A DESCRIPTION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS INTERMEDIARY PROCESS OF THE W&P TALENT CONSULTANT IN BRIDGING THE NEEDS OF THE SEARCHING FIRM AND THE WHITE-COLLAR CANDIDATE

Abstract

The existence of Executive Search Firm (ESF) as the intermediary organization in Indonesian labor market has developed well in the recent decade. However, with the sophisticated changes of technology and more dynamic populations, some matters could threaten the existence of this emerging business. Moreover, ESF also faces two business partners and relationships, the searching firm which basically comes from Multi National Corporations and the white – collar candidate who comes from high qualified people, either expatriate, returnee, or local. These circumstances urge ESF to deliberately perform mixed-competencies of International Business and Human Resource. Working effectively will then produce a big impact to the development of this business in the future. Therefore, by taking the case of W&P Talent Consultant as a contingency search company in Indonesia, the researcher conducted a phenomenological based research containing questionnaire, in – depth interview, and field analysis to discover the principal minds of these three parties vis-a-vis ESF’s role as intermediary. The results suggest that the effective role of ESF has occurred in six elements, as legitimator, consultant, mediator, coordinator, screener, and networker. Above all, ESF has effectively functioned as a good legitimator. Since the business is that of service provider, the effectiveness of the role will depend on each personnel member who deals with the assignment. In fact, playing these roles effectively will affect customer satisfaction level and result in a “repeat customer” in the future, both from the side of the searching firms and the white – collar candidates. This research, furthermore, is indicative of the evidence on how W&P Talent Consultant has become the real intermediary organization in each assigned task with reference to the analysis of the conceptual model linking market characteristics and the role of third parties in Indonesian labor market. The report finally contains the commentary about the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for further research on market intermediaries and executive labor market, until presently not much discussed in Indonesian academic circles.