In consulting with our clients on executive search, we find some common areas of misconception about the talent acquisition process.
Focusing on the five that we encounter the most.
- Relying only on inbound talent to fill your crucial positions. Even with the huge demand for talent, it is surprising how many companies are not augmenting their talent pools with passive talent. Passive talent represent a huge untapped quality talent pool that are currently working and succeeding in their roles. Bringing our client’s brand stories to passive talent is highly successful for us in bringing top talent to our client partners. if your organization is relying only on inbound talent, you are only getting the talent that are applying not the best talent available.
- Misunderstanding the value proposition headhunters bring to your talent strategy. We do two things, we have a very large talent network that has been compiled over the past 10 plus years and in addition we also have a highly effective approach with one of the highest passive talent conversion rates in the retained executive search space.
- Viewing talent as a cost, not as an investment. Unfortunately this continues to be an issue. The return on investment of high performing talent is huge for companies.
- Unrealistic view of how long search takes. Be cautious if anyone tells you that you can see talent immediately. The process of executive search takes a minimum of 2-3 weeks before candidates will be presented.
- Not tying talent strategy to business outcomes. As we wrote in a previous blog post https://hagerexecutivesearch.com/leadership-consulting/outperforming-competitors-using-talent-value-approach/ the importance of understanding the key positions within your organization by using a talent to value approach you are identifying the most crucial positions to your organization at all levels.
Talent strategy should be the guiding principal before beginning any executive search. We ask smarter questions that can help your organization avoid the classic talent strategy blunders. With the wrong strategy in place, a lot of time can be wasted sourcing in the wrong direction. To ensure that your organization is heading in the right direction, the time should be spent up front ensuring that the road map is set prior to starting an executive search.