1. Your executive role is imperative to the success of your organization
You cannot afford to make a mistake on this hire, either because you filled this role before with the wrong person that did not stay, or they did not achieve the results that you had hoped. Perhaps the role has been open too long and the opportunity cost of not having someone in the executive role is hurting your revenue/profitability, damaging brand recognition, and losing leads, sales, or team members due to lack of leadership.
2. Your leadership team cannot agree on what you need in the executive role
Sometimes a mediator is helpful, someone who is adept at bringing people together to work towards a common objective and to get the leadership team on the same page/looking for the same thing. If this key step is done prior to starting an executive search, you will save yourself valuable time to fill and get it right the first time, saving not only time but money and lost productivity.
3. Your talent acquisition team does not specialize in the type of executive search that you are seeking
If your talent team is junior, you may want to focus their efforts on non-executive roles or if you have primarily a team of tech recruiters, hire an external search partner to work on a key executive leadership positions (Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, etc.) Understand that the skills required to fill executive leadership roles are different than the skills required to fill more entry level roles. Specializations are also important in filling key roles as a tech recruiter is great for finding your software engineers but not great at finding your Chief Marketing Officer, and vice versa.
4. You don’t have a talent acquisition department and you cannot afford to make the wrong hire
If your company is not at the stage to hire an internal talent team or your structure does not include a talent department, understand that talent acquisition is a discipline that takes years to perfect. Hiring a retained executive search firm can save you valuable time and money by preventing/minimizing mis-hires.
5. You don’t have a talent acquisition department and your focus should be on your core competencies, not learning talent acquisition
Similar to hiring an advertising or marketing agency, you do so because you require expertise in an area where you are not an expert. Talent Acquisition is no different; an expert can make all the difference in your company exceeding plan this year, not three years from now.
6. Your company turnover is higher than you would like
Turnover is caused by many factors. Some examples are not understanding what you need in the role you are hiring for and in turn hiring the wrong person, not understanding what represents a culture fit and hiring someone who is not a culture fit, and not understanding what an “A” talent looks like and thus hiring a “B” candidate who did not produce the results you had hoped.
7. You have not clearly defined your employer brand or culture or your talent experience is not as good as it could be
Retained executive search professionals are adept at advising on employer brand, helping you to identify your actual company culture, not what you think it is, and advising on talent experience to minimize lost candidates due to flaws in your hiring process.
8. You have exhausted all inbound marketing techniques and have not identified the right executive talent
Inbound marketing for talent can work very well when your company name is Facebook, Google, and Apple. For other companies, an inbound marketing effort may not produce the talent of choice. When this happens you are not lost nor are you suspect to hiring a candidate that is less than perfect for your company. You just need to also run a proactive outbound process in addition to or instead of your inbound talent marketing program. Retained executive search firms are experts in attracting “A” talent and designing outstanding talent marketing programs to achieve great results.
9. Your employer brand is not attracting the executive talent that you are seeking
Great employer brands don’t happen overnight and you still need to hire top talent to achieve your goals as an organization. That is one of the primary reasons to invest in retained executive search to give your company the competitive edge in hiring the best talent that, let’s face it, may not be walking through your doors currently.
10. You understand that the return on investment for retained executive search is an investment in your organization not a cost
A great executive talent will not only quickly recoup your initial investment in a retained executive search firm but will also bring a great ROI to the role itself making your company profitable sooner. Not to mention, the knowledge you gained in improving your organizations talent brand, talent experience, company culture is also invaluable.