The Pond commits to full-time placements with addition of new talent agent Melanie O’Callaghan

The Pond, New Zealand’s largest creative talent agency, is ramping up its permanent placement capabilities with the addition of senior talent agent Melanie O’Callaghan.

Building on the proven effectiveness of its freelance talent operation, The Pond has widened its business model to provide a more comprehensive, dedicated permanent placement service to its clients.

O’Callaghan brings eight years of recruitment experience to The Pond and will focus on matching up clients looking for full-time staff with the many local and overseas creative stars now keen to enter full-time employment in New Zealand. She has most recently worked for boutique recruitment agency Farrow Jamieson where she specialised in searching for, headhunting, and recruiting talent for executive roles across a wide variety of industries.

With O’Callaghan’s appointment, The Pond is now offering a fast-turnaround and highly reliable permanent placement service that will see candidates sourced, vetted, interviewed and hired within a two-week timeframe, says Pond director Leighton Howl.

“Our dedication to launching a fast-paced permanent placement service in 2015 is complemented by a new range of fees from 10% buy outs to 13% pre-placements to 18% global searches. We believe clients will be hiring creatives full-time in different ways in the future and they will want to trial candidates before making them part of the central team,” says Howl.

According to The Pond talent ambassador Michael Dawson, The Pond has the very best creative talent in New Zealand arriving daily through its unique acquisition model, plus unrivalled knowledge and relationships within the creative industry.

“So we can hit the ground faster than anyone else to quickly provide clients with candidates drawn from our own networks or sourced from the wider talent market, including Australia, United Kingdom and Asia,” says Dawson. “We have already been operating in the permanent placement space for some time – and have earned fantastic feedback from our clients as a result – but we’re now putting greater focus on this area with Melanie’s appointment.”

The appointment will see O’Callaghan pair up with each of the existing four Pond talent agents who currently each manage an active book of clients. This will mean each client will have two dedicated agents focused on their growing business: one concentrating on week-by-week freelance needs and the other (O’Callaghan) supporting this service with more strategic full-time hires.

According to O’Callaghan, The Pond offers a unique recruitment process like no other in New Zealand: “Unlike most recruitment firms, The Pond has a huge focus on acquisition. In this industry creatives are always your greatest asset so, whether you’re building a team or need a critical hire straight away, you need a recruitment partner that can find that needle-in-the-haystack candidate you’re looking for (in our case we probably already have it).

“The Pond is ideally suited to step into this partnership role with New Zealand companies looking for full-time creative talent, and we’ll be delighted to discuss how we can help make it happen quickly.”

To talk with The Pond about filling your next permanent creative role, please contact Melanie O’Callaghan or Leighton Howl on 09 373 3791 or melanie@thepond.co.nz.