Why You Need an Executive Search Firm for Your Next C-Suite Hire
When you are looking for to fill a spot in the C-Suite it’s essential to frame up the costs as an investment in your company when it comes to bringing an executive search firm on board.
Too often, business owners are short-sighted in calculating these costs when balancing the pros and cons of making a hire through their own in-house system versus a retained executive search firm. What you might miss at first blush, when assessing the costs of a Silicon Valley executive search firm, is how to quantify the costs of the process if you rely on your human resource department. This is, of course, assuming that they have a system in place for hiring a CEO (or another executive position).
Your in-house costs might include, labor, software tools, website building, social media site-building, advertisements, and listing fees. These will quickly rack up as more and more time is spent identifying the right candidate in a flooded job market. Ultimately, these in-house efforts are all for nothing if they don’t result in a great candidate.
Moreover, these are only the upfront costs of trying to make a hire without relying on the expertise of an executive search firm. The list doesn’t take into account opportunity costs or the detrimental costs of making a bad hire. A top executive recruiting firm will be able to handle these potential issues before they happen, expedite the process, tap passive candidates, help throughout the entire process, make use of their network, increase diversity, and work discreetly.
Getting the Best Candidate as Fast as Possible
When high-level positions become available at your business, your human resources department should prepare for a flood of resumes and applications. There is the possibility that the right candidate is somewhere in that pile, but the time it takes to sift through all the applicants and even narrow it down to the few with the right skill sets and experience can be time-consuming.
An executive recruiter can turn their full attention to quickly finding the right candidate—they will not be distracted by the other elements of needing to keep your business running. Additionally, they can take care of nearly every step of the recruitment process, from sending out feelers and sifting through resumes to scheduling interviews and helping you evaluate candidates post-interview.
Reach Passive Candidates
Inevitably, some of the best candidates for the job will already have jobs and not be actively searching for a new one. But this doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in joining your company if it’s a better fit. These people are known as passive candidates and can be challenging to reach if you don’t already have a direct, personal connection to them.
Pulling on a much larger network, executive search firm recruiters can discreetly reach out to such candidates and gauge their interest. By doing this, top executive recruiting firms can significantly increase the number of exceptionally qualified applicants in a search pool deluded with sub-part active candidates.
Make Use of Their Network
The advantages of an executive search firm recruiter’s network reach beyond simply tapping passive candidates. These firms have networks of contracts with various industries stretching across the globe, allowing them to pull from a pool of talented active job seekers that are highly qualified.
Increase Leadership Diversity
According to the Leaders 2020 study conducted by SAP and Oxford Economics, there is a real issue with diversity at the senior executive level. This is a problem beyond simply trying to create greater equality in the workplace; it’s a problem for your bottom line.
A McKinsey Global Institute study revealed that “companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” Another study on diversity, this one conducted by Bersin by Deloitte, released in 2015, discovered that diverse companies had 2.3 times higher cash flow per employee during a three-year period when compared to non-diverse companies.
Finding diversity through your own, standard Silicon Valley executive search is unlikely to uncover the sort of diversity needed to help you unlock additional potential in your company. Limited by your private network and referrals from those in your network, you’re unlikely to be tapping into diverse talent pools. However, an executive search firm will help you understand how best to diversify your executive team and can track down the candidates that will fit the bill.
Another situation in which a top executive recruiting firm will be indispensable is when hiring for a newly created position or a position beyond your area of expertise. Such firms have the necessary experience to bridge that knowledge gap and sift through candidates to find the right person for your business.
Working Discreetly
When reaching out to talent in your field—especially if you’re tapping passive candidates—using a discrete, third-party firm can prevent ruffling feathers.
Though hiring anyone to the c-suite is of vital importance, you don’t want to be making enemies, damaging relationships, or be accused of poaching talent from a competitor. When you’re hiring from the same talent pool, an executive recruiting firm is the perfect middleman for reaching out to qualified candidates.
Help Throughout the Entire Process
Perhaps the best part of working with an executive search firm is that they are with you for the long run. The costs can be steep, but they don’t abandon you once they’ve brought in stacks of resumes; they don’t leave you after they’ve helped you with interviews; they don’t even leave you stranded after you’ve made the hire.
Top retained executive recruiting firms stick by your side from evaluating your current team to decide what sort of candidate is going to be best for your company during the on-boarding process and beyond. They don’t calculate their success based on the number of people they place in c-suite positions; they look at the contribution and longevity of the employee.
Final Thoughts: Why You Need an Executive Search Firm for your next C-Suite hire.
When you’re down a prominent position at your company, the last thing you want to be doing is pulling resources away from your core product or services to hire someone. This can be a severe problem for many small- and medium-sized companies. A long hiring process can even start to take its toll on a larger company. This is precisely when an executive search firm can step in and help your company increase its diversity while identifying high-quality candidates to consider for your C-suite.
A top executive recruiting firm not only expedites the hiring position—getting your company the leader it needs as quickly as possible—it will be able to discreetly help you through the entire hiring process. With their help, you will be able to snag the CEO, CFO, or COO your company needs.
Have more questions about how an executive search firm can pave the way for the future success of your company? Get in touch with the experts at Enlow to take the first steps!