Here are the pros of using an Executive search Agency!
While in-house HR teams has many responsibilities, Executive Search Agencies solely focus in recruiting top talents and anything related to that. Their day-to-day work makes them more experienced in this field than any other HR expert. Their processes are tailor-made to find the most suiting executives to the open positions and they have the necessary network and also access to large databases to use during the search. Thanks to this, they can present potential candidates as soon as 2-4 weeks. When a company faces a sudden opening in crucial management positions, time reduction is essential. By leveraging their existing network and resources, Executive Search firms can often fill an opening more quickly than a company could on its own.
Working with an Executive Search Agency has the advantage of the guarantee the firm offers. If the placed executive quits or is given a notice, the agency will repeat the search. Thanks to the guarantee, if a candidate does not work out for the company, the costs are not completely lost. This reduces the risk of using external support.
The Executive Search Firm’s consultants work in this field for many years with the support of experienced mentors before becoming a headhunter themselves. They are often experts of their own industry, while knowing all of the trends and tactics of a successful Executive Search process. Executive Search consultants attend trainings often. They also have a large network of relevant contacts and they can easily get referee of other executive candidates too. These features assure that the search is conducted on the highest quality possible.
One of the hardest parts of working in recruitment is trying to put away personal biases while also using previous experiences to avoid selection mistakes. Working in-house means knowing the company very well, but it can also distort our view on the whole industry. Working with Executive Search consultants who has experience with many other firms working in the same field can help reducing selection bias, while in-house HR can give important insights about the company-specific aspects.
Executive Search Firms take over the search and selection process. They pre-screen candidates via interviews and conduct tests according to the need of the clients. These tests are often time consuming and require special skills and knowledge to evaluate, which in-house HR teams often lack of. Consultants also collect references of the candidates’ previous positions. They summarize the interview, the test results, the references and their own expert opinion in one structured report. They send the same report about all of their candidates which makes comparation and making decisions easier.
Executive Search Agencies support strategic thinking. They work towards creating long-term relationships with their clients. Their focus is not only on filling one executive position, but they also consider the company’s long-term goals and work along that. The advisory they provide during the briefing and selection process is an important resource the client gets to tap into. Their insights are not limited to the position itself as they can also provide industry- and business-related information too.
Now let’s take a look at the cons of working with an Executive Search Agency so you can make a well-considered decision.
Executive Search is a pricy service, as the higher a position is, the more the service costs. There are many different ways to calculate Executive Search fees, such as percentage of the selected candidate’s annual salary. Other costs like administrative fees can add up to it according to the prior agreement. While this could be a significant cost, it is important to see that choosing the wrong candidate without a proper selection process and consideration is also expensive. The cost of the business loss and the repetition of the recruitment could be much bigger than the Executive Search fee.
Executive Search Firms can require upfront fees, which means that the client has to pay (part of) the service even if the hire doesn’t succeed. Thankfully, Executive Search Firms rely on the credibility they obtain from clients, so they rarely let a project fail. Thanks to their expertise and resources they can fill the most complex openings too.
Every company has specific needs when we talk about new employees and executives. Their size, industry, market, consumers and many more attribute impact what kind of professional they are looking for. The Executive Search consultant has to understand the industry, the company, its culture and set-up to accomplish successful recruitment projects. Executive Search Firms often specialize to a specific field or location, where they have deep understanding of the skills and qualification needed for a roles.
For example, Prime by JobGroup is specialized to the Hungarian market, especially manufacturing and production sector, pharmaceutical and health sector, finance and banking sector, energy sector, SSCs, ICT and media companies and commerce.
Working with an Executive Search Firm is only effective if you are ready to let go of actively participating in every step of the process. The Executive Search consultant will take over posting job ads, finding candidates, looking through databases, using analogue and digital headhunting techniques, selecting candidates, conducting interviews, evaluation and profiling candidates and writing reports. While consultants are reporting to you often and involve you in every step, the main goal of using an Executive Search Firm is to free up your time to do more important tasks. This also mean less control over the process and quicker success at the end.
While companies often work with many HR agencies for junior and mid-level positions, working with an Executives Search Company on high-level openings most of the time asks for exclusivity. Making agencies compete with each other for success is a working approach for many HR projects, but not for Executive Search, where exclusivity is part of the prior agreement.
However, this exclusivity results in a deeper cooperation between the company and the Executive Search Firm, with the consultant often supporting the in-house HR team with many insights. At the end this results in a higher quality of service. Thanks to this, the Executive Search Agency takes more risk and responsibility to successfully fill the openings.
