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Iventa has been using PERLS for years to the great satisfaction of their customers. This assessment tool assists the selection process during internal and external recruiting as well as the analysis of potential within existing employees. This way, Iventa helps clients using internal potential and choosing the right candidates – because the right employees are the company’s key to its success.

So far Iventa has used PERLS mostly for the Austrian market, but thanks to the great response and demand from Central and Eastern European markets, the online assessment tool is now also available in other languages.

The modular build of the online tool allows choosing and combining testing procedures which were already used successfully in past projects. Because of this, Iventa has extensive experience regarding application possiblities, interpretation and evaluation of PERLS.
The procedures have now been translated into the different CEE languages to offer clients even better customized services. To guarantee its success Iventa consultants have been trained to use the online assessment tool as well as to interpret and evaluate its results. This is one more way Iventa supports their customers in CEE to effectively use and harness the potential of their employees.

The markets in Eastern Europe are in a different economic cycle compared to Western European markets, which also results in different employment needs of the companies who operate there. Whereas Western economies are mature and dominated by multinational corporations with stable structures, the situation in CEE varies across different markets.

According to their economic situation, these CEE markets can be divided into three groups: Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are considered performing economies, whereas Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are stagnating economies. Finally South Eastern Europe, including countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina, is considered a declining economy. Small markets like Macedonia and Montenegro are closely linked to other bigger markets and therefore currently considered to be somewhere inbetween performing and stagnating.

In performing economies recruitment needs are becoming more and more similar to western markets. Specifically, this means that there is an increasing demand for middle management and specialists. In stagnating economies such a demand only exists in case companies are replacing their current staff. In declining economies on the other hand there is currently no such demand because companies are actually reducing staff in order to cut costs to stay in business.
Since staffing needs naturally follow economic trends – also for managers and specialists. Compared to performing economies there are less qualified candidates in CEE markets and therefore direct contact („headhunting“) is regularly practiced in search and selection processes in order to find suitable candidates.

The process through which an executive search company finds senior candidates for its customers has recently expanded to new dimensions. Whereas information about candidates is easier to source, matching it to customer needs has become more difficult. Moreover, the business needs themselves have grown in complexity and it takes a good amount of effort on the consultant’s side to discover them in the first place. Sourcing has become easier since online content became available, however, selecting the right information is more crucial than ever for the success and timely execution of the project. While the typical search process has remained the same, the seniority and business competence of the consultant and their team is gaining more importance along with their skills to manage communication between all parties.

Yes, the candidates are right there, on the internet and all over. Yet, how do you know they fit the business objectives of the role and are a match for your organisation? And if somehow you knew that the answers were “yes”, how would you attract the candidates to join you?

Executive search carefully deals with every step in the process and more often than not, the success resides in the ability of the search team to mediate between the interests and needs of each party. Executive means top level in organisations, therefore consultants should be able to deal on this level as well. Hence the level of business expertise on the consultants’ side is crucial.

To respond to these new demands Iventa has developed its own research and evaluation processes to meet the new challenges in Executive Search, and the collective experience of the Iventa consulting team is always available for you to reference at any time.