In the world of sports it’s normal practise that a player has an agent representing him/her at contract negotiations, an agent, who – in combination with the player – works on his/her career path and organises his/her life, so that the player can concentrate on world class performances.

Before we start, I am aware of the bad image sports agents have within the media and the public, but imagine the following:

Instead of you having to go through the tense period of salary negotiations and the time-consuming effort of finding market value, etc, you can concentrate on your job and let somebody else do it for you.
Your relationship and your reputation remain intact. Your performance remains high. That would be quite attractive, wouldn’t it, for all parties - individual and employer. That’s quite similar to M&A activities.

Just imagine you were a young graduate or school leaver and you could have somebody who can identify your brilliance, who can advise you on how to achieve your goals and happiness, but crucially then also acts on
it. They would look at what skills you need? What areas you need to improve? What is your first job? When do you move? Somebody who helps you adjust to new external surroundings, but also internal shifts.
Somebody, who has your interests at heart because it equals theirs.

Think about a small company who has trouble attracting top performers, but suddenly strikes a feeder club agreement with an attractive employer and therefore receives raw diamonds and up and coming stars that need a bigger role and more experience.

Think about this from the employer perspective – suddenly there’s a place to give top performers another outlet without loosing them to the competition. It’s an exciting proposition to give to a potential candidate –not only providing a job, but a career. Preparing and assisting them when they’re ready to make that next leap.

For me, that’s a very logical next step for the recruitment industry, especially with the power shifting more and more towards the individual candidates.