ERA in 2020 by Sarah El-Rasoul

2020 is going down in history books, what an incredible journey it’s been but thankfully the ERA remains a stable with not too much disruption along the way in fact, it’s been the opposite!

The membership has pulled together supported, trained and mentored in a way that we hadn’t planned. As we entered March it quickly became apparent that in reality it wasn’t going to be possible to hold our annual conference at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The speakers were set, tickets had been sold and as we looked at the boxes of goodies, ready to be filled in the ERA bags the reality hit. Shock horror we would have to cancel.

Many other organisations of course were going through the same scenario. We decided to make the decision right away even though everything was very much up in the air!  Sadler’s Wells have been amazing and very supportive throughout.  There is no doubt COVID has had such a devastating effect for the events/arts and theatre industry and we thank them massively.

So what would we do next, we needed to support and help out the membership as the weeks went by it was becoming apparent that job losses were on the way. We pulled on our bank of trainers and network and quickly brought together a plan to run webinars, and some roundtable workshops.  We were all adapting to the new way of working from home and meeting via zoom, teams, go to and many more.  Webinars were popping up everywhere and members could be “zoomed out” but we pushed ahead planning a format of events each month and we had a great response interacting with our members and many new faces joined us throughout the year.

We even managed to host the ROTY award online so a big thank you and shout out to our trainers this year, Balazs Paroczay, Mark Williams, Invenias, Jim Stroud, Iker Jusue, Vanessa Raath, Todd Davis, and Gordon Lokenberg. They have brought us some really great content whilst we have all been trying to battle our way through this strange landscape. In addition our gold sponsors Invenias by Bullhorn and Cluen and our silver and bronze sponsor Not Actively Looking have continued to support us in these uncertain times we thank them for this because without them we could not provide free webinars with such amazing trainers for our membership.

As we draw a close on this year, memberships are stable, membership is stronger with many of our core membership drawing together helping and supporting each other. Proving what a great network the ERA can provide.  The year has impacted massively on our industry but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We are looking forward to continue this support for our members into 2021 it may still be a challenging year but we hope much improved with a different working landscape and hopefully an exciting one. Thanks to all our members for their continued support.

There is no doubt that 2020 has impacted massively on our industry but we are feeling positive for next year and excited to be making plans now for a “virtual conference” and the ROTY award and more webinars, a mentoring programme and much more throughout 2021. See you there!

My experience as a member of the ERA by Verity Shepley, MD of Jeva Executive Research

I joined the ERA back in 2013 and will remain a committed member for as long as I work in executive research.  As an independent researcher, the benefits have been innumerable but for me, the stand-out benefit has been the opportunity to meet and network with other researchers.  Getting to know like-minded fellow researchers has provided me with a community of ‘colleagues’, something I had missed since leaving the corporate world 12 years ago.

I have attended the annual Conference for the last 6 years which I have found immensely valuable.  Opening with relevant and high quality guest speakers covering topics such as advanced Boolean search methods, the art of candidate engagement as well as industry perspectives from the recruitment sector and in-house recruitment teams, followed by break-out sessions which offer the opportunity to discuss current and topical points (such as GDPR) and finishing with a glass of wine and networking, the conferences have not only provided me with technical advice and support, but opened up the opportunity to share ideas and concerns of any nature. The collaborative nature of the ERA has been noteworthy with everyone very willing to share ideas and knowledge.  I now have a reliable source of fellow researchers with whom I have been able to share thoughts on a wide variety of topics including client proposals, company terms and conditions, approach methods, technical points, how to handle tricky clients, as well as referring work and partnering with other researchers occasionally.

Winning Researcher of the Year Award in 2018 was an accolade I am truly proud of and I have put this to good use in my marketing materials and ensured all my clients are aware of the award – it is tricky to pinpoint whether this has helped me win new work but I am convinced it has raised my profile and contributed to repeat work and new client wins – I’ve certainly not been twiddling my thumbs much since winning.  The project I entered for the award was a CEO role for the Paris office of a multinational media organisation.  Initially the client thought they were only interested in digital candidates, however on review of these profiles they realised this was not what they wanted at all and I had to re-visit the market to identify more traditional media profiles.  Persuading candidates at this level to engage with you, the researcher, is the biggest challenge with the more senior roles and one I feel the head-hunters often underestimate.

I would recommend anyone considering joining or renewing their membership to go ahead – it offers great value for money, excellent training and professional development opportunities and a great day out at Sadler’s Wells once a year.

Verity Shepley, MD of Jeva Executive Research

jevaconsulting.com

ERA & AESC Certificate in Executive Research online 4 day course

ERA CERTIFICATE IN EXECUTIVE RESEARCH in partnership with the AESC

2019 Course dates in UK time zones – (ERA Members only)

DEC 09-12 – 2am BST

This course is run with a trainer based in the USA

For details, bookings and further information

book here

 

What people say about us

I continue to greatly enjoy the mentoring programme. Following a second year with the same mentor has been very valuable, insofar we have got to know much more of each other, and learnt a lot about executive search and the day to day struggles and joys of managing a team. I hope the programme will continue in the following years.

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