Choosing an Executive Search Firm

Choosing a Firm

Selecting the right executive search firm is the key to fulfilling your company’s talent needs for the long term. Good consultants work as partners, listening to your requirements and getting to know your company’s unique style. Take the time to choose wisely—the best recruiting partners will be available again and again to help build the leadership team your company needs to succeed.

I’ve got an opening. Now what do I do?

Advertising and networking can only take you so far. Recruiting firms can greatly expand your executive job search—but not all headhunters are alike.

If you have an existing relationship with a firm that knows your company, its people, its hiring practices, and has delivered in the past—great. Otherwise, seek referrals from people you trust who have worked with a variety of recruitment firms on similar searches.

Even if you don’t have any connections to executive search firms, Retained Search can help. Start by asking yourself these questions:

How urgent is our hiring need?
How senior is this position?
How broad geographically should this executive job search be?
How should my company and the position be represented?
How involved in the hiring process do we want the recruiter to be?
How much can we afford to pay and how do we want to pay for it?

Then, Request an Retained Search Referral.

What’s the difference between contingency and retained search?

In general, low- to middle-level positions that must be filled quickly with local candidates and minimal recruiter involvement beyond sourcing of candidates call for contingency search. Here speed, cost, and an immediate flow of resumes are paramount. Using multiple firms is often the best way to go.

Critical middle-level and senior-level executive jobs, which require careful screening of candidates, are generally best handled under retained search. In this case, candidates may be drawn from competitors nationally and one firm should have the exclusive right to present the opportunity. Professionalism, thoroughness, and close candidate control throughout the process are vital.

What are the advantages of using a retained search consultant?

Better communication and more control over the recruiting process
More professionalism in how your company and the opportunity are being presented to candidates
More thorough knowledge of candidates
Greater expertise in interviewing, negotiating, and closing the deal
Candidate exclusivity
Guaranteed results

How do I know which executive search group is right for my company?

Ask questions:

How long have you been doing retained executive search?
What experience do you have in my industry?
Will you be interviewing candidates personally? If not, who will be our contact person?
How long does executive recruitment take?
How many candidates will I have to interview?
What will the total cost be?
If this hire does not work out, what is the cost for another search?

Executive job search consulting is a partnership. Make sure you feel comfortable with the executive recruiters you hire.

What if I’m still not sure which consultant to hire?

How do search firms typically operate?

Successful search is a team process involving three or more individuals: a project manager (who manages the assignment); a fulfillment specialist, or recruiter (who presents the opportunity to candidates then qualifies their skills, interest, money, and geographic availability); and a researcher (who identifies the individuals whom the recruiter will attempt to recruit). Sometimes the first two functions are combined. Get a sense of how the firms you talk to are organized and to what extent they utilize separate researchers and recruiters.

What happens during the first few weeks of a search?

Your consultant will work with you to define the position, its responsibilities and compensation, the ideal candidate, potential source companies, the hiring process, and the desired reporting/update arrangements. Next steps include: creating or refining the job description; posting the description on selected websites and possibly advertising it in newspapers; benchmarking the position with test candidates; conducting research into source companies and candidates; and preparing for the start of recruitment.

In some (fortunate) cases, the firm may have a few qualified candidates ready for you to consider almost immediately.

Where will my candidates come from?

Restricting a CEO search to local candidates is probably not the best strategy, nor is doing an international search for telesales people. Determine how broad geographically you want the search to be before you hire an executive search consultant. How well a firm knows the local or national market—even whether a consultant can take your executive search international—may be important factors in your hiring decision.

How are interviews conducted?

In the best of all possible worlds, interviewing of candidates by a search firm should be done face to face. Only in the presence of candidates can one fully evaluate the individual’s non-resume qualifications—forcefulness, presence, demeanor, warmth, and so forth. Next best is videoconferencing, which offers some of the advantages of face-to-face interviewing without the time and cost of bringing candidate and recruiter together physically.

In reality, there are times when both you and the recruiter are sufficiently sold on a candidate that the advantages of face-to-face or video-conferenced interviewing must be weighed against the time lost in setting up and conducting such an interview.

How will candidates be presented to my company?

You have two choices: Candidates can be presented in “short list” form—three or more candidates whom you and the search firm agree are qualified based on an initial review. This approach allows you to interview all candidates within a brief period, compare them, and select the one you feel can do the best job. The disadvantage to this approach is that candidates recruited early in the process are kept on hold until the short list is completed.

Alternately, candidates can be presented as they are qualified and ready to interview. This approach can lead to a faster hire—if you find the right person quickly. It also reduces the risk of losing a highly qualified candidate who is interviewing elsewhere. The disadvantage is that you may not be able to compare candidates in close sequence.

What documentation will I receive about candidates?

All companies should receive the following when a candidate is introduced: a resume, a completed job questionnaire or other document that addresses the candidate’s specific qualifications for your position, and an evaluation of the candidate’s qualifications created by the search firm. The latter may include references, interview reports, videotapes, and key issues to address during interviewing.

How will I be kept informed of progress?

Require weekly or biweekly progress reports from any headhunter you hire. You may want the report to cover all candidates contacted or only those candidates who are interested and potentially qualified. For qualified candidates, the report should include company, title, compensation, relocation issues, motivation to interview, and current status.

Will the candidates we see also be sent to other clients with whom the headhunter is working?

Not if you have retained the search firm and been assured by them that you have the right of first refusal on all candidates recruited by them for your search. Gray areas involving candidate exclusivity arise when candidates come from the firm’s existing database or have already been presented by the firm on a contingency search. (Many retained firms do limited contingency search as well.) If you are working with a contingency firm or firms, you should not expect any level of candidate exclusivity.

Who actually makes the offer to candidates?

Your call … but most good search firms prefer to extend offers themselves. One reason is that it distances the client from the negotiation process, and any unpleasantness that may develop during the “end game.” Another reason is that search firms are in the business of closing deals and can anticipate snags. Regardless of who makes the offer, it should be pro forma if the search firm has done its job and communicated effectively to both client and candidate. There should be no surprises.

What else can retained executive search consultants do for me?

Good search firms look for ways to add value to their client relationships. Services that may be available include:

Compensation assessment
Personality testing
Advice on position titles, organizational structures, and interviewing techniques

Some industry-specific firms are able to go beyond adding value to the hiring process to offer suggestions for potential partnerships, products, sources of capital, and even acquisitions. After all, who else works with as many companies within your industry as a national search firm that specializes in your industry?