BY: Clifton Frei – Director of Client Development for DW Simpson
“WHY SHOULD WE WORK WITH AN AGENCY?”
As the leader of Client Development for DW Simpson, I get asked this or something like it a lot. You can substitute “agency” for “recruiter,” “headhunter,” or “third-party,” but the question is always the same, and none of those labels quite capture the essence of what we do or how we operate. We see ourselves as partners to both our candidates and our clients. We don’t recognize a divide with us on one side and them on the other. We value them and their time and have a genuine interest in the people we serve.
How does this manifest itself in our history, the work we do, and how it can benefit you? Allow me to highlight what we feel sets us apart and what it means for you by exploring the four pillars of our business, our relationships, efficiency, commitment to diversity, and the fact that we are a specialized firm.
RELATIONSHIPS
Our candidate relationships are our most valuable resource. By partnering with us you are tapping into that resource. Our average recruiter tenure is over 10 years with the firm. That’s enough time to follow a candidate from entry-level to senior level. Every conversation, check in email, in-person meeting, text message, and holiday card we’ve ever had with our candidates (and we’ve had a lot) becomes your conversation—your relationship.
EFFICIENCY OR TIME-TO-HIRE
Leveraging those relationships means that we can potentially reduce your time-to-hire to a significant degree because we are in constant touch with the market. There’s no need for us to gear up for a new search, because we are always geared up and in touch with candidates across the full spectrum of the industries and specializations that we work with.
I often get calls from hiring manager or talent acquisitions professionals who present a tough search to me, asking “is this person even out there,” and more often-than-not I’ve been able to respond, “why yes, we’ve actually recently been engaged on a similar search and we’re already in touch with that type of individual.”
Every search is different of course, but we can always guarantee that we have a built-in head start.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
As a woman owned business and a 26-year partner of the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA), issues of diversity in hiring are always top of mind for us. We view diversity and inclusion efforts as an ongoing process, not a one-and-done training topic, and are always in the process of pushing our internal efforts and external partnerships forward across all dimensions of race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and gender identity.
Partnering with DW Simpson can help you avoid the effects of unconscious bias in your hiring process because all of our candidate relationships are personal. By presenting each candidate as an informed, prescreened referral, we help to eliminate unconscious bias based on surface demographic characteristics. Further, our conversations with our candidates help to mitigate self-selection bias by bringing forward people who might have been subconsciously discouraged by their perceptions of the job or company.
SPECIALIZATION
DW Simpson has a 32-year history of working with actuaries and analytics professionals across a wide range of industries including insurance carriers, consultancies, healthcare providers and networks, insurtechs, startups, government agencies, investment firms, and more.
What that boils down to is that we speak your language. GLM, E&S, ERM, GAAP, SOX, IFRS 17, VA, CAT, D&O, PL, CL, GASB, and BOP—we know them all, and more. What’s more is that we speak our candidate’s language. Every profession has their own culture, and we are embedded in the actuarial and analytics world. We’re a part of it. We attend all of the major industry conferences, provide annual scholarships to university actuarial programs, participate in interview workshops, and have longstanding partnerships with the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries.
WHY YOU SHOULD WORK WITH US
We’re not in the business of slinging resumes or hunting heads. We take our place in the community we serve seriously and always have a view towards long term prosperity and not short-term success. Our long history is a testament to that. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss how we can help you on your next search.
Check out the PDF version of our Client Development Blog!
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss how we can help you on your next search.