With All the Headhunters Knocking on My Door,
How Do I Pick One to Work With?

Established in 1978 providing HR/Human Resource Policy and Labor Consulting, for decades TMT has been more than an Executive Search/recruiting firm you can depend on. Able to solve employee/people problems, we are responsible for every senior placement our headhunters make. We have long experience, research and data on your industry, your competition and the players and partners you need for your optimum success. Whether it is market entry, exit, or building your business organically or through acquisition, we hope to be your trusted advisor. Before we got into Executive Search in a big way in 1982, TMT provided companies with human resource consulting including effective employment contracts, pay and salary systems, retirement and employee benefits, and ROE/Rules of Employment/ work rules, maintenance of a union free environment, or greatly improved labor/staff relations. We provide the managers/key human resources you need, and the most effective ways to manage them in Japan.

1. Be careful about working with too many headhunters or recruiting companies at the same time. The Recruiter realizes this, and he or she works closely with those Clients who work closely with the Recruiter -- the Clients where the Executive Search Consultant's Candidates get hired!

2. TMT has never run newspaper ads to attract Candidates. Stable contributors are successful enough where they are. They are treated well and are mature enough to know the grass is not always greener. Looking at help wanted ads, or Internet recruiting web pages is mostly a disconcerting distraction for these busy high-quality people. Particularly in Japan, top quality human resources will usually not find you. It is the headhunter's job to find them.

3. TMT has always believed that the value we bring is to identity, and directly approach (scout) people who would not otherwise present themselves to you. For example, we will identify and introduce the strong people at the specific firms the Client targets with us. Our long service Senior Executive Search Consultants often already know about their track record. If not sure, we will assess them, and discreetly confirm their reputation and performance from related connections we have in our database, or through new, careful approaches.

4. For this kind of intense headhunting/recruiting work, there is a bad impression made if multiple Executive Search Consultants contact the same person for the same position. Recruiting in Tokyo is different in that so much of Japan is in Tokyo! and stays in anyway, the greater Tokyo area. There still is less movement between companies, industries and regions. An Executive Search recruiter with years of experience probably can grasp the universe of players more completely in Tokyo and Japan, than is possible in many other markets.

5. The executive search customer/vendor relationship is a bit unique. If you buy a computer, it performs the work, and the company you buy it from maintains it. The same is true of a car or a T.V. If you purchase most services, the service is as good as the product or the worker or consultant who performs it. In recruiting the Recruiter merely makes an introduction and that is all too often the end of the Recruiter's role.

6. Does it have to be that way? What additional value-added can the Recruiter/headhunter who introduces the Candidate bring? This is where TMT differs from most other executive search firms.

7. We started our business providing human resource consulting including problem preventing employment contracts, Rules of Employment, and personnel and salary systems. Consulting also included terminations and problem employee solutions. We made sure compensation packages were set up right, with attention to probationary periods, and performance based screening and interviewing techniques. If you are going to have a retirement benefit, why not make sure it is strategically set up to retain strong performers, while not preventing you from "firing" (carefully!!) dehiring or outplacing someone who deserves that; or at least a pay adjustment/reduction etc. until performance is back on course, or there is the right balance with other staff compensation levels. Those are our roots. That remains what we are true to. But we can also headhunt.

8. We know that if a Client wants to get someone on board at any cost -- waiving the (too short) probationary period, "guaranteeing" a certain pay level, meeting a request to divide total pay by 12 instead of having the at risk summer and winter bonus as it is applied to general staff, or providing a golden parachute should the operation be closed in Japan -- the Client is planting the seeds of failure. Such things are usually requested by potential hires for the wrong reasons. And do please watch out for the English speakers with very good interviewing techniques. Maybe they have had too much practice! It may sound like music to your ears, but it can kill your bottom line. Yes. Even more so in Japan, job hoppers are your greatest risk.

9. For some 30 years, TMT's Recruiters and Headhunters have placed at least one manager in over 650 foreign capitalized firms. In our publications there are detailed, signed testimonials testifying to placing over 50 people, or over 40 people in a single client firm. Since 1984, thousands of expats and regional and home office executives have read Tom Nevins' Japan Times and other books. It is an honor, and a good reputation in a tight expat community like Tokyo is always TMT's burden and responsibility to protect. TMT's headhunters are aware of this, and they hold themselves to the standard you would desire of a partner/vendor who is responsible and entrusted with your corporate and personal success.

10. These are reasons we feel that we are special. Other executive search firms can also introduce you to qualified candidates. I think our greatest strength is that about half of our revenues come from non-recruiting human resource/personnel consulting that anticipates, prevents, solves people problems, and gives our Clients a strong foundation.

11. If a person introduced and placed by TMT does not work out, our clients know that we have the professional expertise to fix the problem. We are known. We have a reputation, and a built-in quality control mechanism that keeps our Recruiters and headhunters productive, ethical, and on their toes. This may also be a good reason to entrust TMT with your critical executive search assignments.