Winning Secrets: How Ansa Search ensures clients are well-serviced through its trusted and talented teams

Candidates continue to be attracted to Ansa Search's platform, due to strong relationships built with clients. As a result, the team has managed to win highly coveted panel relationships with banks and other multinationals.

With a gold win for the Most Innovative Recruitment Strategy - Solution Provider category, Asia Recruitment Awards 2020, Singapore virtual awards ceremony, the team at ANSA Search takes us through the vision of the company, its HR priorities, and key milestones that have helped to see an 85% revenue increase over the last two years.

Q What is your organisation’s recruitment strategy, and how has it evolved in recent times? How does this agenda fit into the bigger HR priorities, and do you work closely with the CEO for this?

When we first started in March 2016, Shulin and I had a very simple agenda – to focus and do good work. We started off in a small-serviced office (Arcc Spaces) with no windows, two desks and a lot of ambition. Whilst we had big dreams, our initial strategy was just to focus on legal & compliance recruitment and stay small i.e. just the two co-founders.

Fast forward to 2020, our vision and strategy have evolved – so much so that we are now an office with nine headcount and growing! (In fact, we are very thankful to have just moved into a much bigger office, still with Arcc Spaces – with an amazing view of Marina Bay Sands.)

Beyond specialising in legal & compliance, ANSA Search now has moved into a specialist recruitment firm model – with consultants focused on various lines of business needs. For the next two-three years, in order to further scale our business, our recruitment strategy will be to hire more specialist recruiters in complementary verticals such as:

• Wealth management / front office,
• Human resources,
• Technology,
• Risk and control

As co-founders, our main HR priorities include:

1. Promoting a culture of trust, engagement and a high level of integrity. 
2. Ensuring a collaborative team to support one another and cross sell – with regular and open communication.
3. Supporting the staff’s wellbeing i.e. headcount to purchase the AIA medical panel, company events, etc. 
4. Attracting and retaining talent – developing skills. 
5. Aligning views with ANSA’s vision and long term end-game.

Q Share with us your winning recruitment strategy! What were the key business drivers behind this strategy, and how have you executed it successfully?

What was our recruitment strategy?

We leveraged off of our consultants’ successful track record in the market, as well as the efforts of building ANSA’s brand name through social media over the last five years.

Goes without saying that, some of our candidates were attracted to our platform, due to strong relationships built with clients and we have managed to win highly coveted panel relationships with banks and other multinationals.

The key driver behind this was to ensure our clients are well-serviced. And in order to do so, we had to expand our teams.

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

Needless to say, in the specialist recruitment model, there is always a severe lack of candidates with the requisite experience in the market. As such, there is a need to be more than just a recruiter, we have to consult with our clients, inform on the market, as well as manage our clients’ expectations.

To compound matters, there is inadequate support in the market provided by recruitment software vendors, who are unable to assist in helping us build a database catering to our sector.

After a challenging period of experimenting with different software, we finally achieved an optimal solution which has shown great results. Our new database system is accessible via a mobile app on the phone, on a tablet, on our desktop computers and is basically available anywhere we go. It provides a seamless experience for consultants to conduct searches when we are on the go.

The new technology system has also enabled consultants to record information in a timely and fuss-free manner and to ensure candidates are coded accurately and in a much more creative manner.

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?

Year on year, we have made great strides forward. For instance, we have improved our billing and revenue from 2017 to 2019 by a whopping 85%. Also, we have had more positive feedback from our candidates and clients – overall reporting a marked improvement in their experience working with us.

Another milestone – we have made numerous placements with new clients which have approached directly sought out consultants at ANSA. Very proud of our team’s concerted efforts!

Our database of talent has now increased to more than 15,000 records – very impressive for a firm our size.

Q To tackle the changes happening in the world of work, it is now vital for companies to step up the pace of evolving their recruitment strategy. How is your team anticipating and easing your clients in these far-reaching changes, rather than simply dealing with the consequences?

What we have done beyond just doing our day-to-day activities, is that we have been thinking and innovating, very much out of our comfort zone and out of the box.

Some of the things we have done in 2020:

• Used promoted pre-recorded video interviews / applications of candidates.
• Organised webinars and panel discussions benefit niche groups of talent pools.
• Got out of our comfort zone – and increased our presence in mainstream media.
• Networking with clients virtually more often, to hear out their recruitment challenges in the changing landscape and provide tips.
• Our cutting-edge, on-the-go recruitment platform helps facilitate quicker response to clients and candidates on the go.

Above all, we take great pride in what we do and we sincerely wish to thank everyone for their kind support. Wishing everyone a very good Christmas, and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021!

Photo / Provided

Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section! 

Human Resources Online is on Telegram! Follow us @humanresourcesonline or click here for all the latest weekly HR and manpower news from around the region.