Useful information on executive search
Can technology improve executive search?
Will Executive Search find you the right candidate?
Can your next employee be found through an Executive Search and Selection process?
Approaching an Executive Search Consultant
Approaching an Executive Search Consultancy
What is Executive Search?
The term “executive search” is fairly recent, and you could be forgiven as an employer for not knowing what an executive search firm can do for you. In fact, a consultancy that specialises in helping businesses to recruit highly-qualified and experienced individuals could be a valuable addition to your recruiting programme.
What is an Executive Search firm?
An executive search firm concentrates on finding and providing candidates for executive and senior management positions for companies across all sectors and also within the public services sector and local and national government. Finding the right person for a key position in your business is critical to your ongoing success and hiring the wrong person can cost you time and money and, in the worst case, lose clients and profit.
An executive search company works by researching and contacting those people across the country who it thinks will fit the criteria you have set out for the job. These could be people that are working in the same sector as you, or who have the appropriate skills to transfer into your company. Many of them will be people who are not currently looking to change jobs, but could be interested by the opportunity you are offering.
If you have previously had difficulty attracting the right calibre of applicant for a senior or executive position, it could be that your current recruitment practices are not reaching the right audience, or that you don’t have the time to target your advertising or word-of-mouth communications. Repeatedly recruiting for the same position can be very costly and meanwhile, your business is having to run without a key member of staff, which can be particularly difficult if you manage a rapidly growing company.
Contacting an executive search company to ask for help is easy; even if you’ve never done it before. Ask around or search online and make a list of good consultancies who can help you to fulfil your executive appointment needs. At Novo, we have been supplying candidates for executive jobs for many years and we have an established network that allows us to target the people that will be right for your business. To find out more about our executive search capabilities, call us on 01275 375588 or email peter.tucker@novoexec.com.
Can technology improve executive search?
As recently as 15 years ago, executive search and selection research was mainly carried out over the phone, with the additional use of basic databases and print-based resources. Today, technology has transformed the way headhunters work, using sophisticated databases and associated software, together with web-based tools, to find the right candidates in a shorter time-frame.
The beauty of today’s technology is the way that one piece of software can interact with another. This means that an executive recruitment firm can buy in a database of contacts from a data company, and transfer it straight into their own system, so that records, details and notes can be held on the new contacts in exactly the same way as the existing ones. In addition, reporting software allows consultants to print or insert a complete report showing which candidates have been approached and when, recording their responses and any follow-up action that needs to be taken. This report can be used for internal meetings, or can be emailed to the client to keep them up-to-date with progress.
This technology can also be used to link executive search teams at different locations. At Novo, we have offices in Bristol, Manchester and London, and networked technology allows consultants in both offices to have access to the same sets of information and to exchange information on clients in real time via their computer screens.
The internet has prompted further investment in technology by most executive search firms. It is an enormous resource, with millions of useful pieces of information that can help search and selection companies to approach potential candidates. The technology now exists to help executive search agencies to search the webs quickly and efficiently, targeting those websites that hold useful information on existing executives and senior management, and on those who have executive potential.
Aside from research, technological advances such as video and web-conferencing, allow executive search firms to conduct preliminary interviews quickly, as the applicant doesn’t have to visit the offices, but can attend the interview from a specially designated office, or even from their own home. So, not only does good technology improve executive search, it also improves executive service.
Will Executive Search find you the right candidate?
Many companies handle recruitment in-house, using human resources professionals to manage the recruitment process. This allows the company to keep full control over the appointments and gives them complete traceability over new employees. For executive positions, however, it is sometimes more efficient to outsource your recruitment requirements to an executive search firm.
An executive search firm provides a critical service to busy business leaders. It removes the majority of the administrative burden of recruitment, and also finds appropriate candidates for the post. Instead of spending three or four weeks advertising a position, sifting through tens of CVs, most of which are irrelevant to the job description, contacting possible candidates and arranging several interviews, the company’s management simply need to provide an accurate job description and leave the rest to the executive search consultant.
Once they are happy that they know the client’s exact requirements, an executive search firm can begin to search for individuals who will be able to fulfil the role. This involves a combination of searching their own databases for people already listed with the agency, and using research to track down those people who have the relevant qualifications and experience to fill the position.
These methods allow the executive recruitment company to approach potential candidates that the client company simply could not; either because they don’t know of their existence, or because they don’t want to be seen as “poaching” the staff of other companies. By using an executive recruitment consultancy, the company widens its pool of possible candidates and ensures that it is only approaching those who are actually capable of succeeding in the job.
It’s worth bearing in mind that not all sectors are the same - it may be very easy to find six highly qualified accountants to put forward for a senior position, and extremely difficult to find the same number of quantity surveyors or engineers. If you know that your business sector is highly competitive when it comes to good senior managers, then talk to your executive search recruitment consultancy to see how they can help you.
Novo is an executive search firm with experience across many industry sectors and we are ideally placed to help you recruit the right candidate for your senior management vacancies. For more information, call us on 01275 375588 or email us today at dale.perrett@novoexec.com.
Can your next employee be found through an Executive Search and Selection process?
People often turn to a headhunting firm when they have had trouble recruiting for a certain position. They may have had a low response to adverts, or discovered that all the CVs that have been sent in are from people who are under qualified or inappropriate for the role. This can be very frustrating, particularly as it is very expensive to place recruitment adverts in the local and national press. In some cases, the fee charged by an executive search agency may be less than running an expensive recruitment advert three weeks running, and a lot more productive.
Businesses whose Human Resources departments and senior management are very busy often opt to use an executive search specialist for executive and senior appointments. Whilst it has a cost attached, it removes the majority of the recruitment burden from the company’s internal resources, together with making sure that the best candidates are put forward for the job. This use of external expertise is really no different from using a design agency to run a website, or a sanitary company to do the cleaning, and leaves the company’s management free to concentrate on the final interview stages rather than spending their time reading through CVs.
Recruiting executives is very different to recruiting general staff. This is because executives are needed to fill specialised roles and are therefore required to have a very well-defined set of skills and experience. For this reason, businesses are often less concerned with the time taken to employ someone than they are with the quality of the person they eventually hire. This can turn the search and selection process into a long one and managers can go through several sets of candidates before settling on the one that fits the position best.
Executive search companies come into their own here. Their databases help to search out possible candidates who would have the right combination of qualifications, experience and skills, and can even undertake the first round of interviews themselves, so that the final list that’s presented to the client includes only the best candidates available. This outsourcing of basic recruitment functions allows the company to concentrate on running the business and leaves them feeling confident that the candidates that come for interview are all suitable for the job.
At Novo, we provide a professional executive search and selection service and we would be happy to talk to you about how we can help. Call us on 01275 375588 or email us at dale.perrett@novoexec.com now to find out more.
Approaching an Executive Search Consultant
The perception is that the normal course of events would be for an executive headhunter to approach an individual with an opportunity that they feel the candidate may be suitable for.
However, if you are an executive who is looking for a career move there is little point in sitting at your desk waiting for an executive headhunter to approach you with your ideal job - there is nothing wrong with being proactive and approaching an executive headhunter yourself.
Executive headhunters are usually highly experienced and unlike most general recruitment agencies they specialise in recruiting for senior level positions. In addition an executive headhunter will often work specifically within one or two markets and will therefore have a full understanding of these sectors and will have built up connections within these areas.
It is important that before you approach an executive headhunter you do some research so that you know you are contacting someone who specialises, or at least has some knowledge, of the market you work in.
It is best to talk to several executive headhunters and ask about the executive appointments they cover and the sectors they work in – approach the executive headhunter who you feel could fulfil your career requirements.
Once you have decided which executive headhunter to approach you will need to supply them with information about yourself, initially in the form of an up to date CV. It is likely that the executive headhunter will want to meet with you face to face to learn more – the sort of work you are interested in, the sort of companies you are prepared to work in and the experience you have. It is important to remember that the more the executive headhunter knows about you the more likely they are to approach you if they receive instructions for an executive appointment within your area.
At Novo Executive Search and Selection, we know that finding executive appointments that suit you isn’t easy, but if you talk to executive headhunters who have experience in hiring executives, you’re putting yourself in a much stronger position. For more information call us on 01275 375588 or email suzi.fox@novoexec.com.
Approaching an Executive Search Consultancy
There are lots of general recruitment agencies around the UK, but there are fewer who specialise in executive appointments. Those that do, called executive recruitment agencies, act as specialists in their field, actively sourcing the best candidates for their clients’ requirements. Their consultants are highly experienced, with a large network of contacts and resources that they use to pinpoint those people who would make good applicants for the positions they need to fill.
Are you one of those talented executives? If you are and you would like to be approached by an executive recruitment agency, how do you go about it? You’ll be disappointed if you think that just by sitting at your desk doing a good job, you’ll be noticed. You need to network, getting to know other business people from other sectors, including executive recruiters. The more they know about you, the more likely they are to approach you if they receive instructions for executive appointments in your area. Networking doesn’t need to take up a huge amount of your time, but by attending events hosted by the local Chambers of Commerce, or other business organisations, you can get to know a broad cross-section of your local business community.
You could also approach an executive recruitment agency direct and ask about the types of executive appointments they cover. Some agencies only deal with one or two sectors, such as media or IT, whereas others have the expertise and experience to recruit across the majority of industries. Talk to some agencies to find out which represent your sector best, and then ask if you can send in your CV. You may even want to make an appointment to see a consultant to talk about the sort of work you are interested in, the places you are prepared to work and the experience you have. This will enable the agency to index your CV appropriately, so that your name appears when they search for a particular area of expertise.
At Novo Executive Search and Selection, we know that finding executive appointments that suit you isn’t easy, but if you make a little effort to get yourself known and talk to the people who have experience in hiring executives, you’re putting yourself in a much stronger position. For more information, call us on 01275 375588 or email George.woodward@novoexec.com.