Sherpa Stories Archives - Business Sherpa Group

Fairtrade Canada hired Business Sherpa Group to assist us in the recruitment of a new Executive Director. BSG worked with us to ensure we had the right job description and profile as a first step in successful recruitment. They then successfully managed the posting and promotion of the job which led to a fantastic number of qualified applicants. They led the sorting of candidates based on pre-defined criteria and the initial screening interviews. During this process they consulted with our board to ensure that we were aligned in our expectations. The result is that they presented 6 highly qualified and well suited candidates for interviews by our Board. Their expertise enabled our board to be involved in the process without having to do the heavy lifting required when hiring. For our volunteer board this was extremely valuable and the process was very cost effective. I would highly recommend these services to others who are looking to streamline their recruitment process.

Jennifer Williams Board Chair Fairtrade Canada
We enjoyed working with BSG in our search for a new Executive Director. From beginning to end, the executive search consultant showed a genuine interest in understanding our culture, goals, and challenges. They were very responsive, kept us on track and it was obvious that they wanted the best outcome for our organization. And as an NFP, the price point fit.

Executive Members of the Hiring Committee, Equal Voice
I had the privilege of working with Business Sherpa Group for the recruitment of ONFE’s new Executive Director. The service provided by BSG was personalized and professional. Small or mid-size not-for-profit organizations looking for executive search support would be well served by BSG.

Denise Andre Director of Education, Ottawa Catholic School Board
We’re a lean organization and didn’t have the time to actively recruit and find good candidates. Having the BSG Talent Solutions team put their experience and dedicated time to use saved us from trying to recruit on the side of our desks. They helped us find an awesome Director of Finance with the right caliber of skills and within our budget. The experience was positive and demonstrated the value of using part-time dedicated support in smaller businesses.

John Rapp Executive Director, Dovercourt Recreation Association

We strongly believe that SMEs deserve to have access to effective Executive Search services in order to attract and hire top talent as first-rate leadership is a critical element of all businesses. Because of this, we created a separate practice dedicated entirely to Executive Search.

Different than the antiquated agency model, our Value-Based Executive Search’s focuses on the quality of service, quality of results and making this accessibly priced for smaller organizations.

Learn More

Experienced HR leaders with years of firsthand accountability for building robust leadership teams
A a fixed fee that is typically less than ½ the cost of agencies because of our unique business model specifically focused on servicing SMEs
A structured process helps to effectively clarify expectations and set goals
A dynamic, global network that crosses sectors

The complete sourcing process
Establish Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
Anticipate key gaps and functional pinch points
Prioritize key hires and timing
ZACK IS WRITING NEW COPY FOR THIS

Review of business plans: current/new business direction & milestones
Customer traction (growth demands)
Opportunities with current team: shift roles & develop
Key gaps: identify, define and prioritize

Questions? Our recruitment team is happy to discuss. Fill out the contact form below and we will be in touch shortly.

Establish the experience you want new employees to have on day-one
Bring your culture, your routines and your norms to life with comprehensive onboarding
Understand what success looks like after 3, 6 and 12 months – develop the plan to ensure success of your critical new hires

Develop talent plan & roadmap
Establish Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
Sourcing strategies
Anticipate key gaps and functional pinch points
Prioritize key hires and timing

Objectives

The interactive half-day Developing Leaders Series sessions are designed to provide leadership education for any team members within SMEs and facilitate new connections with peers. The sessions are delivered by leadership development experts with broad experience who will cover a range of contemporary key leadership topics.

The sessions are structured to be a complimentary series, with each session covering a separate topic and are a complete lesson in their own right. Together, the sessions provide a sound base of knowledge on key competencies that will help any growing leader feel confident and capable.

Pricing

The 3 session bundle is $795. This includes breakfast, lunch, learning resources and the following half-day sessions:

March 4, 2020 – Communication and Influence
April 15, 2020 – Strategic Planning for Your Organization
May 27, 2020 – Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

We encourage the bundle option as it increases the impact of the program through facilitating stronger connections with fellow participants, establishes the decision to learn as a commitment that can otherwise be hard to make time for and the bundle option is more cost-effective. For this reason, we have reserved the majority of the tickets to be the bundle option. However, we understand this option isn’t feasible for everyone. So participants may attend individual sessions at a cost of $299 per session which also includes breakfast, lunch and learning resources.

Bundle Tickets here

Individual Tickets:

Single Session Details

Leadership from Within and Personal Vision

January 15, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

A vision statement, whether for the individual or the organization, allows for a clear definition of the ultimate objective or destination to be achieved within a reasonable (three to five year) timeframe. With a vision in mind, the journey can be plotted and progress tracked. Facilitated by Claude Haw and led by Joe Stelliga, this session will aim to answer: what is your leadership style and how can you be most effective in leading your team? And how can you leverage those around you to effectively deliver on your vision?

This session is now past, but will be offered again later this year. Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter for updates.

Communication and Influence

March 4, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

There are many communication styles in the workplace. How can you be effective in your role and what communications strategies and techniques can be used to achieve the desired results? What types of influence can you utilize to get the best results and what are the risks associated with each of these approaches? This session will be facilitated and led by Claude Haw.

Individual tickets for this session here

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

April 15, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

This session will include a number of tools to aid in the development of a comprehensive strategic plan including templates and approaches to developing Values, Vision and Mission statements, conducting SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, environmental scan, identifying stakeholders, strategic actions (with owners and timelines) and communications/engagement plan. Led and facilitated by Claude Haw, this session will answer the following questions:

Why is a Strategic Plan important? What are the benefits?
Are Value, Vision and Mission statements required? How important are they?
Who should be involved in the process? Should you develop the Plan internally or get external guidance?
What are the major phases in the process and what is involved in each phase?
What is the Board of Directors role?
How does the plan get reviewed, approved and communicated? How do you get buy-in?
How often should the Plan be reviewed and updated?

Individual tickets for this session here

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

May 27, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

One of the many attributes of a great leader is his or her ability to engage people in getting work done together, whether it is to create buy in, generate active participation and/or empower people to take charge. At the core of this ability is the skill of facilitation. Facilitation is a way of providing leadership without taking the reins – to get others to assume responsibility and to take the lead. In this workshop you will explore effective facilitation and group process skills that can help a group work effectively together. Facilitated by Claude Haw and led by Judy Laws.

Individual tickets for this session here

Session Bundle Details

The bundle includes 3 half-day sessions occurring between March 4, 2020 and May 27, 2020. Details and dates are below. Each individual session covers a key leadership topic in depth and together they form a full complement of leadership development tailored for SMEs.

Bundle tickets can be found here

Communication and Influence

March 4, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

There are many communication styles in the workplace. How can you be effective in your role and what communications strategies and techniques can be used to achieve the desired results? What types of influence can you utilize to get the best results and what are the risks associated with each of these approaches? This session will be facilitated and led by Claude Haw.

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

April 15, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

This session will include a number of tools to aid in the development of a comprehensive strategic plan including templates and approaches to developing Values, Vision and Mission statements, conducting SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, environmental scan, identifying stakeholders, strategic actions (with owners and timelines) and communications/engagement plan. Led and facilitated by Claude Haw, this session will answer the following questions:

Why is a Strategic Plan important? What are the benefits?
Are Value, Vision and Mission statements required? How important are they?
Who should be involved in the process? Should you develop the Plan internally or get external guidance?
What are the major phases in the process and what is involved in each phase?
What is the Board of Directors role?
How does the plan get reviewed, approved and communicated? How do you get buy-in?
How often should the Plan be reviewed and updated?

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

May 27, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

One of the many attributes of a great leader is his or her ability to engage people in getting work done together, whether it is to create buy in, generate active participation and/or empower people to take charge. At the core of this ability is the skill of facilitation. Facilitation is a way of providing leadership without taking the reins – to get others to assume responsibility and to take the lead. In this workshop you will explore effective facilitation and group process skills that can help a group work effectively together. Facilitated by Claude Haw and led by Judy Laws.

Bundle tickets can be found here

Session Bundle Details

The bundle includes 4 half-day sessions occurring between January 15, 2020 and May 27, 2020. Details and dates are below. Each individual session covers a key leadership topic in depth and together they form a full complement of leadership development tailored for SMEs.

Bundle tickets can be found here

Leadership from Within and Personal Vision

January 15, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

A vision statement, whether for the individual or the organization, allows for a clear definition of the ultimate objective or destination to be achieved within a reasonable (three to five year) timeframe. With a vision in mind, the journey can be plotted and progress tracked. Facilitated by Claude Haw and led by Joe Stelliga, this session will aim to answer: what is your leadership style and how can you be most effective in leading your team? And how can you leverage those around you to effectively deliver on your vision?

Communication and Influence

March 4, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

There are many communication styles in the workplace. How can you be effective in your role and what communications strategies and techniques can be used to achieve the desired results? What types of influence can you utilize to get the best results and what are the risks associated with each of these approaches? This session will be facilitated and led by Claude Haw.

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

April 15, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

This session will include a number of tools to aid in the development of a comprehensive strategic plan including templates and approaches to developing Values, Vision and Mission statements, conducting SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, environmental scan, identifying stakeholders, strategic actions (with owners and timelines) and communications/engagement plan. Led and facilitated by Claude Haw, this session will answer the following questions:

Why is a Strategic Plan important? What are the benefits?
Are Value, Vision and Mission statements required? How important are they?
Who should be involved in the process? Should you develop the Plan internally or get external guidance?
What are the major phases in the process and what is involved in each phase?
What is the Board of Directors role?
How does the plan get reviewed, approved and communicated? How do you get buy-in?
How often should the Plan be reviewed and updated?

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

May 27, 2020 8:00 am – 1:00 pm

One of the many attributes of a great leader is his or her ability to engage people in getting work done together, whether it is to create buy in, generate active participation and/or empower people to take charge. At the core of this ability is the skill of facilitation. Facilitation is a way of providing leadership without taking the reins – to get others to assume responsibility and to take the lead. In this workshop you will explore effective facilitation and group process skills that can help a group work effectively together. Facilitated by Claude Haw and led by Judy Laws.

Bundle tickets can be found here

Participants

The Developing Leaders Series was designed for any team members of SMEs who wish to grow their leadership skills. Regardless of where your are within your organization, if you are interested in developing and expanding your leadership skills as well as beginning to plan for succession, these sessions will benefit you.

Each half-day session will be limited to 12 to 20 participants to allow for an interactive and engaging learning environment that facilitates connections with peers on leadership challenges and goals.

Contact

Questions? Claude leads our Strategy & Governance practice and is happy to discuss the Developing Leaders Series and how it’s different. Fill out the contact form below and he will be in touch shortly.

Payroll Year-End Checklist

Please fill out the fields below and the checklist will be emailed to you.

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The Business Sherpa Group approach is flexible, built to fit your fluctuating business needs. Our Bookkeepers can do as little or as much as makes sense for you and your business. We can help with day-to-day transactional bookkeeping or only at month-end. We are also happy to help train your employees so that you need less of our bookkeeping services.

And, if needed, we can recommend a Virtual CFO that can support your business management – providing you a financial team that is both cost effective and reliable. This team approach provides financial insights and reporting that targets your business issues and moves beyond simply recording financial transactions and ultimately helps you make better informed business decisions.

Our Bookkeeping Services Include

Invoicing – Preparing and issuing invoices
Accounts receivable – Deposits and follow up on outstanding receivables
Expenses – Validating (received and coding and taxes); recording purchases; recording expenses; paying vendors & employee expenses; filing
Bank Reconciliations – All bank account and credit card accounts
HST – Preparing and ensuring accuracy of HST remittances/filings
Payroll – Administering payroll and payroll remittances
Basic Reporting – Ensure month end transactions are entered correctly and on timely basis; final basic reports (Income Statement and Balance Sheet)

If you’d like to discuss your bookkeeping needs, please contact us – we’re always happy to chat.

Contact

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Newsletter Subscribe

Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter to get updates about current job openings, business related blogs, local events to keep on your radar and any BSG business updates! These four emails are each jam-packed with useful, practice business-related information.

And don’t fret, we won’t send you any additional emails.

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Our Network

Built over decades, a distinct advantage is our dynamic, global network that crosses sectors. In addition to our database of talent, we also leverage our widespread BSG team is that is actively engaged in the business community and continually cultivates relationships.

This allows us to uncover talented professionals, connect with the right leaders and spread the word about new leadership opportunities.

Pricing

First-rate leadership is a critical element of all businesses. We strongly believe that SMEs deserve to have access to effective Executive Search services in order to attract and hire top talent. This is why we have made deliberate choices in creating a business model specifically focused on SMEs that enable us to provide a full executive search process that fits the business realities of smaller organizations.

We created a Value-Based Executive Search model where the true value of the search comes from the quality of service, quality of results and making this accessibility priced for smaller organizations. Our model is in contrast to the historically used agency model where the price and therefore value of the search are based on a candidate’s final salary package.

A value-based model means that the price is fixed and not relevant to the candidate’s salary level. Our value-based model is typically 1/2 of the cost of the agency model a percentage of salary. This keeps the focus on the quality of the hire and the SME business realities.

Team

We’re composed of senior HR leaders whose years of firsthand accountability for building robust leadership teams and working directly with the new hires means we understand how important it is to make great leadership hires that have the impact you need and expect. This is in contrast to agencies often led by career-recruiters who simply place hires and do not have to then work with the hire. We use our depth of experience to guide our clients and our senior team is hands-on throughout the entire search process.

Sometimes during an active search it becomes clear that an organization’s needs are slightly differently than originally stated. This is a natural effect from continued thought about who an organization wants leading them. If conditions do change like this, our team is adept at understanding when and how to re-calibrate while nevertheless ensuring optimum results for the client.

Apply Now

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Business Sherpa Group respects the dignity and independence of people with disabilities, and is committed to providing persons with disabilities equal access to Business Sherpa Group services. Business Sherpa Group provides accommodation and support to persons with disabilities throughout any recruitment process, once made aware of need for accommodation. If you require any special accommodation or support during the recruitment process, please let a member of the Business Sherpa Group team know at info@businesssherpagroup.com

If you would like to view Business Sherpa Group’s Accessibility Policy and Accessibility Standard for Customer Service or you would like to provide feedback as outlined under the Act, please send an email outlining your request to info@businesssherpagroup.com

Approach

We believe that a good process helps to clarify expectations and effectively achieve goals. Our structured Executive Search process utilizes a defined project plan with clear timelines and milestones.

Having a defined project plan at the outset allows for clear visibility to what to expect, and to nimbly act during the active search as needed. We build the project plan with an understanding of any time constraints to allow us to proactively schedule around busy stakeholders to maintain an efficient search. From experience, we know that good planning and anticipating of important deadlines for the busy hiring committees, boards and other stakeholders helps to keep them focused on timing realities of making a key hire.

Top 5 Considerations Before Hiring a Senior Executive

Looks like you’re considering embarking on an executive search, how exciting!

We want to make sure you are supported on this journey – regardless if you choose our services. So, we put our collective experiences to use and created this list of the 5 most important things that you, your team and your stakeholders should think about before beginning your executive search.

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Recent Searches

Our recently completed Executive Searches include:

President & CEO, Ottawa Network for Education (ONFE)
Executive Director, Equal Voice
Executive Director, Canadian Hatching Egg Producers (CHEP)
Executive Director, Fair Trade Canada
Executive Director, Illsaqsivik Society
Executive Director, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)
Director Fundraising, AgScape
CEO, Covina Biomedical – US search
VP Finance, Vista Credit

Contact

Questions? Magda leads our Executive Search practice and is happy to discuss our approach and how it’s different. Fill out the contact form below and she will be in touch shortly.

Name*
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Organization
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Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter?
You'll get current job openings, business related blogs, BSG updates and events to keep on your radar.
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Testimonials

Amazing! We love them so much! Can’t say good enough things. Best company in the world! – Leanne Bell

Holy smokes, what an exceptional executive search process. We are beyond thrilled with our amazing new executive hire and would recommend the BSG model to all. – Leanne Bell

What's the Difference?

What’s the difference between recruitment and executive search you ask? Well let us tell you!

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Contact Us Today

Leadership from Within and Personal Vision

Communication and Influence

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

Communication and Influence

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

Leadership from Within and Personal Vision

Communication and Influence

Strategic Planning for Your Organization

Managing Group Dynamics and Meeting Facilitation

Our Bookkeeping Services Include

If you’d like to discuss your bookkeeping needs, please contact us – we’re always happy to chat.