6 reasons why executive search still continues to make sense

Have you ever wondered why more and more executive search firms are established these years? Why does this type of recruitment service still continue to make sense? Let’s get to undertand these 6 reasons.

Executive search

Executive search is a type of recruitment service performed by executive search firms. Companies pay an executive search firm for searching and recruiting people for senior-level, high-level and executive positions; or highly skilled and highly specialized jobs. Executive search is also informally known as headhunting.

Most companies approach an executive search firm because they do not have time or ability to seek suitable candidates themselves.

Once the assignment is agreed by both parties, the executive search firm starts to find candidates, create a short list and send this short list with candidates’ resumes attached to the hiring company. Executive search firms may also take part in assessing the candidates, as well as negociating, preparing offers and contracts. The process is much more in-depth than a standard recruitment process.

The fees for using executive search firm may range from 20 to 35% of the hired candidate’s first year salary.

See also >>> Pros and cons of using an executive search firm

Reasons why executive search still continues to make sense

1. To get the best candidates available

Using executive search can help you find the best candidates available, not the best candidates applying to the job. Some qualified candidates do not know about your job advertisement. Some others are passive job seekers. Executive recruiters usually have their networks to help them find contacts and have ability to access to a talent pool to find candidates. They actively search for candidates instead of waiting for them to apply. If you only post your job opening on job boards, you can only get the best candidates who send you their resumes.

2. The internal resources are limited

All companies have HR departments, but not all them have a separate department for recruitment. Even if they do, this department may not be as useful as outsource recruitment services. Recruiting is just one of many tasks the HR departments have to complete, including employee benefits and compensations, training, compliance, relations, etc. HR departments do not have time and resources to assess the candidates carefully so good talents may be filtered out. Therefore, instead of leaving the position unfilled for a long period of time or grabbing a candidate who is not the best one, why don’t you work with a firm specialized in recruitment?

Also, evaluating candidates takes time. You may loose some important information or even do not have enough time to read all the details. While search consultants have to assess CVs everyday so they know what to look for in a CV.

3. There are hard-to-fill positions

Hard-to-fill positions include senior executive positions (CEO, President), rare mix skilled positions, new roles, need-to-be-rebuilt roles, or impactful positions. You know the negative impacts of bad hires, don’t you?

The recruitment of senior executive positions can affect future vision and important decisions of the company. Poor employments can deliver really bad results and the company may have to spend years recovering from mistakes.

New roles are difficult to recruit as you do not have benchmark to determine the skills and experience required. Need-to-be-rebuilt roles are the same. The person who worked in this position was unseccessful and you need to defind the new background needed.

4. Decrease judgement errors and increase the quality

Using a good executive search firm can help prevent you from making judgement errors, including:

    -     Personal feelings: be careful with your feelings. You cannot hire a person that you think he or she is nice. A charming candidate can make you forget their weaknesses. Of course, as you are going to spend a lot of time with this new hire, you want to find someone who is easy to be with. But only these things make sense: their skills, their experience, their education and qualifications.

    -     The same: you may want to hire a person who has the same background as the others in the company. This is a safe choice as he or she cannot be bad. But sometimes, you need something new. A new person with a new background: new school, new skills, new experience can be good in your company.

    -     Easy-to-manage employee: remember: always recruit the best talent, no matter he or she is easy to manage or not. You want someone who can help increases your revenue, not a slave.

5. There are situations when confidentiality is paramount

There are situations in which discretion is required. But when? For example, you want to keep the search needs confidential from staff; you want to hire indirectly from competitors; or you want to recruit a replacement when an executive is still in the position. By using an executive search firm, you can keep the recruitment process a secret while still take all the control and transparency of having the process done by a third-party organization.

6. The costs of lost time are significant

Time is a treasure. Time is money. Instead of spending time running business activities, handling employee’s problems, training newbies, building networks, searching for new business opportunities or improving their abilities; business leaders have to deal with recruitment. And you must know that a recruitment process takes a long time. Also, your business may miss important opportunities as the leaders are busy searching for talents.

Things to consider

If you would like to use an executive search firm to recruit talents, you should find a firm that has experience locating candidates in jobs similar to your open jobs. They are familiar to the recruitment process. They know how to find potential candidates that meet your requirements. They have networks to help you find the right match as soon as possible. They may have contacts of prospective employees to share with you immediately.

See also >>> Executive search: let's get to know 10 steps of the process

Also, think about the type of executive search you would like to use: contingency recruitment vs. retained recruitment. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages as well as should be used in different cases, depending on the level of the position, salary, and job requirements.

See also >>> Which one is better: contingency recruitment or retained executive search?

You may hear that executive search firms always try to negociate the highest possible salary offered to the hired candidate in order to maximize their fees. However, this is not true as you are one of their clients and they always aim for repeat business and referrals. Therefore, they will demand the most suitable benefit package that makes both of you pleased.

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