Remember that club in high school that you so wanted to be a part of, but were never invited? Or more recently, that exclusive professional organization or association that so attracts you, but membership is by invitation only . . . and you aren't so presumptuous to think you'll ever be invited? Well, IRSA is just that sort of association for me and Bishop Partners, LLC . . . IRSA stands for the International Retained Search Association, and I was invited to be a member in January of 2008.
Since that time, IRSA has been refining its role and value to the members. I'm pleased to have lead the drive for a new identity and positioning for the organization. The re-branding effort was lead by St. Louis' own branding and design consultancy, Yank and LImey. My good friend Ben Franklin, who in my opinion is one of the best designers of brand identify anywhere, created our new logo and identity.
I'm also proud of the new website we've just rolled out. To view it, click here. My fellow IRSA members trusted me to direct the design and development of the site, which is intended to highlight the value that IRSA members consistently deliver to their clients.
IRSA is a group of about 25 retained recruiters, all of whom are leaders in their specialties. Most have been retained recruiters for decades, and know exactly what they're doing. Many are such accomplished recruiters, that they are routinely chosen to train other recruiters at national association gatherings, like the NAPS (National Association for Personnel Services) event coming up in Las Vegas. To get an idea of what those events are like, you can check it out here.
From the moment I heard about IRSA, I was hopeful to become a member. We meet twice a year to intensively discuss and share best practices with each other. Since there is no "right" way to succeed at recruiting, different people have different approaches. The glory of IRSA is that the members are very willing to share all their methodology with fellow members. The value of that open sharing and mutual support is absolutely immeasurable. It's not an exaggeration to say that every IRSA member is a better recruiter as a result of their involvement.
This association also helps each member recruiting firm provide additional support and capability to all of our clients. Since the organization is truly international, with firms from every continent except Africa and Australia (at the moment), existing client relationships can be leveraged to provide those clients with additional capabilities and service all over the world. The client can rest assured that they will be dealing with an experienced retained recruiter with the highest ethical standards and success rates.
I also work with a number of candidates who are interested in working in other countries. IRSA will give Bishop Partners a far better opportunity to be able to move those candidates to spectacular opportunities in other cities from Beijing to Paris. It's an exciting additional capability.
I'll also have the ability to provide candidates for our partners in other cities, who are looking for premier performers in the areas of marketing, advertising and corporate communications.