The need for independent board level appointments increasing

Over the years you have developed an expertise in recruiting for several sectors. What are specificities of the local job market? How is it going to evolve in the years to come?

Greenfield is a local recruiter with the key specialisms of Finance & Accounting, Legal, Corporate Governance, and HR. In terms of industry we cover the following client base: commerce and industry, corporate services, family offices, private equity, real estate, traditional funds, asset management, banking and insurance.

Luxembourg’s international workforce is dependent on highly educated and highly skilled people. There is no-where else in Europe that can offer such a mixture of experience and talent. As a professional recruiter it is an exceptional place to work.

The biggest topic at the moment, and which will only increase in the coming years, is strong corporate governance – I don’t think that will be a surprise to anyone! AIFMD and the upcoming UCITS V (March 18th) has led to a real focus on operational risk and compliance roles, as well as the further and increasing need for true independence in board level appointments. Greenfield is leading the market in these areas and having recently completed searches for a number of independent board mandates I am happy to say that our focus is paying dividends. Concurrently the need for good company secretarial (legal officers/corporate officers) and accounting/finance professionals continues.

What are the biggest challenges you face when recruiting for your clients? Are there specific profiles that are not available in Luxembourg? According to you, what’s the ideal profile for your Luxembourgish clients in the different sectors you cover?

Our role is identifying and attracting the correct skills, experience, and fit for our clients – of course it is challenging, that is why we have a job! Organizational fit is always the hardest aspect for us, and it is for this reason we not only need to meet all of our candidates, but need to know all of our clients well too.

Our clients need the right people for their businesses, and that’s what we provide.

Can you go over Greenfield’s history in Luxembourg? Can you share with our readers some key features and milestones about Greenfield?

Greenfield is actually a Luxembourgish company! We started here in 2008, and since then have grown organically to a team of 10. We also started in 2011 in the UK with a sister-brand – “Greenacre” – and now have offices in Hertfordshire and the West Midlands. In Luxembourg we have successfully worked with over 1,000 candidates and serviced the needs of over 100 companies.

I am proud to work at Greenfield and honestly believe that our team today is the strongest it has ever been. We aim to live our core values of achievement, outstanding quality of service, honesty, being trusted advisors, and teamwork – and have made these pillars central to our review and development process. Through our competency structure we aim to provide all of our colleagues with meaningful career progression. Since we implemented these aspects of our business in 2014 we have only gone from strength to strength. As a group we aim to open a 4th international office at the start of 2017, and aim to be a strong team of 40 by 2020.

(This article was originally published on HRONE)