The Riviera Difference

HR Consulting vs Recruitment Agencies: Understanding the Difference

Riviera is a consulting search and advisory firm practise focusing exclusively in HR where we consult across the full breadth of HR besides recruitment. We speak the language of HR as we have worked in the profession and continue to do so as HR consultant and expert advisor across the employee life cycle.

We specialise exclusively in one field: Human Resources, drawing on our qualifications, accreditations and practical experience in a variety of sectors.

Two disciplines. Different perspectives
In recruitment, we see a huge gap in the market where many recruiters lack the specialist knowledge needed to assess the experience and qualifications a role requires. In principle recruitment agencies connects organisations with talent through sourcing and placement. The role brief and candidate market are central to agencies process.

Recruitment is often discussed in numbers: applications received, candidates submitted, interviews arranged, vacancies filled and time to hire.

This belief sits at the heart of why Riviera Talent Partners was born, on the search part, we aim to challenge the transactional and volume nature of agencies without compromising the quality.

Riviera Search was created to offer a more personal, accountable and considered approach to recruitment. Every engagement is director-led, driven by our own expertise in the search and every strategic advises is based on lived perspectives.

At Riviera, we speak the language of the roles we recruit for because we have done them ourselves. Our understanding of HR goes beyond of just taking a job brief, listening or having a conversation with the hiring manager. We know HR firsthand—the roles, responsibilities, challenges and day-to-day realities each hire will face.

HR is our niche as such we are specialist and not a generalist search partner bringing our quality attention to our field of expertise without the volume of multiple niches.

Recruiting for the HR profession and having worked within it bring different perspectives. Our approach is shaped by more than 20 years of leading and practising HR.

The comparison below shows how that experience informs our work versus the transactional nature of Agency model:

Our insider experience brings a different perspective to Riviera search

Riviera brings an HR practitioner’s lens to People and Leadership Search, combining firsthand experience in employee relations, workforce transformation and advising leadership teams with the judgement to challenge the brief and assess every appointment against where the organisation is heading, not just where it is today.