Key leadership resignations often catch us off guard, even with the most careful succession planning.
When the role is critical to your business it’s easy to have a knee jerk reaction. You reach out to a few search firms, negotiating based on price and shortlist speed.
Sometimes you get lucky. The stars align and you find an ‘available’ executive. But, more often than not, you spend weeks (perhaps even months) scrolling through CVs, meeting lack lustre leaders, wasting money and diluting your employer brand.
If you are tired of fruitless and costly executive search campaigns, the next tips are for you.
Beware of recruiters promising data bases briming with high performing leaders.
Uncovering top leadership talent isn’t something that happens overnight. Any recruiter worth their salt, knows a data base is only as good as their last candidate conversation.
While it provides a starting point, great search professionals leave no stone unturned – particularly at this level.
Recruiters need to exercise tact and finesse headhunting in a hot market. Particularly at a time when high performing leaders are regularly bombarded with unsolicited contact.
The last thing you need is a ‘quick shortlist’ of outdated CVs; or worse candidates who aren’t interested or screened properly for success in your role.
Be exclusive.
Many executives make the mistake of engaging multiple recruiters for their leadership searches.
The truth is, the more people you have out there marketing your opportunity, the more diluted the appeal becomes.
At the top level, the talent pool is small. These leaders do not appreciate having their time wasted with numerous points of contact about the same role. At best it makes your business look unorganised, at worst you lose great talent because they think you can’t fill the role.
Working exclusively with a specialist recruiter, ensures clear and consistent messaging; and a smoother process. It provides your new leader with the best possible brand experience – which is guaranteed to play into their decision process when it is time to sign the contract.
Choose a retained search.
Timing is everything at this level.
Old school contingent or competitive recruitment models (usually where you pay at the end) will promise a quick shortlist turnaround. In reality, most just increase the volume of applications you need to wade through, not the quality.
In a retained search you pay a portion of the total search fee in advance. This gives your executive recruiter the breathing room to complete a deep analysis of the market.
At Boston Stanley, we provide retained clients a reliable timeline, so you can plan your side of the process well in advance. Less process delays mean your new leader can start sooner.
Investing in time upfront, saves you a fortune at the pointy end of the process.
As a specialist executive search firm our goal is to find the best leader for your role, not just the best available.
An exclusive and retained executive search ensures you are only meeting leaders who are invested in the opportunity and capable of achieving the outcomes at hand. The proof is in our success rate with 99% of these mandates filled in the first campaign.