A company’s success depends upon its ability to hire the right people. According to the Harvard Business Review, more than 80 percent of employee turnover is directly related to poor hiring decisions—often made by overworked HR recruiters who typically have a limited amount of time to sift through hundreds or thousands of resumes. Employees who aren’t a good fit for a company not only cost money, they also negatively affect the morale of their coworkers.
Because of this, companies should consider using an executive search firm to help them make their most important hiring decisions. The primary purpose of these agencies is to find top executive talent from a pool of the most qualified candidates.
Read on to learn the main benefits of hiring an executive search firm as well as some caveats that every company should be aware of before using enlisting the help of an outside agency.
Why You Need an Executive Search Firm
Aside from not wanting to further burden their already busy HR departments, many companies opt to use an executive search firm based on the following three factors:
Confidentiality—It’s important to protect the integrity of the hiring process as well as the privacy of all potential candidates. With this in mind, it makes sense to select an executive search firm that can work discretely when searching for internal as well as external candidates.
Time savings—Hiring for a top position like a CEO takes up an enormous amount of time. Because they have dedicated resources to devote to a search, executive search firms can spend much more time evaluating potential candidates. They are also typically more experienced in weeding out candidates who don’t meet strict C-level requirements.
Negotiations—Developing comprehensive compensation package can often be a touchy subject when hiring for C-level positions, as candidates’ expertise and education may present challenges in meeting salary expectations. Search firms mitigate some of negotiation difficulties because they work directly with the candidates to ensure that they are matching them with companies that can deliver the salary they’re expecting.
Other reasons that companies choose an executive search firm include, but are not limited to, exhaustion of industry connections or candidate referrals, a history of hiring individuals who don’t fit the company culture, or losing candidates to other companies that presented better offers. Executive search firms have a direct line to the most qualified candidates and are able to provide better candidate matching, thus helping eliminate the aforementioned problems.
Major Benefits of Hiring an Executive Search Firm
Making the decision to hire an executive search firm is not an easy one, but there are some major benefits that will make the the decision less stressful. Search firms take what is initially a daunting task and simplify it with a process that connects the best candidate to the best job. Each year, executive search firms fill nearly 90,000 high-level positions, and they do so by doing more than just reading resumes and matching qualifications.
One of the biggest benefits to using a search firm is cost effectiveness. Executive search firms engage in what’s called active recruiting, which is something most HR departments can do, just not as efficiently. Reaching out to potential candidates for top positions requires a much larger time investment than seeking out traditional candidates. And while, many human resources professionals are great at hiring talent for positions in lower and middle management, they have less experience in recruiting and hiring executives. Using an executive search firm also helps increase productivity by allowing HR professionals time to focus on other projects while the search firm finds suitable executive candidates.
The consequences of poor hiring choices cannot be overstated. As such, company leaders should take advantage of a qualified executive recruitment firm when searching for someone to fill a position of great importance and influence. Doing otherwise means risking hiring the wrong person, which can put the company at risk for years to come.
As with any business dealings, there are some caveats to hiring an executive search firm. Companies should be wary of executive recruiting firms spending inordinate amounts of time with each candidate because their primary focus is matching a candidate to a job based on resumes and references. It will still be up to company leaders to conduct interviews to get to know the candidate better and decide if he or she will be a good fit for the company.