When your company needs to find skilled candidates to fill an upper management or executive role, it’s a process that you just can’t afford to misfire on, so it’s understandable that you might want to leave it to the experts and hire a recruiting firm.
But which one should you hire? There are probably several reputable recruiting firms in your area, and each of these might have some compelling testimonials from professionals that you know. In addition to finding a company that is highly qualified to carry out an executive search, the best recruiting firm to work with should be one whose representatives are very compatible with your company personnel.
This is a significant element for several reasons, among them the fact that you will have to convey to them the position requirements and acceptable hiring terms, as well as possibly even asking for their assistance with onboarding. Here are some suggestions about things to look for in a recruiting firm that might best serve your needs, when you have to fill a highly visible role within your company.
Recruiting Firm Experience
One of the first things you should do is investigate the upper management of the recruiting firm you are considering. More than likely, that kind of information will be available online, so you can quickly check out their prior experience level with high profile recruitments. You should also be able to learn about their other business experience, and how long they have worked with other industries.
Social media platforms like LinkedIn will also provide some clues and background information about the people that you might be working with, especially about their professional ties. To be thorough, you should also check into at least some of the staff members for your candidate recruiting firm, to see what levels of experience they have and where their expertise lies. It would be beneficial for instance, to find out that at least some of the members of a candidate recruiting team have had considerable prior experience with finding executives in your specific industry.
Geographic Reach
It’s entirely possible that the kind of high profile candidate you’re looking for to fill a position may not be locally available, and in fact, this is very likely to be the case. That makes it important for any recruiting firm you work with to have a broad geographic reach that they can canvass for potential hires.
It may be necessary for your recruiting firm to have strong associations out-of-state, possibly even on the other side of the country. This is, in fact, one of the reasons that you would probably want to enlist the services of a capable recruiting firm in the first place—because they have a much broader network of contacts than your company could hope to have with any talent pool.
How do They Approach Executive Search?
If your research has turned up some possibilities for a recruiting agency you think you can work with, you’ll probably have to take the direct approach then and contact someone in that company, to ask them some specific questions. It is essential to know what their process is in going about an executive search for talent.
You’ll also want to know how they intend to gain a clear understanding of what you’re looking for, and how candidates should be evaluated. A few ground rules about how to set up interviews should also be included in this exploratory discussion, as well as any steps they take concerning vetting candidates.
Lastly, it will be important to establish an understanding of how they intend to keep you updated on the progress of the executive search, so you aren’t left wondering throughout the process.
Gaining Confidence in a Recruiting Company
Assuming that you find one or more recruiting agencies that you think might be suitable to work with, you should then attempt to gain a measure of confidence in that company so that you feel good about your chances of success. One of the ways you can do this is by asking for client references, especially from clients whose talent searches were like the kind of search you’re about to become involved with.
Polling any trusted contacts in your circle might also be a good way of learning about how trustworthy and reliable any given recruiting firm might be. It’s entirely possible that any testimonial can be somewhat skewed and even a little inaccurate, but you should be able to get a general idea of a recruiting company after reviewing some different sources. If the overwhelming body of information you receive is favorable, you are probably safe in dismissing one or two negative assessments.
Finding a recruiting firm to work with to secure the services of a top-notch executive or another high-profile manager should be done very carefully and with the utmost focus on getting it right. That makes it worthwhile to be painstakingly correct about each step in the process, especially once you’ve engaged the services of a recruiting company to help you find your candidate.