IESF South Africa

Candidates

Candidates

IESF South Africa wishes to establish a professional and ethical relationship with their candidates. We have drawn up this Charter in order to clarify our professional standards and to explain these to you.

Confidentiality

In order to protect your confidentiality, especially towards your current employer, IESF South Africa will adopt the following practices:

Disclosure of Information

Key information will be provided to you that will include:

At the preliminary stage, when you are being evaluated as a potential candidate, the search consultant may not always be able to divulge confidential information about the position or the client. When you have been identified as a legitimate candidate should you expect the consultant to disclose more than the basic information. There will however be times when information about the client must remain confidential until the later stages of the search process. This will be explained to you.  When you are given confidential information about the client you too must respect that information and not communicate it to others.

The Interview

The search consultant will:

The search consultant should give you an honest appraisal of how well you fit the opportunity. If the client decides not to proceed with your candidacy, the consultant should provide as full an explanation of the client's decision as possible.

The Selection Timetable

If the search consultant does not outline the interview/selection process, you should feel free to ask about how long it will take, whether there will be any psychometric or other written tests, when will references be required, what the next step is.

The search consultant will understand that, as a busy senior executive, the scheduling of appointments and interviews needs to be sensitive to your time, position and responsibilities to your current employer. A search assignment can often take several months to complete. When you become an active candidate, the search firm should communicate with you on a regular basis about the progress of the assignment. 

Please remember that while the search consultant represents the client organization, they do not have complete control over the client's diary and communications. Ideally both parties, candidate and client, need time to make a measured, well thought out decision. However, the consultant should keep you informed of any deadlines imposed by the client and the implications for not making a decision according to those deadlines.

The Hiring Decision

If the client decides to offer you the position, this can involve sensitive issues in which the search consultant can play a crucial role as an intermediary. You may feel comfortable to handle this process yourself. However you can express any concerns or special requirements that you may have on terms and conditions through the consultant if you wish.

When the search process is completed and you have joined your new company, the search consultant may stay in touch with you in the early stages to make sure that your transition into the new position is a success. If you experience problems while you are settling in, you should contact your consultant, as they may well be able to help sort out problems by talking diplomatically to the client.

If your candidacy is not successful, most consultants will want to keep you in their pool of candidates for future assignments. They may also use you as a resource to help identify candidates for assignments. It may be in your own interests to maintain such relationships.

Your Role

You can assist in the selection process in the following ways: