I have gathered top 10 reasons based on my experience gained by working in one of the top 25 Global Executive Search Firms, interviews of both candidate and customer side in Europe, Middle East and Asia and also, by reading and analyzing the main trends and booming topics of best global growth through leadership.
Here is my list why you might need a “SEAL-5” Talent Acquisition Professional to find your next leader.
Today, a top job opening has typically one of the following indicators. Either it's important to the organization or discretion is required in the process.
Talent Acquisition is a science of its own – it is not just LinkedIn research or asking friends or people met in the same lift or bus, although sometimes you get lucky by doing just that. In real life, Executive Search requires a rare set of people skills and business expertise. This might be why being among the best in the world is considered an innovative and effective way of building a business.
10 reasons to source top Leaders using an Executive Search Firm:
1) Good vs Best: Do you plan to hire good or the best?
2) Make-or-break factor: Executives within the C-suite often make or break a company.
3) You are seeking a profile with a rare mix of skills combined with personality/behavior
4) New executive position: Where to find someone to benchmark and share the best practices with?
5) You have to replace an executive while he is still in the role. Sometimes companies need to take talent acquisition professionals into a higher level of confidentiality with a quiet phase.
6) Confidentiality: Target profiles are in a target company that your company has a good relationship with. The confidentiality that search firms offer helps to keep the relationship with the business in the future.
7) Your senior leadership team lacks diversity.
8) You have few successors in your senior executive’s team and/or you just want to warrant proper corporate governance, and selecting an external party will keep the internal game fair and secure.
9) You do not have the time or the resources to take on an executive search. It is not the skill or capability issue that lacks in your organization. It is about securing your own organization’s resource to create the most value.
10) You have gone through potential shortcuts in your own network.
Timo Jantti
Partner, The Taplow Group - Finland