Richard Greenaway

Anderson Lloyd is a leading New Zealand law firm offering a full range of legal services with offices in Dunedin, Queenstown, Christchurch, and Auckland. Established in 1862 and with a team of around 150 people, we are experiencing consistent growth within a sector that is relatively static. Enabling our business to meet growth aspirations requires the right talent and this definitely puts pressure on us in terms of recruitment.

We were initially referred to Decipher Group as a recruitment partner and despite this being a relatively new relationship, we have engaged them for a number of both legal and non-legal roles. Based on our experience and confidence in them to deliver, we are now recommending Decipher Group to our wider network.

Anderson Lloyd has a lean human resources team. We have seen an increasing number of new people come to us via recruitment agencies which has influenced our thinking around using an external recruitment partner on a variety of roles. We also have a few unique challenges in regard to finding the right talent for our business, particularly our regional offices which are not the easiest markets to recruit into. The COVID-19 situation is also having an impact in terms of mobility and people retaining loyalty to their existing employer and therefore less likely to consider a change. With a tightening talent market, these factors combine to make finding the right people that little bit more challenging.

What we are looking for from a recruitment partner is a firm with a good reputation in the market and one that has access to a broad selection of candidates. Having an added level of search and recruitment expertise, really makes the difference. At the time of being introduced to Decipher Group, we knew we needed a new approach and Decipher have certainly delivered.

Recruiting the right person for a role is an obvious measure of success. However, what we find is that a lot of candidates can “do” a job. What we are looking for is that person who brings a different perspective, someone who contributes something new to our business through a different thought pattern or process.

I believe that a recruiter needs to understand our business in order to pick up on this and Decipher Group have proven that they absolutely do know our business and the personalities within it. They have purposely taken the time to learn about us and connect with various people in the wider firm; Decipher engage really well with our team.

I would characterise Decipher Group’s approach as refreshing. We have open and frank conversations that are based on good communication. They are up front about their level of knowledge and the whole recruitment process is timely and transparent. Recruitment is all about having a strong relationship and that is what we have with Decipher Group.

Another point of difference with Decipher Group is that they think more broadly than a typical recruitment consultancy. While our relationship started with recruitment, our Board and Executive Team have also participated in the Diversity of Thought programme through Decipher Group. Anderson Lloyd is passionately committed to bringing fresh talent and new perspectives into our law firm. Not only is it important to ensure our people have the diversity of thought and experience required to adapt to the challenges of the future, but this needs to be led from the top. The Diversity of Thought programme was received really well by our Board and Executive Team. Participants felt fully engaged in the programme and it really reinforced that diversity is absolutely critical to our business; it was a great team exercise as well as being a lot of fun.