Darren Evans

Calder Stewart is a national leader in industrial and commercial property and construction services throughout New Zealand. We have been creating solutions for our clients for the last 65 years and are proud to remain family owned and operated. Our relationship with Decipher Group, who we use for executive-level and governance roles, continues to strengthen.

With an existing team of 400+ and a strong future ahead, we are a business with purpose and possibility. Calder Stewart came through the first 12-15 months of COVID-19 reasonably strong and are now looking forward to a period of significant growth; our North Island business alone is projected to exponentially grow in the next 12-months. Calder Stewart has the greatest level of work ahead of us than we have had in our 65-year history.

We typically partner with an external recruitment consultancy when looking for executive level roles. The value for us, is tapping into a consultancy’s wider networks, looking for talent in industries different to ours as well as identifying up and coming leaders and future talent in the regions in which we operate. Decipher Group is great at building networks and relationships in a business environment; they have strong connections in the market and Calder Stewart leverage this when recruiting for roles.

Calder Stewart is a diverse business, we operate across property, manufacturing, construction and funds management. When we are looking for senior hires, what we are really after is talent with a broad perspective and who are growth focussed with a long-term view. Importantly, we need people who can form deep connections with people. As a family operated business, growing and enabling our culture is a critical business requirement. Finding the right talent for our business is rare and finding true leaders is rarer.

We partner with Decipher Group because of their ability to find people who fit with our organisation and bring with them the skills and capability to contribute to growing our business. As well as their talent for finding talent, Decipher Group consistently identify candidates who align with our culture and who have a growth mindset. During the recruitment process, Decipher provide a broader view of a candidate, they give a fuller story on the person which really adds significantly to the selection process. We also utilise psychometric testing as an added layer of due diligence not just for the selection process but also to assist with onboarding and identifying Calder Stewart’s future leaders.

It is Decipher’s honesty and professional expertise that makes the difference – they are strong in their opinion and feedback but in a way that challenges our thinking. I believe that our relationship with Decipher Group has continued to grow because they find people who fit with who we are. They also have an element of proactivity, where they connect with us providing information and ideas that are relevant to our business. Working with Decipher Group you come to understand that for them recruitment is a relationship not a transaction.