Overview

Antal Russia is one of the largest recruitment companies in Russia and CIS, focusing on mid-senior level managerial recruitment across most industry sectors. Antal was one of the very first international recruitment firms operating in Russia and in 2008 was acquired by the FiveTen Group, which operates in 12 countries and four continents. Antal have a formidable presence Russia, not only seen as experts in recruitment, but also regarded as market commentators, often quoted on TV, radio, online and in print.

The Need

 With the backing of a strong brand such as the Fiveten Group and their strength of reputation locally, Antal are set for real growth. Their managers are critical to the success of this growth and expansion beyond Russia, so investing in their development is essential.

Together with the Partners and Fiveten Directors we identified the key development needs for a group of 15 managers. The focus was to help them understand their responsibilities in their roles and equip them to manage in a rapidly growing market, where competition is growing all the time.

The challenges for Focal Point were to design and deliver a programme for a group of bright, ambitious managers who would be learning about leadership skills in their second and, in some instances, their third language!

The Solution

We initially conducted a series of phone interviews with each participant to identify what the individual needs were and asked them all to complete a Belbin self assessment questionnaire (which we were able to administer in Russian) We used the results of these to shape the training programme.
 
We delivered the sessions in three two day blocks over a four month period in the Antal offices in Moscow. The structure  allowed time in between modules for participants to implement actions and bed skills down. The final module was a practical workshop running through a series of roleplay scenarios to give all the participants a chance to try out their new skills and build confidence in dealing with typical management situations, such as giving a tricky piece of feedback or delegating a task.

Christian Lepolard, Partner for the Finance and Legal divison says “After having spent 2 days in Focal Point’s training, I can confirm the excellent results they have achieved, and especially their ability to pass on a great amount of material to people in a different language than their native language. I really hope and believe that these good first results will translate into significant (qualitative and quantitative) growth for Antal Russian in the coming years”.

Managing Director, Michael Germershausen says “Focal Point have delivered a fantastic programme for us. Some of the line managers were unsure as to what they would gain, but very quickly they saw how valuable the content was and how the practical guidance would make an immediate impact. We have all learned a lot and are looking forward to working with Focal Point again in the New Year.”