Let us help you solve the puzzle of hiring senior executives with these 5 tips from our recruitment experts.
It hurts but it’s true: 30-40% of senior employee recruits fail after 18 months, according to Harvard Business Review. Hiring senior executives, who have the ideal combination of experience and personality, certainly cost you a fortune, also lead to a huge impact on teams’ productivity and corporate performance. Lucky for you, there are ways to raise your chances of finding the right fit.
Here are the best 5 advice for hiring senior executives process:
First thing first, clarify the role to smooth your way
No matter if you’re looking for a replacement or starting afresh, the executive search should start with the role’s detailed description. The same position probably means different at each stage of the business. So, make sure you’re writing a job description through the lens of your current business goals, strategies, and culture.
Aside from defined duties, include more requirements regarding experience, management skills, and personality. Discuss with your hiring manager and other stakeholders to get everyone on the same page about their expectations toward the role. The management team should agree on how they will collaborate to continually deliver exceptional business outcomes.
Another crucial section - the career path - is commonly overlooked. As senior executives are in high demand, attract more qualified candidates with a clear picture of how they can grow professionally with your business.
Once you have an organized and compelling job description in hand, it’s time to move to a trickier step.
Be proactive to approach wider talent pool
When it comes to hiring senior executives, job boards or Facebook groups can’t help. Instead, utilize networking sites such as LinkedIn can speed up your recruitment process. Spend time to separate the wheat from the chaff and reach out to prosperous candidates. This is when all your preparations pay off. Also, you can always notify your LinkedIn network whenever you have a vacancy.
Now, referrals will bring you qualified candidates, especially passive candidates, that your competitors barely really know. Not only from the online world, but a successful referral can also come from your colleagues, managers or even the executive who is about to leave. Research shows that hiring via referral is time-saving and cost-effective. Referred employees also tend to quickly adapt to the new workplace and stick around longer. In general, this is an effective way to fill your top-level positions.
Be patient during the interview and negotiation process
With senior executives or leadership roles, one interview is just not enough for all parties to learn about each other. To shield your company from bad hires, invite them for at least 2 interviews, formal and informal. Through these interactions, you can verify their qualifications, cultural fit, management styles, and work ethic to ensure they are “the one”.
Initially, arrange a discussion towards the responsibilities, your business visions, culture, and estimate their qualifications. Following this, invite them to a casual lunch or dinner to evaluate their behaviors in more casual business occasions. If possible, involve some team members in the meetings to see how well your candidates interact with subordinates.
In the salary negotiation, present them with a specific offer that fits their career direction. Understand that for senior executives, it’s natural to renegotiate or take longer to decide. You can follow up after a few silent days to see if you can help in any way, but don’t rush and push them, otherwise, this will be your last-minute failure.
Ensure the smooth integration
So, you finally successfully hire a senior executive! That’s great, but this isn’t and shouldn’t be the end of your recruitment journey. Now it’s time for another key stage – employee induction process.
This phase is vital to ensure your new employee can quickly take over and integrate into the team. If done correctly, this induction sessions can boost employees’ performance by over 11% and improve retention rate, too. Then, it’s worth going the extra mile for an employee-focused induction process. Consider asking another colleague in a similar position to be a mentor during the translation. Or, take our suggestions here to form an effective employee induction process.
Is this the last step in hiring senior executives?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. If you want to optimize your hiring process and improve future candidates’ experience, don’t miss your chance to get feedback from your recent hires. That can be valuable insights that point out both your good practices and room for improvement.
These tips may sound easy at first, but we all know that it’s always easier said than done. Most recruiters also find hiring senior employees or management positions a thorny issue. Instead of juggling with a full plate, save yourself with the support from the Adecco recruitment team. As an executive search firm, we know where and how to find your perfect fits in a twinkling. Contact us now for customized hiring solutions that meet your unique needs!