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3 Signs it is Time to Outsource an Executive Search

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With our recent launch of Hager On-Demand, we thought it a good time to share why you may want to outsource your entire executive search or just certain portions. Since our focus is on executive hiring, the focus of this blog is geared specifically to executive search. Of course, there are other reasons to outsource an executive search besides the ones we are focusing on here but for now we’ll focus on these three reasons to outsource.

 

  1. Lack of experience or the right experience in your recruiting team. Some companies do not have enough executive searches to justify hiring an executive search recruiting team. Executive search is different from recruiting active candidates via inbound recruiting tools, like job postings. The skills required to attract, engage, and convert passive talent at the executive level are different than that used for recruiting a manager or individual contributor. We recently worked with a company that was very good at hiring for manager/consultant level positions and relied almost exclusively on active candidates to fill their job openings. They became very adept at what they considered to be a rigorous screening process, but one that relied on asking questions that put candidates on the spot and putting the hiring team in a position of judge and jury.  With executive search, the goal is to form a partnership with the candidate, where both the company and the candidate’s goals are achieved. Executive search was new to them and their approach to executive hiring needed to change. To find the very best executive talent, stretch your team to embrace new thought processes and ways of doing things as it will only benefit your company to do so.

 

  1. Lack of quality hires. If your inbound recruiting efforts are not attracting the best candidates to your company, you can utilize an executive recruiter in numerous ways to potentially solve this issue. You may not be attracting the talent that you need to your company due to marketing messaging issues.  Or the existing vetting process you have may not be adequate.  Or your recruiting team is relying only on candidates that are reaching out to you and not actively head hunting on your company’s behalf to find the very best talent. This may be a good time to audit your recruiting and hiring process to identify where the problem is occurring. The key is to properly diagnose the problem and then work towards designing the solution. An objective external executive search partner can play a key role in recognizing the problem; sometimes the people within an organization are too close to an issue to properly be able to identify the root cause.

 

  1. Too much turnover. Again, correctly identifying the root cause of turnover is key to finding the solution. Focus on the actual areas that are contributing to the high turnover rate.  This may be a good time to engage an external executive search partner to conduct exit interviews with the people leaving your organization. The former employees may be more comfortable sharing the true reasons with an objective third party than with their former employer. The focus here should be getting to the truth as this information is key in reducing future turnover. The problem could be on the front end of your recruiting process in not adequately portraying the role, or it could be because your organization is unclear on the right culture fit. We recently worked with a company that perceived their culture to be one way, when in truth their culture was something entirely different. This lack of consistency in the cultural message was causing buyer’s remorse with the newly hired talent which was leading to turnover. An executive search partner can offer cultural assessments to your current and future team members to ensure that the cultural perception matches reality.

 

As you can see through just three examples, the complexity of hiring can get overwhelming at times. If you are having difficulty with your hiring, we would be happy to help.  Reach out and explain what is going on in your company and we will put together a proposal for you on how we can help you to get on a path to increased success.

 

 

 
 

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