.
Just like our clients and candidates, at V & H we value modesty and effort. We are modest about what we know – which is never enough. We are serious about learning and getting better all the time.
We need to have a deep and accurate insight into everything that affects our task. We can do this only if we continue to learn.
“We’re the headhunters who find the best people.”
The bigger the challenge, the more we enjoy it.
We like what we do. Like the pearl-diver or the hunter, we feel even greater joy when the task at hand is tougher than expected.
This is particularly the case when we explore an industry, a client culture or a country job market for the first time.
We love our work. If the challenge is tough, we like it even better.
Our livelihood is our reputation, and our reputation depends on doing a good job.
Our reputation is and will continue to be the outcome of our relationship with the thousands of candidates we meet year after year, and the many clients who, year after year, continue to place their trust in us.
It’s really quite simple. At one time or another we’ve all been candidates for something, and we’re all someone’s client. In either position, we know how we would like to be treated ourselves. So we follow that rule, and will continue to do so.
When – like us – you are at the intersection of two interests seeking each other out, the best way forward is to do the right thing by both.
Every commission we get is distinctive as a result of the responsibilities attached to the position and the client’s corporate culture.
But there are two things we find crucial for our own success and believe to be the bedrock of everyone who does well: courage and smarts.
Those are the fundamentals. Without that, you don’t get what you need from the candidate.
We think that being good at something is just the start, not the endpoint.
Our job isn’t quite over when our selected professional is hired.
The candidate’s true value only shows through when they’re actually doing the job. Our work can be fairly assessed and paid for by the client only with an eye on the performance of the selected professional in his or her new position. So Villarroel & Hunter links its fees to the selected candidate doing the job as well as promised.
“That’s how we think. That’s what we do. That’s us.”