Easier Executive Search
The executive recruiting experience can be frustratingly hard. Yet there are steps you can to make it easier. Even when executive recruiters leverage effective AI tools, executive recruiting challenges still arise. Search firms can take too long. Retained engagements can fail. Sometimes, the hire doesn’t work out — the executive is someone the employer would rather not keep. A survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that one out of every five hires is a “bad hire” that the company regrets making. In most cases, outdated executive recruiting “best practices” are to blame.
Executive headhunting isn’t rocket science. At last check, retained search consulting isn’t a college major. The Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations does offer an Advanced Certificate in Executive Talent in partnership with the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC). But that’s as good as it gets.
Still, few headhunting firms have the expertise required to excel at executive recruiting. They lack the investigative research expertise needed to make search smarter. We believe that is one of the main reasons executive recruiting continues to stump the world’s leading retained search firms.
Executive Recruiting Stumps Traditional Firms
Spencer Stuart, Russell Reynolds, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn/Ferry, CTPartners — all have searches that fail to complete. The average failure rate in the retained search business is a stunning 40%. Some searches that fail to complete are not the search firm’s fault. Clients may suddenly decide to eliminate a role or to keep an incumbent they previously wanted to replace. Still, the failure rate among traditional search firms remains far too high. Failed search inevitably leads to frustrated clients who cannot help but feel a little used.
Headhunting Methods Are Outdated
Traditional executive recruiting “best practices” are outdated. The retained search process hasn’t changed much in half a century. To solve the problem, one must listen to corporate buyers to learn what isn’t working for them. Next, invest in serious research expertise, and institute a new, improved candidate sourcing and recruiting methodology. It is basic common sense. That’s what we did at The Good Search.
How to Make Executive Search Not So Hard
The key to improving the executive recruitment process is to make it smarter. For one thing, harnessing the power of information and data analytics enables much more strategic executive recruiting. For another, it helps you avoid landmines that blow up leadership searches. Connecting the dots offers the shortest path to the best hires.
Invest in Research Expertise
That is why The Good Search has taken research up a notch. The research is what identifies, profiles, and produces top candidates. With the amount of data in the world doubling every two years, there is a veritable treasure trove of candidate information available that you will not find in resume databases or on LinkedIn. In my former career as an investigative reporter, I learned to use databases to prove things you could not prove any other way.
Harness the Power of Data
That same method — harnessing the power of data — drives amazing results in executive recruiting engagements. In other words, executive talent acquisition doesn’t have to be so hard and it does not have to fail quite so often — not if you know how to make the recruitment process smarter. To learn more, see Is Your Executive Search Firm Ready for Big Data?
These databases you mention… Any suggestions? I’m a young Executive Recruiter looking for more talent sources outside the usual resume databases and LinkedIn. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Ah, grasshopper, if I told you I’d have to shoot you;-) You need to ask yourself at the beginning of every engagement: where might data about our ideal candidate exist: If you are seeking license professionals, there are licensing boards with details about who is licensed, whether the license is current, and whether there have been disciplinary actions against them. There are governmental databases that are public. Every time we interact with a governmental agency, a record is created. With what federal, state, or local agency might your candidates interact? There are proprietary databases. Then also ask yourself whether there is a relevant industry database that might contain valuable data to help calibrate your candidates to determine who is a top performer. Last, often you need to “build your own” by appending data to a database of your own making. Data science resources and data journalism that uses data to find things out are good places to start to learn the basics. See the Data Journalism Handbook.