Sue Fontannaz, a research executive at Argo, a media company that focuses on the youth and education sectors as well as providing executive development solutions, spoke to Margaret Harris about her recruitment and training strategies

How do you go about attracting top talent?

We believe in developing partnerships with experienced, independent facilitators.

This talent search includes networking, recruiting on a range of Internet portals (Bizcommunity) and word of mouth from industry leaders.

Our CEO is also active in researching coaching and executive development, which keeps us up to date with the thought leaders in executive development.

By creating a network of independent facilitators, we build a team with a broad range of experience, while offering our partners the opportunity to benefit from the marketing and research support we offer.

This supports our purpose of building strength through partnership.

What technical skills do you look for when recruiting staff?

Executive development is a blend of coaching, facilitation and mentoring, which requires experience at management level and an intuitive understanding of human and social dynamics.

We also search for candidates who have a passion for developing others and a keen interest in studying leadership and executive development. Technical skills relate to the ability to facilitate group discussions and strong presentation skills.

How important are the so-called "softer skills"?

The learning process is a journey of self-discovery and this requires an understanding of the experiential learning process.

Softer skills are difficult to identify, but essential for the understanding and facilitation of this learning journey. The facilitator needs to create a relationship of trust and inspire confidence in the learning process to enable real growth.

Is there room in your organisation for graduates who lack experience?

Executive facilitators require a broad range of management and leadership experience to be effective and leading facilitators. We do, however, have room for graduates in our youth media portfolio, where we search for energetic and aspiring leaders who want to make a difference in their work.

Graduates must have a keen interest in, and passion for, youth and education media to work at Argo. We have several print and online platforms that focus on developing and providing resources to South African youth and educators.

How much training and development do employees receive?

We aim to build a wealth of knowledge among our employees. Training and development are imperative for the growth of an organisation and its employees. By developing our employees, we are investing in our organisation in ways that contribute to more than just the bottom line.