Executive Search Firm Selection Tips to Help Pick the Best for Your Company

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If talent is your most critical asset, how do you choose your executive search firm? It is true most C-Suite executives place recruitment, retention, and development of key talent in their top responsibilities. But what about choosing an executive search firm?

Attracting the most qualified executives and retaining this top talent is seen by many CEOs as a top business challenge. There is good news for busy leaders, executive search firms provide the expertise that positively impacts the success of your search and ultimately your businesses. The key is to ensure you are hiring the right firm for your company.

Confidentiality Matters in an Executive Search Firm

The truth is, the higher you go inside an organization to look for an executive candidate, the less likely they are to discuss their interest with a stranger. An executive considering change not only puts his or her own role at risk, he or she also endangers the value of the organization that is represented.

Executive search firms have a unique opportunity to engage successful candidates that are satisfied in their current roles. Experienced retained recruiters will have access to the highest-performing leaders in an industry. Confidentiality and trust are essential for these candidates. Often they are more comfortable with a search advisor who is not part of the hiring organization. This creates a more discreet relationship to explore a potential new opportunity.

Executive Search Firm

Trusted Executive Search Firm Partner

While confidentiality might be critical to the candidate, its relationship to trust is just one component of the multi-faceted relationship with the client organization. Organizations cannot afford to risk uncertainty about an influential executive’s standing with the company. Therefore, perceptions about uncertainty have a negative impact on organizational culture and the public view of the brand. That impact extends to customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Ethical search firms work hard to ensure that searches are conducted confidentially and discreetly.

Perspective and Objectivity

External counsel and strategic advice often because they are too close to the action themselves and seek other angles. A quality executive search consultant will bring depth and breadth of experience — beyond one firm, one industry, one market, and even one position. This experience can be invaluable in terms of providing objectivity and bringing strategic expertise about the marketplace to the table. They understand talent availability, trends in terms of new requirements of functional leaders, the qualities required when transformation is essential and so much more. The right firm will help clients envision new possibilities and uncover pain points, with empathy and from the perspective of experience.

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Navigating a Suitable Talent Network

Today the quest is for innovation. As a result, more companies are seeking to attract top executive candidates that can deliver fresh perspectives. Executive search firms rely on their own expanded networks to identify top talent. Similarly, retained recruiters understand the importance of their own client brand and desirability as a target for leaders. They understand how to attract high-potential, high-demand talent. Strong cultural fit and an organization well suited for success are high on the agenda of potential recruits. Your retained recruiter will understand this and be able to navigate these waters.

The Broad Range of Industry Expertise

When you locate a quality executive search firm, they will have an experience-backed understanding of the market. In addition, they will understand your industry as well as the evolution of key functional leadership roles. Similarly, these trends are foundational in your search for leaders who can manage an organization through future transformations. For that reason, look for a firm with years of experience that understands how to assess for learning agility.

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Deep Assessment Capabilities

A quality executive search firm will use their deep knowledge of the industry, the organization, and the role to assess candidates against the requirements. The goal is to ensure that a candidate not only looks good on paper but will be the right leader for the organization and its strategic focus. Therefore, an external consultant brings a unique perspective to the process that often includes years of experience across markets, industries, and functions. Their team combines the art and science of assessment to a critical process. Learn more about our assessment and how we learn in-depth about the role and finalist candidates that are presented to our clients.

Planning for the Talent Pipeline

When hiring leaders today, it is important to remember they are also the leaders for tomorrow. Is your organization developing a diverse group of leaders for the future? An executive search firm brings talent assessment and marketplace expertise to this critical process. Subsequently, it helps build a high-performance leadership team that excels now and in the years to come.

Executive Search Firm

Minimize Risk with an Executive Search Firm

Executive search firms reduce the risk of making an unsuccessful hire. Finally, selecting the right retained recruiter puts you in a position to execute proven procedures and aligns you for success.

About Manhattan Resources

Manhattan Resources is a retained executive search and advisory services firm with deep experience assisting our clients in building high-performance teams. We specialize in oil & gas, retail energy, power & utilities, petrochemicals, manufacturing, distribution, and engineering. For this reason, Manhattan Resources invites you to experience an executive search and business solutions partner like no other. As always, we are there to help you fill mission-critical leadership roles, build high-performance teams, and tackle your most significant challenges. We measure our success the same way you do, making sure your team is exceeding corporate objectives and measuring how much our people move the needle for your company. Manhattan Resources has the agility, innovation and business acumen to assume a bold approach. As a result, we will help you take your business to the next level. Find out how the experts can help. Contact Us >>

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