Hiring for the best talents plays an important role and part in an organization’s growth and development agendas. It is important that recruitment and human resource practitioners are aware of current trends in their area of specialization. Being knowledgeable about current challenges are important so it may be addressed and managed.
Executive search companies are no different from in-house HR departments. Different sectors and industries may experience the same difficulties and problems with regard to hiring and recruitment. Given the difficulties, executive search companies should be able to create functional processes and standardized recruitment strategies.
The recruitment patterns and processes have been through several changes in the past few years as economic and technical aspects have become very dynamic and have been altered to create a more fitting process depending on specific demands as per roles and client companies. With these changes come different challenges that executive search firms have to overcome as well. In this regard, it would be helpful to know common challenges that executive search firms will and can experience throughout these changes. Let’s look at these challenges that need attention.
1.Effective and Consistent Recruiters
Executive search firms have become a big and successful business over the years. And as the industry grows, the call to become a recruiter and earn a great deal of profit has grown as well. No matter how easy it is to close the role or how abundant the talent pool is, it all boils down to how effective the recruiter is. How smart the recruiter is to utilize every strategy and every possible way to attract and get the right candidate. Also, recruiters should be able to open up to the changes that are happening as the business advances forward. Some recruiters may appear to have adapted better in the market in the past but are struggling to keep up now because they forget to also take time to know or make themselves aware of the changes that are happening now. Some recruiters also tend to copy others’ strategies regardless of it being effective or not. Recruiters are afraid of taking risks and create their own strategies simply because it is not practiced by others. It now becomes important to assess the recruiters’ effectiveness and competitiveness to be able to provide and deliver. One recruiter can place a new hire after another but being a consistent performer can mark that spot in the industry. A recruiter should set a timeline and should be able to pitch and sell a potential candidate to the client. This, of course, is to put a mark on the recruiter’s dedicated service and effective performance and consistency. This also builds a strong partnership with the recruitment firm and with the clients.
2.Ownership
Once the perfect candidate has been found, the executive search firm wants exclusive rights to this profile. Recruitment firms can search and target the same profile at the same time during the process of sourcing, and this can cause confusion and candidate duplication. Recruitment firms want to make sure that this candidate is tagged under them and not with another search firm. However, client companies can also play a vital role in this situation. They are entitled to decide and dictate what happens depending on the satisfaction they receive with the presented profile. It becomes important that these recruitment firms have completed several hiring requirements such as having interviewed the candidate whether face-to-face or over the phone. Another requirement is to have permission from the candidate to release the necessary information and details to the client company. Through these requirements, ownership is obtained by the firm who has worked harder than the other firms and is entitled to the candidate and placement. In this regard, firms should make sure that the profile they will present is also informed of the process and are able to declare that they have been presented by the respective recruitment firm.
3.Identifying the Perfect Candidate
Hiring good candidates can be challenging. There are several factors that can affect an application and the process of hiring. Some profiles have the right skills that match a job together with having the right educational background and work history. However, there can be multiple factors and more information needed than what is stated on paper. In the early stages of the hiring process, it does not guarantee that you get the right candidate at once. Searching for the right candidate has been the most common challenge every recruitment firm has encountered and is still something most companies are experiencing until now. As demands from client companies have become more specific in regard to candidate skills and work background, somehow, these candidates have become difficult to find. In the process of hiring, it is important to consider that skills alone do not guarantee that the recruiter will hire the right candidate. The recruiters should consider that prospective candidates should possess skills and characteristics that not only match the role or function but also aligns with the companies’ goals and aspirations. To overcome this, executive search firms should be able to step up their game and go the extra mile. Learn to broaden the scope of the search and the farther you get the more quality and fitting candidates you are able to pool for the role you are trying to fill. Another way is to clearly state what the client is looking for. While not every potential candidate will possess all the skills that are required for the role, it does not hurt to prioritize candidates that already have the complete skill set. This can help the recruiter weed out candidates that are good from the ones that are not so much. To also overcome the tedious process of constantly communicating with the client as to why the candidates that were presented have been failing, recruiters should be able to note all the information they need from the profiles and assess the candidates once they are able to interview them.
4.Recruiting Timeline and Efficiency
The recruitment business has been moving faster as compared to the past, and a firm that is not dynamic enough will surely be left behind and will fail to compete and provide. Indecisive clients can suppress and slow down the recruitment process. Part of this delay can cause a temporary slowdown in the placements as well. It now becomes important in the part of the recruitment firms to be quick and efficient in interviewing candidates and presenting them to the clients. With this, recruiters should also be able to prompt their clients to act faster on the hiring process and decide quickly. At some point, some client companies assume that to be able to get the right candidate, it is through sending the profile through several interviews. This is because this has become a trend that prolonging and taking more time to make a hiring decision will also result in better hires. Although for the most part, this is not always the case. A candidate who is actively looking out can have several interviews and offers with different companies. And if the client tends to move slowly with the hiring process, chances are, they could miss a good hire and all efforts you’ve made are put to waste. It is important to make the client understand that there should be a timeline set for specific vacancies. Not only should this timeline setting be practiced by the recruitment firms, but it should also be used by the client companies as well. A role that has been vacant for a long time can have an effect on the company externally. Given that the role has not been filled for too long, it may give out a sense of incompetence from the part of the client because of prolonging the hiring process and indecisiveness. This event can also create a toll on the part of the recruitment firm so this should be something that is properly explained by the recruiters to the client companies.
5.Indecisive Candidates
Indecisive clients are just one challenge but combining it with indecisive candidates is another topic. Candidates tend to go for several interviews and in return would tend to have several offers presented to them. It is now the recruiter’s task to carefully talk to the profile and make sure he or she understands what the client company has to offer. The recruiter should learn how to make the interview process a great experience. In this process, the recruiter should ensure that the concerns and queries of the candidate are properly addressed and entertained. Some candidates feel the need to be taken care of and recruiters should be able to give the needed to make sure the profile accepts the offer and close the deal.
6.Effective Use of Search Mediums
Communication is key. Aside from effective processes and strategies recruitment firms are putting into practice, job boards and other search engines play a good role in the hiring process as well. If one firm uses sloppy search engines and old-fashioned tools, chances are, that a recruitment firm would not be able to make noise in the market and will be ignored, making that company fall behind. This becomes a challenge since some recruiters rely on job boards itself, making the recruiters complacent and just waiting for candidates to click on postings and submit their applications. This should be something that recruiters have to improve on since recruitment requires a pro-active behavior to get the job done. The use of job boards should only be a part of the recruitment process and should not become the process as a whole. Recruiters should also be knowledgeable enough to know the interface of different job boards and posting. It is important when it comes to the job posting, that job orders are posted quickly and are easily viewed so potentially good profiles are easily found and matched to a job. It is good to invest in these tools and engines if you are able to utilize everything it can offer and can save you time effectively. The right profile may be difficult to find, but with good use of your resources, it does not make it impossible.
These challenges are real and can be experienced by any recruitment firm. However, these are also opportunities for the firms to look into and determine the points of improvement. When one firm identifies and addresses the hurdles the company is experiencing, they can create plans and strategies to overcome these challenges and eventually succeed.
These difficulties are observed by Harper & Hill Executive Search. Our firm has mapped solutions to address these difficulties by:
- Creating a pro-active partnership not only with the clients we support but also with the candidates that we source and acquire.
- Leveraging on modern technology to reach out to potentially good profiles that fit the job function.
- Having a wide-scope of a database that has been filtered and reviewed that enables us to properly match opportunities with candidates.
- Establishing rapport with candidates and making the recruitment process an enjoyable experience.
- Harper & Hill Executive Search is also represented by experienced and highly-skilled consultants and recruiters with an extensive background in recruitment that will work with its clients to achieve, deliver, and overcome recruitment expectations.
Marketing Communication
Harper & Hill Marketing and Communication Team
Contact Us: recruitment@harperandhill.com
