There are better ways to hire the senior talent you need than executive search firms

Executive search misses the mark for companies and for candidates

The executive search model is outdated. For starters, it is too transactional - the executive search model is driven by making a closure than truly finding the best fit for client roles. Although the rolodex has been replaced by LinkedIn, the way executive search is conducted hasn’t changed in decades. 

Executive search companies and agencies rely heavily on an established network of professionals- industry contacts, events, personal relationships, etc. This has led to a very homogenous talent pool that often misses out on great candidates who might just not have an “in” to the network.

For candidates, executive search falls short in multiple ways. For the vast majority of people, it is simply out of reach. Executive search companies typically don’t have avenues for candidates to reach out to them. Without a community network for talent to enter into, they have to wait for outreach from the agencies themselves. Executive search firms also aren’t looking to help candidates find the best job or the best fit, they’re looking to find a closure. This means that candidates often lack guidance or feel misguided on things like compensation, life at that organization or growth potential in that role. 

While this system may work for companies short-term, it misses the mark on finding talent that will stay long term and truly be successful for an organization. So many companies engage executive search firms simply because it is what they know. There are better ways to find the leaders you need.

Here are the top four hiring strategies you can use instead of executive search:

Look beyond the obvious

Our biggest tip for finding talent that can move your organization forward is to look beyond the obvious. Far too often, companies (and executive search agencies) get caught up in finding someone who has already done the role they are hiring for. They offer a leader in the same role in the same industry a pay bump, equity, or other benefit to entice them to move. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but it isn’t the only option. Leaders with different backgrounds bring new perspectives and ideas. These leaders can bring you insights from adjacent industries, knowledge of how different organizations do things, and provide unique viewpoints you may not have represented in your organization. 

Looking beyond the obvious doesn’t mean scrapping your requirements all together, it means rethinking who might be successful in that role. Consider this example: a large, established bank is hiring a new technology leader. They could go to other large banks and look for technology leaders there, or they could try to find someone who brings something new to the table. This bank could find a leader at a FinTech organization, who brings an innovative startup mindset but also has knowledge of their highly compliance driven industry. While this candidate might have some initial learning to do on the functioning of a large bank, they bring enough industry knowledge to be able to hit the ground running and they also bring a wealth of experience and ideas from working at smaller, more tech focused organizations that could be beneficial to a larger institution.

Build your own relationship network

This is a medium to long-term strategy for better leadership hiring, but one we find most effective. This involves connecting with talent before you need to hire them. Researching and connecting with leaders in your space and in adjacent industries will help your organization get an idea of the kind of talent available to you and will also increase your chances of truly finding people who align with your goals and are interested in the work you are doing. If the first time a candidate hears about your organization is when you want to hire them, you’re already behind. This is especially true for senior candidates. Preemptively connecting with them allows you to create a candidate pool that understands and is excited about the work you do.

Connecting with talent could mean anything from hosting industry events, doing direct outreach on LinkedIn, inviting candidates to do informational interviews with a recruitment leader, writing and sharing blogs about the work your organization is doing, doing targeted paid advertisements, and more. We encourage you to keep these sessions/ efforts additive for candidates, so they feel that they are learning something rather than being evaluated. This does NOT include posting dummy job postings to collect resumes, this diminishes your brand and erodes candidates’ trust.

In order for this strategy to be successful, it needs to be a stated goal for a member of your team (or several- depending on the size of your organization). Ideally, one person or a team explicitly owns the effort of connecting with and creating an ongoing dialogue with potential candidates. A recruitment or talent acquisition team is already overburdened by fulfilling immediate needs, and this proactive approach is best executed when someone owns it.

Create avenues for growth

This is another long-term strategy, but some of the best talent your organization can tap into is the talent it already has. Well established mentorship and upskilling opportunities and networks will only help your organization’s business goals. The more connection your employees have with senior leadership, the better. If your organization has good mentorship pathways, then when a leader decides it is time to move on, they will likely have a short-list of internal candidates in mind who could take on their role. 

Engage with different partners

Lastly, we encourage you to consider different partnerships than simply agency model executive search companies. One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make is giving the same role to half a dozen executive search agencies and rewarding the one who gets back with candidates first. The risk of these agencies reaching out to the same candidate for your role will cheapen your brand and lower candidate experience quality. This also reinforces to the agencies you work with that you value speed over quality. They may not take the time to truly explore the market and consider every profile for this role, they will likely just send the resumes of whomever they have already connected with or sent to other clients. 

If you go with an executive search agency, pick one to three that you enjoy working with and can establish an ongoing relationship with. The longer you work with an agency, the more likely they will be to truly understand what matters to you and who succeeds at your organization long term.

There are always options like Meytier. We work in an ongoing, flat-rate subscription model that not only reduces time to fill and cost per hire, but allows us to truly get to know your organization, your goals, and the types of talent you’re looking for.

To learn more about how Meytier helps companies hire the leaders they need, reach out here.