Why Alto?
Alto-Consulting has a clear understanding of our clients’ strategies, culture, needs and people and offers a dedicated research team.
We pride ourselves on professionalism, service and delivery, enhancing lives and businesses through a consultative approach to both talent and business management consultancy.
Our mission is to continually offer a quality and personal service based on our values: Trust, Pride and being a Solutions Led innovator.
The benefits of partnering with us include:
- Fast, responsive, innovative consulting-based executive search
- Strong, well-developed contacts and referral network with ability to penetrate target organizations at all levels
- Insight into the market’s reaction to the client organization, helping you implement advantageous HR strategies
- Enthusiastic, energetic, bi-cultural consulting teams with relevant industry experience
- Strict commitment to confidentiality and ethics
Alto Consulting Search Solutions
SEARCH Solutions
Depending on your specific needs, we offer the following search types to select from: Retained and Contingency. Our rates are determined by the position type, exclusivity level, and complexity of the hiring process.
RETAINED Solutions
At Alto Consulting, we understand the cost and business implications of getting a key appointment wrong, especially in a Senior Appointment or key / time sensitive hire. For these critical hires, the contingency recruitment model does not work effectively. We developed our Retained Solution. A fully tailored recruitment solution, designed to map the entire market to provide you with access to the best talent, better control of the message being communicated to the market and all in a much shorter timeframe than the contingency model. Additionally, you will gain access to further market insight, intelligence, and technology, supporting you in making the right hiring decision, ensuring you get the best person for the job. This is why we have a 100% success rate in Retained Search Importantly , this investment does not cost any more than a traditional model, it’s simply a different payment structure for a better result!
CONTINGENCY Search
We maintain a high level of commitment to clients who prefer to use a success-based approach to recruiting. A contingency search is 100% success based. Fees for this type of search are only paid upon successful placement and hiring of a candidate.
Training & Development
Did you know that a lack of career development is the NUMBER ONE reason that many individuals look for a new opportunity?
Coaching and Training is a topic that we are genuinely passionate about and is strongly related to retention of your key talent.
We are proud to offer a selection of training programs, designed to give an immediate impact to enhance your business or develop your personal skills.
- Leadership & Management
- Sales
- Customer Service
- Communication & Business Skills
Retained Hiring Process
Briefing
Begins with a full briefing session involving all stakeholders to define and agree on the parameters of the search and process including:
Full role profile, Functional and Behavioral competencies, Geography, Target companies, any off limits, timeline, process and your E.V.P. (Employee value proposition).
Research
Once we are clear on the scope of the search, essentially cast a net over the talent pool and identify every candidate across the geographical location who looks to have the right skill set to meet the criteria.
Approaching
We then systematically and professionally approach every single candidate using multiple methods, including direct, but professional headhunting, to gain as much interest in the opportunity as possible.
Steering Meetings
The whole process is transparent, we share with you, every week, our progress - a spreadsheet showing every candidate. If faced with challenge, work with you to re-steer the search accordingly.
Longlist
Ultimately, a long list of candidates emerges who have been assessed against the brief, both functionally and behaviorally and are interested in the opportunity.
Shortlist
From this long-list, we will jointly agree a shortlist of 3 -5 for you to interview (Hire)
At the end of the process, you will be absolutely confident you are making your hire from all of the best talent available to you in the market, at this time.
Japan Recruiting Market Challenges
Why Japan is the Most Difficult Market to Recruit in?
With a population of 125,860,301 million in 2021 Japan boasts the largest and most diverse economy in Asia, and is second only to the U.S. on the world's economic stage. The U.S. sends more exports to Japan than it does to any other overseas destination.
Unlike other countries the majority of the business is concentrated in one city “Tokyo”.
With an unemployment rate of 2.80 % (July 2021); the war for talent is unlike anywhere else in the world. In spite of this, all the international firms are fighting for a very limited pool of talent.
Here are some of the specific Japan market challenges:
- Culturally and historically Japanese have had a job for life mentality, so extracting a Japanese national from a large Japanese firm which they could never be fired from, is next to impossible. As a result, Japanese are very adverse to the risk of changing their employer.
- The traditional Japanese firms offer stability and a guaranteed promotional ladder-based system – over time they rise to the top based on their years of employment and loyalty. Japanese companies invest in long-term pension plans, which can facilitate viable retirement at age 60.
- Unlike almost any other market in the world, Japanese are not well versed in changing careers for more money or better opportunity. Consequently, the process of introducing the opportunity properly to an ideal candidate and his wife is critical.
- Japanese are extremely loyal and when they do change jobs, will rarely work for a direct competitor, where their skills and contacts are most beneficial.
- There have been enough foreign companies who have pulled out of the Japan market which has created a negative legacy which other foreign must overcome. Regardless of their reputation abroad, start-ups and small foreign firms have an uphill battle to identify quality candidates to represent their firms here in Japan.
- Japan has the lowest bilingual population; approximately 90% of Japan’s population does not speak English! Foreign companies clearly wanted the most talented professionals for their firms. Once speaking English becomes part of the hiring criteria, the talent pool is reduced to less than 10% of the population based on language skills alone. If a client is in a specialized niche business the talent pool becomes logarithmically much less – it becomes equivalent to finding “a needle in a haystack”. Additionally, even through these tough economic times, Japan has an unemployment rate of 2.8% (July 2021 - see below chart from the Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs).
- Demographically Japan’s population is aging at an alarming rate. Japan remains still reluctant to allow more immigrants and refugees in, despite an urgent need for new workers to replace its aging work force.
Elderly citizens accounted for record 28.4% of Japan's population in 2020! - Japan's rapidly aging society now has a record 36.17 million people aged 65 or older, up by 300,000 from a year earlier and accounting for 28.7 percent of the overall population, another record, government statistics show, according to data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications.
On April 1st 2005 Japan implemented a strict “Personal Information Protection Law (kojin jouhouno hogo ni kansuru houritsu)”. This law prevents the release of personal information to a third party without that individual’s consent. This means traditional boiler room methods of recruiting are illegal, unethical and a more consultative approach must be used to develop candidate relationships. - In addition to the foregoing, there are a lot of “cowboys” in the recruiting business who do not represent clients well; often the best candidates are missed through misrepresentation, poor business manner/ethics, and/or ineffective consulting skills.
- Foreign companies who are planning to build their Japan operations should be sure to do their due diligence to find an “Executive Search Firm” to represent them properly in the market; and more specifically a consultant who will responsibly take on the task to diligently fill the proposed role within a reasonable time frame, with the best available candidate.
Japan Unemployment Rate 1953-2021
Unemployment Rate in Japan averaged 2.72 percent from 1953 until 2021, reaching an all time high of 5.50 percent in June of 2002 and a record low of 1 percent in November of 1968. This page provides the latest reported value for - Japan Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. Japan Unemployment Rate - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on September of 2021.
Japan Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Edges Down
Japan’s unemployment rate unexpectedly was 2.9 percent in June 2021, compared with market consensus and May's five-month high of 3.0 percent. The number of unemployed declined by 20 thousand from the previous month to 2.02 million while employment was up by 210 thousand to 66.66 million. The labor force increased by 150 thousand to 68.71 million and those detached from the labor force dropped 270 thousand to 41.65 million. The non-seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate rose to 62.4 percent in June from 61.9 in the same month a year earlier. Meantime, the jobs-to-application ratio rose to a 13 month high of 1.13 in June from 1.09 in the prior month and compared with forecasts of 1.1. source: Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications
Japan Jobless Rate Unexpectedly at 3-Month Low
Japan’s unemployment rate unexpectedly was at 2.8 percent in July 2021, compared with market consensus and June's figure of 2.9 percent. This was the lowest jobless rate in three months, as the number of unemployed declined by 120 thousand from the previous month to 1.90 million while employment was up by 420 thousand to 67.08 million. The labor force increased by 280 thousand to 68.99 million and those detached from the labor force dropped 310 thousand to 41.34 million. The non-seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate rose to 62.5 percent in July from 61.8 in the same month a year earlier. Meantime, the jobs-to-application ratio rose to a 14 month- high of 1.15 in July from 1.13 in the prior month and compared with forecasts of 1.12. 2021-08-30
The above data was sourced from Trading Economics: https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate
Alto Key Value Proposition
Alto Consulting takes pride in offering superior executive search services, we always seek a win-win with our business partners.
- Unlike the global search firms, this is performance-based retainer, the small retainer comes off the final fee. The cost is no different than a contingent search, with the added benefit of a full one-year warranty which protects your search investment.
- Our search model is a partnership, we work for you, not the candidate, we never introduce a professional that we wouldn’t hire ourselves.
- You will receive full candidate “exclusivity” throughout the search process, other firms will introduce strong candidates to multiple opportunities, they work for the candidate, not you.
- Our Executive search process is active, consequently it’s much more efficient and faster as we are actively headhunting everyday until the searches are filled. (Job boards and contingent search are passive, waiting for professionals to apply).
- We meet and thoroughly screen every professional, and we only introduce top-level, typically passive candidates via leveraging our extensive network, we only seek out, and introduce the best. This saves you time and money by not meeting off-spec professionals.
- During the search you will receive detailed “market intelligence”, this is valuable for you to learn about the competitive landscape here in Japan.
- Once an ideal candidate has been selected by you and your firm, we negotiate on your behalf, it’s easier for an outside consultant to do trial closes to get the best value, our goal is for you to not pay more than you have to.
- We do in-depth background checks prior to offer signing. We are licensed and know how to do these in a very detailed way.
- We fully support you and the professionals with the on-boarding process.
- We offer a one-year warranty, that’s 270 days more than other search firms offer.
- We have never failed with filling any retained position.
Why Contingency Recruiting Is Not Helping You Find The Right Talent
The Grading System - The Iceberg & The House For Sale
Every typical contingent recruiter works between 5, 10, 15 jobs at any one time.
Every contingent recruiter, working on a no win no fee basis has got to balance the risk of those jobs that they are working on and has some kind of grading system to help them prioritize and focus on jobs they are most likely to place.
So, an ‘A’ grade job would be a fantastic company, great brand, brilliant location, really sexy job with a really communicative client and it’s an easy to fill, maybe exclusive.
Anything that starts to get a bit harder, more niche, it’s difficult skillset, it’s a challenging location or it’s an unknown company starts to go down the list of priorities.
If there’s competition involved, it tends to move even further down the list because it’s a higher risk to spend time on, less likely to result in a fee.
Usually, without realizing this, Clients make the mistake of thinking that by sharing it out between multiple agencies what they’re doing is duplicating effort.
But actually what they’re doing is diluting the effort that they’re getting from each and every recruiter.
Then, when you realize that:
30% of any given talent pool is active. In much the same way that 30% of the iceberg is above the water.
This 30% are candidates who will apply to an advert, who will reply to a LinkedIn message, who will reply to an email.
So, on a contingent basis, with limited time to risk, you, and every other recruiter typically engages with that visible 30 or 40% of the talent.
The majority of candidates in any given talent pool are not active. They won’t reply to an advert or an email or a LinkedIn message,
Unfortunately, in a contingent process, 60-70% of the talent pool goes unspoken to, because they haven’t responded to initial approaches.
Also unfortunately, it’s often that SAME 30/40% that gets approached
Imagine What Impact This Has...
Imagine you drive past a house and there are multiple for sale signs outside. What does that make you think and what perception do you have of that house?
That’s exactly what happens when you’ve got two, three or four different agencies working on the same assignment.
When you also consider that contingent recruiters have to work fast. Really fucking fast. As soon as they come across a candidate that looks right and is a bit interested, they have to get their cv straight over NOW before anyone lese does, otherwise the competition will get their first and they will get the fee.
How much time does that allow the recruiter to qualify and assess that candidate. How much time is there to make sure that the candidate actually has the right skills for the job and has fully explored and considered the opportunity. Fucking none. No time for that.
When you consider these things, it makes you realize it is NO WONDER the contingent process falls down.
Definition of ‘Contingent’ Means BY CHANCE
Performance-based Retained Search FAQ
FEES
- This is performance-based retainer
- There is no additional cost to the retained model
- Only a slight change in the payment pattern
- We would work on a 30% consulting fee
- We would estimate the value of the placement fee
- One third of this fee is paid at the start of the hiring project and is referred to as the “Start Fee” The remaining 2 thirds are paid on the successful hiring of the candidate
- The final fee would be adjusted down or up depending on the actual hiring fee
- The final fee is only payable on the successful hiring of the candidate
SEARCH MODEL
- Our search model is a partnership, we work for you, not the candidate, we never introduce a professional that we wouldn’t hire ourselves.
You will receive full candidate “exclusivity” throughout the search process - Executive search is active, consequently it’s much more efficient and faster as we are actively headhunting everyday until the searches are filled. (Job boards and contingent search are passive, waiting for professionals to apply
- We only introduce top-level, passive candidates via leveraging our extensive network, we seek out the best
- During the search you will receive detailed “market intelligence”, this is valuable to learn about the competitive landscape
- We meet and thoroughly screen every professional, this saves you time and money screening off spec professionals, or professionals whose resumes look good, but are not in-fact suitable
- We negotiate on your behalf, it’s easier for an outside consultant to do trial closes, our goal is for you to not pay more than you have to
- We do in-depth background checks prior to offer signing. We are licensed and know how to do these in a very detailed way
- We fully support you and the professionals with the on-boarding process
- We offer a full one-year warranty, that’s 270 days more than other search firms offer
- We have never failed with filling any retained position