The New Era of Executive Search

The New Era of Executive Recruitment

 

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed have effectively ripped up the executive search rulebook. That might not be a bad thing. While technology advancements in the last decade have propelled the recruitment industry, executive search has generally not evolved and instead stayed truer to its roots – depending on extensive networks, specialised industry knowledge and building relationships face to face.  

All that looks set to change – finally – as the pandemic forced the focus for many organisations away from the slow speed, high cost and lack of transparency and control of the traditional executive search model. With businesses commonly spending as much or more on executive search as on the rest of recruitment, procurement operations must reduce costs and cultivate a higher ROI. To achieve this, the HR or Talent Acquisition (TA) team should get full control of the process.

Demand for research and insight services

One area where internal TA teams will need outside help is data. We see a trend towards organisations seeking research and insight services to gain visibility to the senior talent landscape. Unfortunately, traditional search firms do not provide this type of research support without bundling it together with more services like the shortlisting of candidates and hiring for an end-to-end service.

Meanwhile, the methodologies of pure-play research companies lack sophistication and often use outdated data. Organisations want these types of services unbundled to focus on upfront research and insight to map talent, build pipelines and inform business decisions.

To reach the desired ROI, organisations and search firms need to make senior placements quicker. The process should offer the same benefits of recruitment process outsourcing, including ownership with flexibility, control and data provision. It means search firms will need to rethink their value proposition or become obsolete. The outsourcing model is a more attractive proposition as we navigate the changes caused by the pandemic. An executive search partner with RPO experience can offer the type of services and capabilities to deliver the results businesses need.

Changing leadership environment

The leadership environment has also changed considerably over the last three months. We are seeing a spike in demand for HR leaders who have rightsizing experience, particularly across multiple countries. Companies are looking for infrastructure leaders across finance, audit and compliance who can help protect businesses over the coming months and procurement leaders with a track record of reducing spend without impacting quality of vendor provision. Redundancies are already happening at all levels and there will be more as organisations seek these different skillsets as the economy contracts.

The skills and experience organisations look for in executives are changing as a result.

Previous achievements and experience outlined on CVs were not achieved in today’s environment and so demonstrable successes during the current period of pandemic-enforced remote leadership will become increasingly essential. Organisations will be looking for a different and diverse skillset that fits their new organisational landscape and their plans for the future.

The need for an executive search partner

Executive-level talent also might be exercising caution when considering a career move in today’s climate, which compounds recruiting challenges. From a recruiter point of view, candidate care is more important than ever in convincing executives to make a move at this turbulent time. Employer brand is critical for companies to move forward successfully to both retain and attract the right leaders who can help take them forward and out of the crisis.

Organisations should consider working with an executive search RPO partner at this time to incorporate the flex and scale that is unavailable in in-house teams, while also benefiting from the greater speed, agility, data and efficiency they offer. Employers are managing an unprecedented amount of challenges this year. But the change to executive search is long overdue – and it should usher in a new and improved era.

 

Originally published in The HR Director.

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Executive Recruiting: Tips for Recruiting Executives

Executive Recruiting: Tips for Recruiting Executives

 

Executive recruiting is quite different from your average hiring process. To recruit the best executive for a top-level position, you need to apply advanced recruiting methods. In this blog post, you will learn the best recruiting tips for recruiting executives.

What is executive recruiting?

Executive recruiting is the process of finding and hiring candidates to fill top-level positions at the company.

In executive recruiting you aim to find and hire executive personnel such as senior managers, directors, vice presidents, chief executive officers and similar high-level officers within companies.

Executive recruiting is sometimes called C-Suite recruiting.

This is because the highest-level executives in senior management usually have titles beginning with “chief” forming:

  • Chief executive officer (CEO)
  • Chief operations officer (COO)
  • Chief information officer (CIO)
  • Chief technology officer (CTO)
  • Chief financial officer (CFO)

Importance of executive recruiting

Finding and hiring the ideal job candidate for your company’s C-suite level is critically important to the overall success of your business.

The next “chief” of any of your departments will be making decisions that shape the current company culture and the future of your business.

This is why executive recruiting needs to be approached with the highest attention and priority.

Understanding the challenges of executive recruiting

There are many different challenges associated with recruiting executives.

Here, I will highlight the 3 key challenges in executive recruiting:

Executive recruiting challenge #1: Competition for top talent

With the unemployment rate lower than ever, companies are competing for the best talent at all levels, especially at the executive level. Top-level executives know they are in demand and that they can choose where they want to work and under which conditions.

Executive recruiting challenge #2: Recruiting passive candidates

The chances are that the top executives are already employed and they are not actively looking for a new job. However, they don’t mind being approach and offered a better career opportunity.

According to Experteer career services survey, an overwhelming majority (97%) of senior candidates in a company want to be ‘found’ or ‘approached’ by headhunters for relevant vacancies!

Executive recruiting challenge #3: Leadership is changing

In 2017, 3.6 million executive leaders retired, allowing younger employees to move to management positions, according to MRINetwork.

Now, the millennials are moving into leadership roles. Consequently, leadership as such is going through big changes. This is because millennials are moving away from the traditional top-down corporate structure. Instead, they strive towards a collaborative and transparent management style. If you want to recruit an executive and a leader of tomorrow, you need to acknowledge these changes and look for the right qualities in your executive talent.

How to recruit executives successfully?

Recruiting the best executives is a challenging task.

Looking to fill a seat in your company’s C-suite isn’t your average hiring process. Executive recruiting today requires a different and more sophisticated level of recruiting skills.

As the Executive Recruiter Carolyn Carpeneti puts it:

Executive recruiting is both the art and the science.

Tips for recruiting executives

Here are the top 8 executive recruiting tips that will help you effectively recruit the best executives and strike that delicate balance of art and science:

Executive recruiting tip #1: Understand the job and the industry

The first and most important step in executive recruiting is to do your research. It should go without saying that you need to prepare very well in order to find and hire the best executive for your company.

Start by crafting the perfect job description. Feel free to use the job description templates, but make sure you customize them to fit your own needs.

Then imagine your ideal executive candidate and create your candidate persona.

Define the type of candidate who would be a perfect fit not only for your C-level position but also for your industry and your company culture.

Executive recruiting tip #2: Leverage employee referrals

When it comes to recruiting executives, networking is the way to go. Utilize the connections and the networks of the existing leaders in your company. Try to find someone who knows your targeted executive candidate or who can suggest a few executives suitable for the position you are looking to fill.

Go above and beyond to leverage personal contact, social media connections and employee referrals.

Think outside the box – include your current employees, alumnus, investors, board members and other relevant stakeholders in your search for executives. According to Jennifer Rettig, a Head of Recruiting at Looker, this is the secret to executive recruiting learned at Apple and Yahoo. Here is another important advice from Jennifer:

If you get any pushback from leaders on your team who say they’re too busy, don’t just relent – explain how the role you’re hiring for will alleviate pain points for them, take work off their plate, and complement their skillset.

Executive recruiting tip #3: Be discrete and maintain confidentiality

Make sure that you demonstrate the highest level of professionalism when contacting potential C-level candidates.

According to the previously mentioned Experteer study:

  • 86.9% of executive candidates prefer being contacted through a private email address or via online networks (77.9%).

When contacting your potential executive candidates through their private email or personal social media profile, ensure them that you will maintain confidentiality and be discrete throughout the whole process.

Executive recruiting tip #4: Build relationships

The critical part of executive recruiting is building relationships with your candidates. In order to do that, you need to adopt a highly personalized approach. The candidate should always be the focus of your recruitment process.

Remember, the best executive candidates are hard to find and even harder to persuade to make a move. This is why you shouldn’t attempt to sell your position immediately.

Instead, focus on getting to know your candidate first.

Executive recruiting tip #5: Discover their drive

After establishing the first contact with your executive candidates, try to get to know them better. You need to discover what drives them.

Here is some insightful advice from Marco Zappacosta, the Co-Founder and CEO of Thumbtack:

It’s critical to know what drives people. Some execs are motivated by money. Others by impact. Or the desire to lead high-performance teams.

However, if you ask someone what motivates them, you will get spoon-fed a pat answer.

According to Zappacosta, if you want to discover what really drives your executive candidates, you should ask them:

What accomplishment are you most proud of in your career?

Executive recruiting tip #6: Be patient

When it comes to executive recruiting, you should be prepared to invest the time and effort required in today’s highly competitive environment to get the person you want.

According to Staffing Advisors:

In a typical CEO or Executive Director search, the hiring process can take 4-8 months.

Recruiting executives is a long and delicate process. The top candidates will almost certainly need a lot of reassurance to even start thinking about your offer.

Executive recruiting tip #7: Provide a great candidate experience

When recruiting any candidate today, you really need to work hard to provide the best possible candidate experience. When it comes to executive recruiting, your efforts to improve your candidate experience should be scaled 10X.

Remember, the best senior executive talent is being courted by many different companies. This is why you need to make sure that your candidates are getting the best executive search experience that really stands out.

Executive recruiting tip #8: Go the extra mile

Going the extra mile when recruiting executives can make or break your hiring process. Since these candidates are high in demand and approached by many different companies, they have probably seen and heard it all.

This is why you need to differentiate your approach and go the extra mile.

Demonstrate how much your company is invested in and committed to hiring them. Make sure to offer them a face to face time with your CEO or director.

Show your executive candidates that you truly value getting to know them. Listen carefully and be ready to accommodate their needs. Be prepared to meet them outside working hours or on weekends.

Find out what they like and take them to their favorite restaurant or game. Implement personalized touches to make your executive candidates feel special.

 

Originally published in TalentLyft.

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