Catro-Consult Ltd. is a sister company of the Austrian holding company Catro Management Services located in Vienna and operating in human resources consultancy for more than twenty years. In the 90's, more Catro daughter companies were established. At present, they form a professional consultancy group which is among the recognised international companies with a stable position in central and eastern European cities.
Catro-Consult has been successfully active in the Slovak market since 1990. Our human resources consultancy clients are mostly well-established international companies who demand professionalism and high-quality services. Our national strengths are augmented by our membership in the International Search Group, binding leading human resources consultancy companies from Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, the United States and many other countries around the world. Thus, we have the opportunity to get information about the latest trends in the consultancy field and to implement them in the projects of our Slovak clients. We specialise in a range of key business sectors including Banking and Financial Services, Information Technology, Marketing and Construction. We concentrate principally on senior appointments but we also have the overall expertise to assist clients with recruitment-related issues at any level.
This article is called Face to Face. This is because we think it sums up perfectly our approach to doing business. What motivates us is the desire to build long-lasting business relationships with our clients, and it is only by getting close to our clients' businesses that we can be in a position to offer good advice. It is a challenge to be able to meet clients' needs. Our clients want a service tailored to their exact business and personnel situation. Long-lasting business relationships enable us to asses various criteria, for example a candidate's ability to fit into the organisation and be successful within it. Long-lasting cooperation requires candid communication and the ability to rely on partners who will maintain that trust and maintain a high standard of ethics.
In the preparatory phase we collect information about the position, analyse the responsibilities, present this in the form of a job description and derive the personal attributes that are necessary. Important criteria such as qualifications, acquired knowledge, general intelligence, special attitudes, motivation, adjustment or emotional balance are evaluated in the selection process. The first stage is interviewing - the most common method of selection, when we collect information in order to predict how well the applicant would perform in the job by measuring them against predetermined criteria and we provide the candidate with details of the job and organisation. We advocate a reciprocal approach, because throughout the selection process applicants also make their own decisions and potentially suitable recruits could be lost because of the way in which information was presented or because of a lack of information.
The use of tests in employment procedures is surrounded by strong feelings for and against. We use an intelligence test, a performance test and sometimes attainment or personality tests. But test scores are evaluated in the context of other information about candidates. Selection decisions are made up of a number of different pieces of information. Test results do not have a simple relationship with job performance, as there are many relevant aspects of an applicant which a test cannot measure and other factors, such as motivation, which also contribute to job performance.
Despite the quality of our services, we provide our clients with a three- to six-month guarantee period from the start of recruiting candidates.
In every case, we try to gain references from previous employers, although the quality of references depends on the person who gives the reference, if he is an excellent judge of working performance, a good communicator, and if he is interested in giving impartial references. In any case, the knowledge that such a check may be made helps focus the mind of candidates so that they resist the temptation to embellish their employment history.
The selection decision involves measuring each candidate against the selection criteria. The best candidates are presented to our clients and they make their final decision, as getting the most and the best out of their workforce is an increasingly critical and distinguishing factor for success.
Author: Dr. Eva Zahradniková
