Earlier this week while waiting for a coffee I began a casual conversation with a client. As the conversation progressed he asked me what I liked about Optimum. My immediate response was “we’re different”. Of course, this then led to the follow-up question of what is different about Optimum; and again, without pause, I answered our collaborative approach. Since then I have spent some time reflecting on my answers and the reason they came to me so quickly – what does make us different?
Firstly, as mentioned earlier, our collaborative approach – One Optimum. As a business, we not only 
offer recruitment services but HR consulting and remote staffing. This variety of services requires collaboration from each part of our business in order to work together to ensure all clients have access to our different areas of expertise. This collaboration across our business makes Optimum truly different from other agencies, however, it’s not only this that brings us together as a business. Recruiters often come off as highly competitive and placement focused. A common complaint that I hear in the market is that they push candidates too hard and are not people focused. After having been here for just over 6 months, I have well and truly settled into the routine of one Optimum and I can put my hand on my heart and say that this is not that case here. When a consultant takes in a role from a client it is immediately sent around on our internal communication tool, My Employee Life (more on this later) so that everyone in the office is aware of the new vacancy. We then work together as an office to see if we have any suitable candidates ready to go (It is important to note that we work in an open plan office, so it is quite easy to have the whole office involved in a conversation!) If this is not the case the consultant will immediately contact our sourcing specialists in Manila to set up a game plan as to how to find the right candidates for the role.
In addition to our collaborative approach, another reason Optimum is different is because we live by, and truly believe in our services. When I applied for my job at optimum I was put through the same process as our candidates would be. I had at least 2 interviews with different consultants, underwent cognitive assessment and of course reference checking. We hire our staff through the same process that we use for clients. Earlier I mentioned My Employee Life, and I’m sure you’re wondering what this is! Again this is a service that we provide to clients, but also use daily here in our office. My Employee Life (MEL) is an HR consulting tool that, for us, kind of acts like an internal Facebook. On here members of staff post our new jobs, their whereabouts if they are out at external meetings and just general information that they want to share. In addition to this MEL is used to set up employee goals. This provides measurable and real-time results for managers about how we are performing on a weekly basis. In addition to this, we also partake in monthly pulse surveys administered through the platform which we go through at our monthly office meeting. Last, but certainly not least is our remote staff! Our remote sourcing team consists of two members, Anna and Erika, both of whom are located in the Philippines and are crucial to the success of our business. While geographically they are quite a way away, they are very much a part of the Optimum team. They are patched into our daily meetings via skype and consultants in Brisbane speak to them multiple times a day to work collaboratively on various roles. In addition to our resourcing team, we also have Katha and Crix who work closely alongside our HR consulting staff here in Brisbane on any tech upgrades, delivery and presentations. Again we would be lost without them!
So to summarise, Optimum is different not only because of our collaborative approach but because of our belief in our services. We believe in our services enough that our company relies on them if that’s not a service guarantee I don’t know what is!