An iron lady in recruitment
Recruitment industry veteran Melissa Norman shares her challenging and fulfilling journey with Izwan Ismail
MOST people want to achieve something extraordinary in their life and career but not many will take the crucial step into the unknown. Melissa Norman, who once held a comfortable position in a multinational recruiting company, did just that.
Her dream was to establish her own start-up to help the community in the area of manpower recruitment.
Melissa was managing director in her last job and, with 22 years’ experience under her belt, decided to establish Aisling Group, a complete talent solutions company.
Her company focuses on providing Malaysian employers with an extensive range of personalised talent solutions to attract, upskill and recruit the best talent across key economic sectors.
Although being an entrepreneur was never on the cards for her, Melissa said it came to a point where she felt that the industry was helmed by large players with a diminishing focus on people partnerships and service in general.
“I felt that it needed a reboot,” she said.
THE CHALLENGES
Leaving her senior corporate position may have been “crazy” to many people but Melissa is one determined woman who knows what she wants.
Her two decades in the industry gave her confidence and the necessary experience to pursue her dream.
“When I started Aisling, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do, which is to create valuable partnerships and make an impact in the world of work through people,” said the mother of one.
“We do more than just recruitment. We focus on the variable elements that could possibly impact people’s careers.
“For instance, we do profiling and assessments to help employers and employees better understand their strengths and capabilities. We offer learning and development, allowing jobseekers to upskill themselves to better match jobs or to enhance skills within their organisations,” she said.
Despite her experience, starting a company from scratch was a huge transition for Melissa. It involved setting up the infrastructure, finding resources and building the brand from ground up.
“As I have been in the industry for some time, my experience came in handy. It allowed me to hit the ground running,” she said.
It was not without its challenges though. “First was the amount of time I had to give to the business at the beginning. It ate into my family time, personal time, etc. It engulfed me 24/7,” she added.
The support from her family, especially her husband, fuelled her desire to thrive.
“My family is a big part of who I am. I have a son who is five years old. But I am blessed with excellent family support — my husband, who allows me to grow in my career, and my family, who helps with my responsibilities of being a mum so I find balance in everything,” she said.
Melissa’s other challenge was “to keep her finger on the pulse of the aspirations of people on the journey with her and align them to the company’s direction”.
She also has to accept the fact that there are going to be times — “Often, I might say” — that things will not go as planned.
“I also consistently need to maintain my composure and find the energy to endure and persevere. The journey does get lonely ever so often,” she said.
WHAT SETS HER COMPANY APART
“Among the things that set us apart from other recruitment agencies are our learning and development solutions,” said Melissa.
“We also use profiling tools in our assessment of candidates either for personal development or to identify job competencies.
“We have an appetite for technology, so we frequently introduce new platforms to allow clients to have easy access to talent databases. They also have access to human resource and learning platforms that provide insights into candidates and clients,” she added.
Aisling also specialises in fewer sectors than others in the industry, leveraging its ability to acquire more specific jobs and a wider network reach of talent pool.
As to be expected, the pandemic has affected the job industry badly.
“It’s a sad time for everyone. No one is spared,” lamented Melissa.
To help the impacted industries and the people affected, Aisling has been providing training programmes for its candidates, hoping that these will help them find employment or just to retain their current jobs.
“We also offered pro-bono support and even discounts in light of the situation,” said Melissa.
But it is not all gloom and doom.
“We are seeing a lot of demand for software engineers, cloud specialists, DevOps/ SysOps engineers, data (engineers, scientists), technology product managers, and help desk/desktop support engineers.
“We have people with the skill sets. However, we do not have a large enough talent pool. We still rely on foreign expertise,” she said.
To overcome this problem, Melissa feels that universities and industry must continue to align to strike a balance between supply and demand.
“The fields that are most in demand now, and which will continue to be in demand in the future are fintech, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cyber security and blockchain.”
Her advice to jobseekers include getting involved in the tech community by participating in networking and technology events such as Hackathons.
“Keep up to date with the latest in technology by reading or writing articles. Employers are looking for candidates who are tech-savvy who will grow in tandem with the industry. Equip yourself with training and certifications to remain relevant,” she said.