Executive Search: The 4 Top Tips for Fit

Executive Search: The 4 Top Tips for Fit BLOG: Author: Lisa Anderson | Source: HCI | Published: 1 day ago You've likely all been there before; a senior employee in a leadership role exits your organization, leaving you scrambling for a replacement to make sure the ship stays afloat. In the best of cases, succession planning provides for an internal solution while other situations call for an extended search process that includes both internal and external candidates. If you're in the market for a new C-suite member or an individual to help guide your burgeoning firm, you're hardly alone. The good news: 25 percent of companies anticipate adding new executive positions this year, according to CFO magazine. And more good news: only a microscopic 2 percent are continuing cutbacks in management that began during the recession in 2008. While you're feeling good that others are also creating new executive roles, you also realize this likely means you have more competition. As a result, it can be helpful to keep in mind the lesson from The Beatles and "get by with a little help from my friends." Executive search firms can play a critical role in identifying potential talent, providing exhaustive accounts on a specific number of prospective candidates, promoting your company in a positive way to potential candidates and securing access to top talent. As you collaborate with these executive search firms, Bloomberg Businessweek offers some astute tips to make the most of the engagement: 1. Sell your company's overall package. Odds are, your group of candidates has been inundated with potential offers from other companies, so while you're listening for the best pitch from the potential candidate, be sure you are also an enthusiastic interviewer and sell the unique benefits of working with your firm. 2. Remember the background check. By all means, an executive recruiting firm can and should handle reference checking for prospective candidates, but you should be sure to play a role in the actual background check. This could include reviewing databases of criminal records or educational credentials, according to the publication. 3. Onboarding is key. Why do approximately 40 percent of external executive hires fail within their first 18 months on the job? There may be plenty of answers, but one sure thing you can do to try to reverse this trend is establish an effective onboarding program. Clearly laying out the expectations through an orientation program can help to prevent prior mistakes and make it easier for the new executive to learn how to fly, on the fly. 4. Offer closure to all interviewed candidates. Interviewing professionals for executive-level roles in your company is a significant event for both you and the candidate. Keep this in mind even for those whom you do not select for the position, and work with your search partner to give them the courtesy of "closing the loop" with constructive feedback and any insights you are able to share. You want to leave a positive impression no matter what, and chances are this took a significant commitment on their part. You never know who they know and what they’re going to say about interviewing with you. Think of it as marketing, because it is. With 58 percent of executives admitting to updating their resumes in the past few months (in a recent ExecuNet study), it's clear that job security remains a major consideration. By fully immersing yourself in the executive hiring process as well as leaning on the services of an executive search firm, you can lower attrition and keep your company on the right track. Join Ron Hetrick, Director of Labor Market Analysis at Allegis Group Services on a webcast discussing why organizations can't find the candidates they seek. Lisa Anderson is Managing Director/Business Development for Allegis Partners. Before joining Allegis Partners, she spent several years partnering with clients across diverse industries, including media/entertainment, financial services, retail, technology, consumer packaged goods, professional services and hospitality.She currently leads the Women’s Leadership Council at Allegis Group Services and is on the Board of the Strategic Leadership Forum of the Carolinas, and a member of the HR People and Strategy (HRPS) and International Association for Corporate & Professional Recruitment (IACPR). http://www.hci.org/lib/executive-search-4-top-tips-fit