Client Services

Our extensive sector knowledge enables us to help our clients attract top performers in an honest and professional way whilst reducing “time to hire” periods and employee turnover. We have a passion for service and pride ourselves on being knowledgeable, approachable and a consultative approach.
The cornerstone of our business is establishing and maintaining long-term relationships with top tier financial industry professionals in all major finance hubs. Having built up numerous successful relationships spanning over a decade, we are well placed to pro-actively approach potential candidates discreetly while also understanding candidate motivations and long term ambitions. We identify high calibre candidates with extremely sought-after niche skills across a global network who may not yet have considered a career move.
We have found ‘Referred’ and ‘Passive’ candidates are particularly effective to fill mandates for niche roles, high demand skill sets and senior vacancies. While in many cases providing greater longevity than those candidates actively searching or receiving ‘cold’ approaches from an unfamiliar search and selection firms. Our experience in working on mandates globally gives us an insight into domestic and international markets and provides us with the ability to utilise a global network of candidates which is essential for clients who are seeking market leading candidates.

Our goal is to work in partnership with our clients to develop recruitment solutions as well as being a value-adding resource.

Knowledge and Consulting

A good recruiter will deliver what you have asked for, an excellent consultant will go one step further and open the door to what you may have not realised you were looking for.
In addition to successfully placing top talent with you we also act as a trusted advisor on compensation trends, optimal organisational structure and competitive landscape.
You may already have a clear idea of the type of individual you would like, but the marketplace, candidate aspirations and your budget may not realistically reflect this. We work in close partnership with clients to understand both their business and cultural needs. This knowledge enables us to challenge and assist you build a profile that meets both your constraints and business needs.
Whilst many other search firms will have competitors take a ‘reactive’ approach we often already possess these relationships, with many candidates choosing to work with us exclusively. Being the ‘first port of call’ for many candidates we are able to introduce our clients to a greater range of candidates than that offered through their own networks or other search agencies.

Regulation and Market Changes

What makes us different from our competitors is our understanding of what makes you different from yours.
Changes in the economy, tightening regulations, global demands and increasing ambiguity all affect not only recruitment but also retention of staff. Every consultant has an in depth market knowledge of the financial investment world; keeping up to date with market changes to ensure that we understand the impact on your business.

Using an entrepreneurial approach to work through these cycles, our consultants have shown the willingness to appropriately adapt to a rapidly changing work environment and as a result been able to maintain a high level of successful appointments for our clients. We are well placed to advise you on how these changes are likely to affect existing business and what steps you can take in order accurately identify and drive development to remain ahead of market competitors.
We are committed to the encouragement of diversity in the workplace therefore should you require a tailored approach to your recruitment process in order to meet this we are able to advise and assist you with no additional costs.

Loyalty and trust

We appreciate that in working with you as a recruitment partner we must do so with utmost confidentiality, finding the right balance between detail, rigour, discretion, quality of advice, speed and delivery.  We take the same approach with our candidates which is why we have been able to build loyalty and trust over a number of years. When we recommend candidates we do so with first hand confidence in their abilities and credentials.

Retained Search & Selection

This option requires a portion of the fee to be paid in advance to initiate the recruitment process. We will complete a comprehensive industry search, with the remaining portions of the fee to be paid upon presentation of the shortlist and successful candidate acceptance.

Exclusive Contingency

This option requires no financial investment to initiate the recruitment process. Acting as the sole agency assisting on any given mandate we help to identify, qualify and present a specific selection of candidates. We will produce a client report (typically weekly) detailing exactly which companies and candidates are being considered. Payment of fee is due on successful placement of a candidate.

Contingency

This option requires no financial investment to initiate the recruitment process. Drawing on an existing pool of talent we are able to provide immediate access to some of the best talent on a contingent basis, many of whom are working exclusively with Octavius.

Along with other bespoke options, we will work with you to make sure that we deliver in a reasonable and effective time frame.

Payment of fee is due on successful placement of a candidate.

Consultants at Octavius are able to demonstrate the highest level of market and technical understanding. We know that market knowledge takes time to develop and have witnessed high staff turnover in many of our competitors resulting in a negative impact on performance. We pride ourselves on our staff retention and the added benefit of continuity we offer our clients.

We believe in putting in the hours of hard work and staying focused when a search becomes challenging in order to ensure successful delivery. We also believe that acting with honesty and integrity leads to long term relationships resulting in higher levels of service.

The consultant you meet will manage all parts of the recruitment process, providing regular updates throughout and remaining your primary contact and a resource you can utilise post placement. By managing the entire recruitment process for you we hope to enable you to use your time effectively elsewhere.

Octavius Finance diligently builds strong relationships with business partners and candidates.

Salary information

We provide regular salary benchmarking information for a range of research and investment positions across buy and sell side firms and proprietary trading houses. We are often asked by our clients from global firms to benchmark internal overseas moves to ensure the offer is fair and to market level. This is something we can assist with. We speak to hundreds of candidates every month and collate all the data regarding base and bonus pay. Click here for our 2017 Salary Benchmarking. Our experience in the industry and extensive network enable us to respond efficiently. Typically we produce a more detailed survey around bonus time. We conduct market research by consulting a number of our clients and team heads regarding the bonuses their teams are receiving. We then filter this into our results based upon the size of their teams. We find that structuring our research in this way reflects the true market average, many of the candidates that we speak to are usually open to or looking to move.

Staff retention

We want to help firms grow and develop. We know that the easiest way to achieve this is staff retention.

We work collaboratively with clients and can assist when candidates are potentially looking to leave and may have offers elsewhere. We can provide realistic market insight which may help retain candidates in a counter offer situation. We see teams that really work and can provide you with information on what other firms do to achieve staff contentment.

Branded advertising on our website

There may be roles that you are recruiting for in areas that we don’t have expertise to help. We will happily place any adverts on our website with no charges involved.

Intern scheme

We understand that small funds may need some extra assistance but often don’t have time to recruit themselves or there may be budget restrictions. If you think you may want to take on an intern we are happy to assist. If you later hire the candidate then we would charge a recruitment fee.

We have a vast network of junior candidates who we cannot help as they don’t have enough experience and would be happy to connect you to them.

Candidate Testing

Whilst we are able to provide confident, detailed character appraisals, we appreciate that in certain circumstances our clients need to be assured of a candidates technical abilities in order to save time and maximise efficiency in the recruitment process while also reducing training and recruitment costs. As recruiters our ability to provide an accurate evaluation of a candidate’s technical abilities is limited which is why we also offer a candidate skills testing service (ISV Fastpath) to evaluate a number of skills including, IT & Programming, Numeracy, Literary and aptitude, Microsoft office and data entry.
This service is offered as standard for all retained searches and on a case by case basis on contingency searches.

Consultation Services

We work in consultation with our clients to offer a range of advisory and support services. Our unique perspective and experience in the market enables us to review the organisational structure, produce satisfaction surveys, review the effectiveness of your communication and benchmark employees in a way that is not possible from within. We find that our clients find it easier to achieve goals when they are across management benchmarking and we work together to identify and develop potential future leaders.