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David Ford

Verus was founded with the express goal of being able to provide a fresh perspective and a unique approach to Professional Recruitment and HR Services in an otherwise crowded and generic marketplace. We are a Canadian Recruiting and HR Company with clients and candidates right across Canada and the U.S.A. We believe recruitment and HR should begin with the simple attitude that we are genuinely here to help.

Our Mission: Verus is committed to connecting and aligning people and processes to have a profound business impact. With best-in-class, expert consultants, we deliver the gold standard in Recruiting and HR Services locally and internationally.

Our Vision: To be the valued Recruitment and HR business partner of great companies who seek to become exceptional companies and to be the trusted full-service recruitment resource for high-performing talent and to connect them with those companies.

Tell us about yourself?

My career has been mainly rooted in Sales and Sales Management. After seven years on Bay Street in Toronto as a hiring manager, it was clear that there was a massive opportunity in the recruitment space generally, but specifically in Sales and Financial Services. Utilizing the experience I gained during my long years in Sales, we opened Verus. Our differentiator was that we didn’t just hire Recruiters, but ex-industry professionals, who had experience being hiring managers. We understand the pain and frustration of our clients because we’ve been there. We’ve sat in those chairs, walked in those shoes. Over the years, we have expanded to serve not only Canada but the U.S.A. as well. And now we provide professional recruitment in many different areas, not just Sales anymore, and not just financial services.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Following the pandemic ‘era’, we were (thankfully) forced to consider our service offerings. We are in the process now of rationalizing our lineup of those services and focusing exclusively on our core business of Recruiting and HR Services. I wish I had done it sooner!

What problem does your business solve?

We help companies seek terrific candidates, hire wonderfully talented employees, and manage their phenomenal teams.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

We were inspired to offer a highly professional, resourceful, transparent recruitment company because the market simply had so FEW of them. Yes, there were MANY recruiting firms out there, but none that offered a highly professional and responsive service by ex-industry experts at or below market rates. Because we have a unique understanding of our clients, we are able to provide a service that just makes sense for today’s hiring managers, executives, and business owners.

What is your magic sauce?

Like EVERY great business, our magic sauce is our people, ex-industry pros who understand that in everything we do, we start with KINDNESS and RESPECT. We also happen to be VERY good at what we do.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

The plan is to grow the team! We only onboard very special people who are capable of sourcing new business relationships, providing a professional end-to-end recruiting experience, and who “speak the same language” as our clients. We would like to add at least two to three highly experienced Recruiting Consultants in the next five years.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The pandemic changed many things. It changed people’s attitudes toward work, compensation, communication, and everything. Finding new ways to contact candidates and new ways to engage them is a challenge we have never faced before. Their expectations have changed. Remote work is definitely in demand. Great candidates just don’t want to commute to work. At the same time, many employers haven’t changed anything. Many want the old ways back. They want everyone in the office. This strong divergence between candidates and employers has proved to make it all far more difficult. Frankly, it’s the reason we are so very busy! This is a problem that, as Recruiters, we are equipped to manage better than most companies can. It’s far more time-consuming than ever.

How can people get involved?

We are very pleased to offer free consultations with any company looking for great people. They can find us everywhere: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Web. Visit our website, www.verusconsultants.ca or call us at 1-877-477-0516.