Halsey Keetch: Headhunting in the City
Caroline Keetch and Alex Keetch tell Jennifer Sieg about the key to Halsey Keetch’s ongoing success
In the heart of any city, there often lies a silent yet roaring storm of businesses that keep the industry ticking over.
For Halsey Keetch in particular, there is one mission: to be the best at what they do – and the proof is in the pudding.
The family-run executive search firm came to be in 1988 – originally founded and coined as Halsey Consulting – when Nigel Halsey acted upon his vision to “do things differently.”
For what remained a family business through the highs and lows of the 1990s and early 2000s, the firm has faced an abundance of change, growth, global events and unexpected crises.
In 2015, the firm was rebranded for what is now known as Halsey Keetch – run by Nigel Halsey’s daughter, Caroline, and her husband Alex Keetch.
Defining Success
Whether it be weathering though the storm of the global financial crisis from 2007 to 2008 or adapting through Brexit and Covid-19, Halsey Keetch has powered through it all to celebrate its 35th anniversary this year.
In fact, the demand for governance and control staff drastically expanded after the global financial crisis – creating a busy few years for the family.
“Institutions invested heavily in risk management, compliance and internal audit functions, hiring new leaders of these functions and senior teams beneath them (often through our company) to run much of the ‘cleaning up’ of the financial services industry that has taken place over the last decade,” Alex said.
The governance, regulatory and controls function continues to evolve alongside the industry, they said, maintaining its place and importance.
What may seem as a surprise to many, however, is that “targets” were never at the forefront of Halsey Keetch’s business model.
So, what is it that creates and fosters the family’s success?
Lasting relationships
“What you’re really trying to do is build up a strong reputation and position in people’s hearts and minds so that if you can help them in the future, then they come to you and that’s where the commercial aspect comes,” Caroline said.
We have a ridiculously high success rate, which reflects the value of our method
Caroline Keetch
Whether it be writing and reviewing the books each morning over the day’s first cup of coffee or liaising with clients and prospective candidates first-hand, Caroline and Alex value and nurture their relationships every step of the way.
Alex said: “We keep going as we have a true passion for making a success of our small business and a passion for championing the importance of the governance, risk and compliance functions.
“We also love our work and interacting with our contacts and find a job well done to be hugely satisfying, especially in the context of pursuing the aspect of our mission linked to the financial services industry’s resilience and reputation.”
As a result, their success rate is at 96 per cent – meaning 96 per cent of the people they have placed since taking over in 2015 remain within the organisations they placed them in, whether in the same role or a different one within.
“We have a ridiculously high success rate, which we firmly believe demonstrates the deep value of investing in our search process in order to attract and hire leaders in our specialist functions,” Caroline said.
Being a leader
Caroline’s strong profile as a female leader – also serving as an ambassador for the Diversity Project, a city-wide DE&I initiative – allows her to remain resilient through challenges and give back to the community, helping the city progress in what can often be difficult conversations.
“We are really, really structured and regimented about looking at the market, analysing the data when it comes to diversity, running an inclusive process, trying to get our clients to understand that inclusive process is always about communication, acknowledgment, and really joining the dots,” Caroline said.
Being a female leader has allowed Caroline to take on a “greater resonance,” she said, especially given that her two children at home are her most “demanding stakeholders”.
Nevertheless, she is able to use her people-focused business to speak with people across the financial services industry and use her voice as she wishes.
“For many years I have also taken an active interest in the importance of both cognitive diversity when it comes to effective decision-making and the notion of inclusion when it comes to running fair and representative search processes,” Caroline said.
Quality over quantity
“Resilience, good humour, patience, and humility are all integral attributes in running a small business; the world does not stop and start at our convenience, even if sometimes we wish it would,” Alex said.
As executive search can be a “competitive industry,” Alex said, it’s important to focus on what makes them unique.
To be relationship-focused is important for any business, especially one that works to make a difference within various organisations, Caroline said with pride.
“Our size and character as a firm was probably one of the reasons that we were so popular because, you know, the conversation about leadership was really about that personal approach.”
Credibility and consistency are at the heart of Halsey Keetch, the two agreed.
“Our default mindset is a fairly serious one, although we also pride ourselves on being enjoyable to work with,” they added.