The most frequent question that I have been asked over the last 6 years is why we are called Frog.
So thought I would tell you the background…
When deciding to launch Frog and leave the safe big corporate company job, there were over 350 recruitment companies in Auckland alone… so to launch yet another recruitment company it had to have something pretty compelling to stand out. It had to be about ‘movement and opportunity’ both into organisations and within organisations. It had to be about unashamedly being noticed. And it meant taking a risk and moving into the area of recruitment communications.
For me also – this was about actions speaking louder than words.
This came in the form of deciding to have two dedicated consulting teams: one focused on clients and one focused on candidates. Not a brand new idea granted, but this approach was not widely practiced because it meant … you had to invest in your candidate audience. (Shock horror!)
There were 3 other key drivers that acted as catalysts to form Frog:
1. Candidates were saying they had had a ‘guts full’ of being poorly treated in the recruitment process. Many, sadly, had excellent examples of just how lacking on professionalism it was.
2. There was a strong voice from client contacts who were deciding that the world of recruitment needed to ‘up the ante’ with professionalism and communications.
3. Was to acknowledge the impact technology was having on positions. At that stage an article had appeared in Australia that sited over 50,000 Secretaries (remember that title!) has disappeared from the work force and had been replaced by PA’s, EA,s Office Managers, Administrations Coordinators, Data Base Managers and so on…
So into the Wyndham Street offices we moved – two of us, Chris Robson and me in an expanse of polished wooden floors.
We talked about ‘treating our client employer brands and candidates careers with equal measures of respect’. (And still do to this day)
And 6 years on I can say, we have not waivered from the thinking of day 1 – and for good reason. We receive in excess of 40% word of mouth referral. We have a loyal stable of well known clients we work with and our professional expertise extends to the retention of placed staff which means our placements are ‘sticky’.
So what’s in a name? Well our one has worked brilliantly.
