The new era of recruitment

Rebecca​ Percossi, Executive Managing Director, APAC – Trimont, shares her experiences with skill-based recruiting, the challenges and the successes of this new era of recruitment.

Skill-based recruiting is a hiring method that focuses on a candidate’s skills and abilities rather than their background, education or past work experience. This approach enables organisations to identify and hire candidates based on their ability to perform the job, rather than what is outlined on their resume.

“When opening the Trimont APAC office in 2019, a significant aspect of my role as the leader was to build a team from scratch. This was both a daunting and exciting opportunity in equal measures. On the backdrop of limited brand awareness in Australia (whilst well-known in the US and EMEA, Trimont was initially an unknown entity in the APAC region) and business lines with no direct competitors – and therefore an inability to identify and select candidates who were an exact match for the role we needed – I set off on a search process based around the more traditional recruiting approach,” said Rebecca.

The outcome? The first 18 months were a process of trial and error held together through a series of short-term contractors to ensure Trimont continued to maintain the high standard of client delivery that is at the core of their business. Throw in the pandemic and the tightening of the labour market and their recruitment process simply wasn’t delivering the results they wanted.

“After one particularly frustrating day of interviewing, I sat down with my colleague and a blank sheet of paper. Over the next hour, we challenged ourselves on what we were trying to achieve with our recruitment plan,” said Ms Percossi.

Rebecca and her team looked to answer questions such as:
• Is the current team structure appropriate?
• What are the core skills our current team has?
• Where is our skills gap?
• What skills can be learnt by on-the-job training and Trimont’s formalised training program?

“As a result of this spontaneous meeting, we established a set of five skills, both cognitive and non-cognitive (or “soft” skills), that we would seek from candidates. The following would represent the core competencies we would require to build a team with a balanced set of skills,” Rebecca shared.

1. Real estate or finance experience
   Trimont is a specialised loan service provider that supports clients in management and administration of their real asset secured loan portfolio, including agency and trustee roles. Under a traditional recruitment strategy, the ideal candidate would have direct real estate debt finance middle or back-office experience. In reality, if a candidate had experience in either finance or real estate then Trimont had sufficient knowledge within the senior team to train their staff on the missing skillset. Widening the pool of candidates to those working in firms that specialised in valuations, accounting, and funds management in addition to the traditional banking sector.
2. Technology proficiency
   Technology, in particular undertaking analysis in systems and Excel, is a critical skillset required by staff to undertake their daily role. On the basis that a certain level of Excel skill is required from the first day of employment and the extensive time required to train staff in this skillset, Trimont made the decision that they would hold firm on the requirement that candidates have an intermediate level of Excel training.
3. Entrepreneurial spirit
   This year Trimont is celebrating its 35-year anniversary and has six offices throughout Americas, UK and Australia. Therefore, it may not, at first glance, be obvious why a core competency Rebecca was looking for be an entrepreneurial spirit. “Even with the backing of the strong global Trimont network, here in Australia we were effectively a start-up. Our team undertakes financial analysis, risk due diligence and cash movement but is also required to find time to weave in functions including marketing, HR, finance, office management, and business development. “That’s not my role” or “I don’t have the skills to do that work” are phrases that don’t work in a small team forging a strong growth vision. We needed candidates who would roll-up their sleeves and take initiative, while also collaborating well as a team to serve our client base,” Rebecca said.
4. Keenness to learn
   If a skills-based recruitment plan was going to be successful there were two key elements, particularly given a significant portion was on-the-job training. Firstly, Trimont’s senior team needed the ability to identify where individuals have gaps in their skills and the desire to invest the time and resources to train their staff. Secondly, the staff required the drive and openness to learn new skills. Without both parties agreeing to work together in sync, the training would have become burdensome and ultimately fail.
5. Culture
   The final skill Rebecca shares, is the most important. While technical skills are essential, cultural add within a team is vital. A candidate might have exceptional individual skills, but if they cannot work cohesively within a team, their productivity and the overall team dynamics could be hampered.

“By far the most pleasing outcome of our skill-based recruiting program was the diversity we achieved within our team.
Anyone who knows me will know that Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) is a passion of mine that I can talk about for hours. In saying that, I didn’t set out with an expectation of diversity quotas or requirements. What I did learn is that if you strip back your assessment of candidates to purely their skillset, diversity occurs naturally. Within the Trimont APAC office, we have 44% female, 56% male split with 75% female representation in senior roles. Our team speak nine languages including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Indonesian, Ndebele, Kalanga, Zulu, Hindi and Malay and have experience in accounting, restructuring, banking, operations and real estate valuations,” Rebecca concluded.

To unlock the power of diversity within the team, leaders should seek to ensure that all members have a true sense of belonging.

Research conducted by Coqual, a non-profit think tank, found a sense of belonging at work is rooted in four elements:

1. Being seen for your unique contributions;
2. Connected to your coworkers;
3. Supported in your daily work and career development;
4. Proud of your organisation’s values and purpose.

Trimont is a proud WiBF Corporate Bronze Member.

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