I first met Dan Cosgrove from Optimum Consulting in early 2019 and over a coffee catch up we quickly built a professional working relationship. Since that first meeting I have engaged Dan and the Optimum team to assist in resourcing a key position and to conduct pre-employment  psychological testing. The efficient and proactive approach Dan demonstrated made it an easy decision to make when I was looking for a leadership communication style workshop for our Global Executive Management Team conference in December last year. Optimum conducted invaluable psychological testing prior to the conference and the results were followed up by Dan and Isaac Dufficy who worked with me to identify the key areas and styles to address.

In the two hour workshop Dan and Isaac quickly gained and kept the attention of the EMT with their knowledgeable and friendly approach. Not always an easy achievement in a room full of engineers and technically minded execs. The workshop was great and generated impactful discussions that were delved into over lunch.

The psychological reports have also been a great asset for me to use in ongoing individual coaching as an HR professional

I have had the pleasure to work with Ben Walsh and the Optimum Consulting Group for the past 17 years. Optimum has placed me in multiple roles and successfully recruited many team members for me across different organisations.

Optimum has a very unique recruitment approach. They listen to their clients and deliver great results in an agile way. Optimum has added significant value by bringing capabilities and competency to the organisations.

I highly recommend Optimum recruitment and Ben Walsh to my network. Star employees are not easy to find. With Optimum, the odds are so much better.

I have had the opportunity to work closely with Stephen Cushion and Optimum Consulting in two capacities. Firstly, in my own recruitment process for Principal at Canterbury College and secondly, in developing my Executive team and recruitment for a Deputy Principal.

On every occasion, I have found Stephen to demonstrate superb attention to detail, be a clear and responsive communicator and to show a real understanding of the factors confronting school leaders. Stephen has shown an interest in my personal wellbeing and onboarding after I have taken up duty in the role and has been a useful mentor in this role. His understanding of personality and leadership profiles and strengths is very strong. This assisted me greatly when finalising an appointment at Canterbury for a recent Deputy Principal role.

Stephen worked recently with my Executive team on group culture, communication protocols and on our priorities as a group in the short and long term. This consultancy work was received very positively by the group and has had a lasting impact on the way we do business.

I could not recommend Stephen more strongly for any search or recruitment process in independent schools.

Thank you again for all your help on the recruiting process. It was an absolutely pleasure to work with you on this and the calibre of people your team turned up were absolutely impressive.

I have worked with the team at Optimum for over 12 years now. They have assisted me in successfully filling a number of roles in different businesses over that time, including executive managers and CFOs during my time as an investment portfolio manager. More recently, following my own transition into an executive role within the resources and construction sector, I have found Optimum’s sector knowledge, combined with their professional and hard-working approach, to be very effective in putting forward quality candidates for project and supply chain roles.

I have known Jason Buchanan, General Manager Insight & Innovation for Optimum Consulting Group, in a professional capacity since 2014. Towards the end of that year and since that time, I have engaged Optimum Consulting Group to undertake a series of quantitative surveys to help us understand Employee Engagement and Culture, and measure the impact of our improvement initiatives.

Jason and his team were able to understand our requirements from the beginning and have now completed 3 “longitudinal” surveys for us. On each occasion, we have asked Optimum to create and manage the survey and to complete a summary report including highlighting areas of interest.

This involved dealing with me and various members of my team at various stages.

What really impressed me is the simplicity and ease with which the projects were managed. We received exactly what we asked for.