Archive for headhunter
Executive search maintains a potential candidates privacy and anonymity
Posted by: | CommentsIf after meeting with a consultant, the candidate decides not to pursue the position, his name is not mentioned to the client. Some agencies send resumes to companies without first alerting the would-be candidate. If a person registers with a few agencies, his resume could be multiply submitted to a company thereby making him seem too hungry or desperate for change. This would never happen in the search field because the candidate has to okay any referral of his credentials. Executive search is a highly confidential process.
A search consultant presented a candidate to the head of human resources. Impressed with him, he referred him to the line executive. Also favorably disposed, he bumped the man upstairs to his manager. This fellow recognized the executive’s name. Four months earlier, an employment agency had sent an unsolicited copy of his resume for a different position. It had been returned with a note saying that they had no need for him.
The senior manager reluctantly met with this candidate—primarily because others thought he had ability. He thought the gentleman had shown poor judgment in registering with an agency and in allowing his resume to be circulated. However, he liked the candidate and hired him. But the man’s leverage to negotiate a higher salary was weakened. The manager felt that he had been aggressively looking for a job—and had done it in a less than professional way.
Executive search firms write the resumes of all candidates whom they will present to a client, even if the individual has his own. They refine them, adding information relevant to the search in question and deleting the extraneous. Agencies generally do not have the time or expertise to do this. Headhunters often write personal evaluations too. They include information about a candidate that is legal, though usually not found in a resume, such as his appearance, attire, personality characteristics, style, and how he might fit in with the client and his executive team.
A prospective employer may list a position with several agencies. He will, however, spend considerable time doing this, taking their inquiry calls regarding candidates and reviewing resumes. Similarly, if an employer runs an advertisement and gets over 100 replies, he has to wade through them, judging the abilities of unknown executives by their letters and resumes. If a search company is retained, they will serve up a few qualified candidates, thereby eliminating duplication and saving enormous amounts of time. Headhunters check references and put their findings in writing.
The Major Executive Search Firms usually Have a Research Staff
Posted by: | CommentsThe staff can be sizable and located in many of the firm’s offices around the United States and overseas. As college graduates and often librarians, they are trained in information gathering techniques. Using the guidelines and directions of headhunters as to which fields and companies, and what levels of executives to identify, researchers develop potential or target candidates’ names (individuals who are usually working in competitive companies) whom the recruiter can call. How do they do this?
They purchase specialized directories listing who’s who in different fields. They may also have had the opportunity to look at staff directories of different companies that were lent to the headhunter by an executive who is an employee there or was an employee there whom he had hunted away. Additionally, magazines and newspapers in different fields are subscribed to and a reference library is maintained. A research staff reviews the search firm’s resume files or computerized data bank to see if there are qualified people who match the job specifications. Many sophisticated search companies have computer linkage to other invaluable information services, such as Dun & Bradstreet (enabling quick information retrieval about numerous companies), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (all past articles from their morgues can be obtained), and so forth. Researchers telephone into companies and find out who holds a particular position. They have been known to visit an office building, peruse a lobby directory, and note which executive does what for a given company.
How executive search consultants are paid
Posted by: | CommentsAgencies are paid on delivery or contingent on a placement, and fees can go as high as 30 percent. The fees on some lower level jobs are borne by the candidate, not the employer.
Depending on the firm, search fees usually range between 25 and 35 percent of the executive’s total compensation, including base and bonus, for the first year. Billing is in installments and the preponderance of the fee is typically paid in advance of the actual placement. Companies pay for the search.
Headhunters are on retainer and are paid whether they fill the position or not. They don’t guarantee a placement, but ethical ones won’t take on an assignment they believe isn’t doable. Not wanting to lose a client or tarnish their reputations, they naturally persevere with difficult searches. Some searches, as a result, can take a year to complete. But the client may have been unsuccessful in all other recruiting endeavors and fully realizes the difficulty. The headhunter may make hundreds of calls before finding the needle in the haystack.
A major corporation in New Jersey asked a headhunter to find a vice president and manager for its southwest regional office in Houston, and insisted the person be a Texan. The position was challenging, but the compensation was inadequate. Knowing the market, the recruiter advised his client—a very good one—accordingly. Unable to increase the package yet having a strong need for a manager, the company urged the search firm to do the assignment even though the chances of success were slim. Not wanting to rebuff a client who gave him considerable business, the consultant accepted the search. Combing the Houston market over a three-month period, he developed five candidates. A senior vice president went to Houston to see them. He was stood up by one (rare at this level), another telephoned to say he’d changed his mind, and the others were deemed too inexperienced. The recruiter spent the next three months looking in Dallas for someone who could be relocated. Three candidates were developed, but the client wasn’t interested and for different reasons: they knew the reputation of one fellow, another didn’t have the extroversion they sought and the third man earned too much. The headhunter suggested searching in smaller Texas cities for someone who would have related, if not the exact, experience and who could be comfortable in a larger city. The next three months were spent hunting in cities like San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi. One man was found in Dripping Springs.
He and the client met and liked each other. He was flown north to meet more senior management. He received an offer—much more than he was earning. By the end of the ninth month, he accepted. In the tenth month, shortly before he was to begin, he (and his wife) changed their minds. The charm and beauty of their small town and their fears about living in a big city were the reasons. During the eleventh and twelfth months, the head-hunter looked in vain for another candidate. The client even raised the dollars slightly. But not enough to lure anyone who was previously intrigued by the job, but found the money light. After two hundred calls and no success, the headhunter and the client agreed to stop the search.
Executive search less frequently serves certain groups
Posted by: | CommentsThe Unemployed Executive
The attitude of most employees is, “If he’s really top notch, why is he unemployed?” Granted there are thankful exceptions. To my mind comes the executive who inherited a new management either after an acquisition of his company or, as in a foreign bank, after the general manager completed his two- to three-year term and returned home. Suddenly a fine performer doesn’t get along with his new leader or the management brings their own team with them. The executive may be given three, six, or more months’ notice by management and then he is out. There are also a few independent souls who will leave a company and begin a full-time job search rather than suffer an unpleasant boss while simultaneously looking around. Despite good reasons for one’s unemployment, it’s a hurdle in the search world getting management to look at “beached” executives. And although recruiters have success in placing such individuals, the executive too often has to rely on his own contacts and efforts in locating a job. Nevertheless, this should not preclude contacting headhunters. However, if terminated “for cause” by your last company, chances of successfully being placed by a search firm are slim.
Executives with Poor References
Most firms generally feel, “If he’s any good, why are his references lousy?” Mitigating circumstances certainly have enabled headhunters to place executives who worked for companies or management whose reputations were themselves questionable; their client knew this and wasn’t too biased. But when one’s current reference is bad, the executive should be able to offset it with others—previous employers, clients, or executives who knew him professionally, if he wants a search firm’s assistance.
Average Performers
“If I wanted average, I wouldn’t have retained your search services.” Of course, some supposedly average executives at a Cadillac company may often look good or great to other slightly less prestigious firms. Put less harshly, there are executives rated average by their employers who have fine work records, educational backgrounds, and personal presence. One wonders if they wouldn’t do better in a new and different environment which also seems more in keeping with their style, skills, and interests. A search firm’s clients may occasionally make a business decision of this nature. But if you have an employment history of average to below average performance, it’s very unlikely that a major search company can help you.
Executives Whose Income Versus Their Age Ratio Reflects a Lag in the Former
“With all his experience, if he were any good, he’d be earning more.” The executive rule is that you should earn more than your age. If you don’t, it’s rare that a headhunter will have a client with a need for your services. Somehow the barometer of the marketplace has evolved in this fashion. The low end $60,000 searches are generally filled by up-and-coming, young, middle management level executives. There are exceptions. A female executive, aged 55, was hunted from a $55,000 job to a $75,000 one. The new employer recognized the woman’s ability and that women generally earn less than men doing a comparable job. Also, the lady had taken a 10-year leave of absence from her career to raise a family.
Job Hoppers
People who have a series of short-term positions. “There must be something wrong with the guy if he keeps changing jobs so often.” Employers wonder why the executive can’t take root and progress in a company. It can’t always be his employer’s fault. So, after a handful of positions where each lasted two or three years, even with excellent and plausible reasons for departing (more money and a bigger job), an executive has gotten himself into some trouble. Search firms rarely are able to place people like this. These executives usually have to find the next assignment on their own.
Some fields, such as data processing and management information systems, have large numbers of people who leave after the project is completed. A prospective employer would still be wary of such individuals, but some search firms may be able to place them because the demand for their skills is high.
Why all these caveats? When prospective employers pay a search firm a hefty fee, they typically want the cream of the crop, and as they perceive them to be—unblemished! Their yardstick, fortunately, is not always rigid. Talent, personal chemistry, plausible reasons for circumstances, and the severity of any employer’s need versus the availability of people, occasionally offset the demand for the perfect candidate. Sometimes a company isn’t looking for Mr. Excellent because they can’t afford him. Sometimes they aren’t perfect themselves. This naturally gives a search firm more flexibility in considering candidates.