By JAY GOLTZ
May 16, 2012

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who is struggling to find a production manager to run his small factory. The conversation brought back painful memories of my own struggles, many years ago, to find someone to oversee my factory.

At the time, I was trying to delegate so I could move on to working on the business instead of in the business. These were not the good, old days. I was in my early 30s, and the company was growing quickly, perhaps too quickly. Things were out of control. I worked long hours, had constant problems, was stressed out all day — and I was going through production managers the way Elizabeth Taylor went through husbands…Read More at NYTimes.com (will open in a new window)

Acquiring senior-level recruits might feel like a transaction: you pinpoint a candidate, make an offer, negotiate the deal, and close. If so, it’s a transaction on the most human possible level. For that reason, you’ve got to create comfort—or risk losing your most desirable candidate. (Even if you don’t extend an offer: it’s great PR for your organization.)

As a retained executive search firm, we are constantly cultivating the fine art of courtship. Here are some simple rules we suggest clients follow:

1. Facilitate travel. If you can, book candidate travel on your end—whether in-house, or through a dedicated travel agent. If that’s not practical, then make it easy for them to get expenses reimbursed after the fact.
2. Stick to the scheduled day(s). Rescheduling interviews does not build trust; doing it several times sends a message that you don’t place a value on your people. When you schedule an interview, stick to the plan.
3. Stick to the scheduled hour(s). It’s great to schedule breaks into a long day of interviews. But it’s not great to leave candidates waiting in a reception area for the next event.
4. Vary your questions. At a basic level, you’re building an experience for candidates. So keep it interesting. School your interviewers on probing specific competencies. Later, you can regroup as a team.
5. Let your candidates talk. Make it clear that this is an opportunity for them to ask questions, too. Then provide helpful information.
6. Err on the side of overload. Relocation policies. Career progression. Local schooling. Candidates need this information for their own decision making. The more you can provide, the quicker they can respond to offers.
7. Follow-up. If you liked a candidate, have a manager, or even the company CEO,  express appreciation for the visit. This can make or break a “yes.”
8. Care. If your intention is to make an offer, send the candidate a gift or a care package that shows your enthusiasm. Examples include a gift basket, or branded items with the company’s logo. Whether or not the candidate joins the company, this is crucial PR.

What are your own experiences with going the extra mile to recruit candidates? Share your stories here.

We believe there should be. We’ve always felt weekly status reports to be paramount in making sure we’re on track, and giving our clients the assurance that their searches are well in hand.

We feel so strongly about this that we’ve recently adopted a Client Portal/Candidate Tracking Tool to keep our clients both informed and involved—with a minimum of time and effort.

As a complement to our weekly status calls, the tool gives our clients a summary of regular activity on their searches. They get the information in real time: the minute our interviews are complete. They can view each candidate’s name, resume, career history, compensation, and LinkedIn profile (in one click). They can see—and comment on—next steps.

The tool—accessible on any device—also provides a nifty platform for on-point feedback. Is this candidate interesting? Are there questions, concerns, or disqualifying factors? Do they need more information? The feedback helps us refine our approach—especially in the event that the search is novel for your company (as many of ours are).

Our new tool thrills us for a couple of reasons. First, it advances our agenda: to lead the search world in both transparency and innovation. Second, it appeals to our love for technology. Third, we want our clients to get used to this kind of treatment, since their involvement is crucial.

Please give us your comments. Have you ever hired a search firm that kept you in the dark? How did it turn out? What does transparency mean to you?

As a retained executive search firm, we’re seeing an increase in pre-employment assessment testing—even at senior levels. Where stakes are highest, it’s even more crucial that your candidate fit in culturally and personality-wise. Our clients have rolled out DISC assessments, Myers-Briggs indicators, Enneagrams, and other diagnostic tools dating back to the mid 20th century—and administering them to potential Presidents, CMO’s Directors/VPs of Marketing, Corporate Communications, Finance, and the like.

In our experience, the only potential drawback to testing is making sure you position it correctly to the candidate—as just one indicator in your interview process. Otherwise, testing can be a worthy tool whose uses include:

1. Benchmarking. Pre-employment testing is a great way to benchmark potential success—particularly for commoditized roles. When there’s less on-the-job experience, psychological probing can flesh out both capabilities and potential issues.
2. Comfort level. Say you’ve got two finalists who are close, and you can’t decide. Testing can break the tie—and provide peace of mind. Weaknesses don’t have to disqualify a favored candidate, either. If your gut tells you to hire the candidate who did more “poorly,” you can move forward accordingly.

1. Attitude. No matter what level your job search, you can tell a lot about your candidate from the way she approaches the test itself. Is she taking it seriously? Is there calm under pressure? Is she decisive, or dithering?
2. Value. Share the results of the test with your candidate, and she’s gained something substantial—whether or not she gets the job.
3. Onboarding. Your assessment test can double as an onboarding tool—giving you a clear understanding of your new hire. You can then address any weaknesses with further coaching and development.

If you’re dealing with a candidate who all but has an offer in hand, consider sharing this notion with her. You’ll create substantial buy-in, and encourage more honesty during the test itself.

What do you think about pre-employment assessment tests? Share your thoughts and experiences here.

As a retained executive search firm in a rapidly shifting digital age, we are often asked where social media fits in. Questions we hear include:

• Should the ability to create, manage, and execute social media programs and campaigns fall into your marketing suite, or corporate communications?
• Or should social media skills form a separate division of their own?
• If you’re a brand leader, you’ve got multiple responsibilities. How can you also take on social media expertise—and find the time to meet your brand’s business objectives?

That these questions persist shows how deeply much of corporate America has accepted social media as a necessity. But to truly leverage this tool, you cannot isolate it in any way.

As executive search consultants, we’ve learned that social media isn’t just about advertising, branding, and promotion—it’s also about customer service, product development, market research, internal/external communications, and the like. It’s a wonderful, universally unprecedented tool for engaging with customers: listening to them, and letting them know who you and your brands are. It’s a front line that should feed out of—and back into—all customer-facing aspects of your company. It allows you to initiate and join conversations that help your loyal customers feel more connected to your brand, and enhances your overall market presence.

So rather than relegate social media into the marketing or corporate communications suite, you need to evangelize and integrate the skill set into all departments. Ideally, you would have social strategists to create and drive your programs and campaigns, and community managers to actively listen and respond.

Feel free to share your experiences in shaping your corporate social media functions. What have you found that works for you, and what doesn’t?

You’re looking to retain a new executive search firm. You meet a recruiter while networking, and you take that as a sign. He or she is with a reputable firm, and seems professional, knowledgeable, and aggressive. So you seal the deal. After all, you just need someone who can get the job done—and fill your job(s). Right?

Well…not exactly. You can’t just cross your fingers and hope for the best. You’ve got to be careful, and you’ve got to be smart.

For one thing, a retained executive search firm is a partner in a very public way; we represent our clients in a sensitive, highly-charged marketplace where there’s little room for misinterpretation. At our best, we’re doing delicate, one-on-one PR for our clients. We need to convey all of the nuances accurately, and put you in the best possible light.  

Use the following questions to qualify any would-be recruiter:

1. Tell us about your relevant experience. Can you provide a representative search list of your personal search accomplishments? Insist on getting one, so you can make a truly informed decision.
2. Do you have the expertise to help formulate our search? It’s easy for a search firm to say yes to your criteria. What’s harder is to find is a firm that adds real perspective.
3. Who is going to be conducting this search? Will it be you, or a junior recruiter? Beware of search firms that do the bait-and-switch.
4. What’s your process? How are you planning to communicate with us throughout the search? How transparent are you willing to be? Insist on ongoing status reports that clearly detail the day-to-day work.

A great search firm thinks creatively, communicates eloquently, and provides excellent PR. An unqualified search firm simply chisels away time and money.

Do you have a story to tell? Please share your own experiences on this topic with us.

In the world of retained executive search, the accepted protocol is clear. Posting or socializing active searches is a major no-no. Why? One perception is that it’s easier to post a search than to work one’s network…and therefore lazier. Another is that it skews toward active job seekers, rather than a broader, active and passive market.

Yet now, given the new prevalence of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, the lines are blurring. For the first time, there’s a legitimate counter-argument to the traditional way of thinking.

For one thing, the population that uses LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook isn’t a population of job seekers. It’s a population of, well, everyone. LinkedIn can be a particular goldmine of happily employed candidates, ripe for the plucking.

So is it time for retained search firms to adopt a new protocol?

The Case in Favor of Posting

Simply put, there’s nothing lazy or deficient about leveraging a social network to identify candidates. Search firms worth their salt will still solicit hundreds of responses, and cast their discerning eye on all of them.

Worse, closing the door to social networks might seal off crucial avenues. A few years ago, a search we posted on Facebook led us to a friend of mine, someone I hadn’t seen in 20 years. The winning candidate turned out to be a friend of a friend of a friend.

The Case Against Posting

In the world of retained search, will there always be a stigma attached to posting your jobs online—whether on a job board or to a social network?

First, the search has to be non-confidential (unless you’re willing to post “blind”). Second, you could be wasting your time, and going through volumes of resumes that miss the mark completely. Third, sometimes, posting a search simply isn’t the right style—particularly for searches that call for added explanation, and therefore demand a one-to-one type approach.

What do you think? Please provide your viewpoint on whether search firms should post searches on social networks, job boards, and other forums.

Recruiting to retain begins by asking two questions “What does someone need to be successful in this position?” and “What type of person fits here?” This focuses on the core personality, skills, and abilities the ideal candidate should possess. If they do not have what it takes, and they will not fit in with others, they certainly will not last very long. Recruiting to retain means keeping many candidates in the pool, and few in your pipeline. It is protecting the investment already made in your current dozens, hundreds, or thousands of employees. Recruiting to retain is never hiring in desperation. How often did that work?

The two questions should be asked for every hire, every time. As an organization evolves and grows, the needs, wants, and expectations evolve as well. As do the needs of candidates. Your company reputation or the market conditions may get candidates to join, but employees won’t stay unless their values are aligned with the organization. Checking in before every hire helps to ensure that natural evolutionary changes are considered. Recruiting to retain takes more time up front. It pays off in the long run when you can spend your time innovating, marketing, and delivering, instead of replacing, re-hiring, and re-training.

Guest author Chason Hecht is an innovator, speaker, and leader in employee retention strategies. As an expert on reducing employee turnover, Chason founded Retensa (www.retensa.com), which now helps organizations on 5 continents and in 9 languages to retain employees and address the social and financial impact of staff turnover. Follow him @retensa and check out his video interview with Robert Levin of the NY Enterprise Report.

But imagine if you made an offer (or found a job) that required the candidate (or you) to relocate somewhere unaffordable. Maybe homes cost 3 times more in the new area. Maybe there’s a mortgage underwater.

In recent years, this has been a serious phenomenon in the executive job market. It can kill a successful placement—or cost our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars in relocation fees.

1. Figure out what’s tenable (employer). In the “old” days, relocating a candidate might have involved covering moving expenses and/or closing costs (on both ends). Now, our clients are increasingly considering footing the bill for what we call “loss protection benefits.” It’s best to figure out—at the outset—what you’re willing to pay.

2. Communicate (candidate). Candidates should communicate where they stand—early. If you’re being pursued by a recruiter, it’s helpful to let him/her know whether you own or rent your home. If relocation is problematic—due to an underwater mortgage or a personal situation—it’s best to reveal that…before any steps have transpired.

3. Do the research! (both). Is the new location expensive? Is real estate robust there: do homes tend to hold and/or gain value? Is the job in a large metropolitan area? Coastal? Dense? Close to industry? Answer these questions first, so that you have a sense of context.

As executive search consultants, we do our best to probe and to educate. But when you’re playing an active role in an executive job search, following the above steps will help everyone to avoid disappointment.

Do you have an executive relocation story to share? We’d love to hear about it! Post your comment.

A few weeks ago I got an email from “Kate Spade,” announcing a “flash sale” of 70% off at KateSpade.com. Since most Kate Spade bags retail for $250+, this was a very enticing offer. The sale was one day only, “while supplies last” and final sale (no returns.) Knowing that this would be a very popular sale, I jumped on the offer and poured through the site until I found a bag with a list price of $245. Within 15 minutes of receiving the email I was shelling out $100+ dollars for what I hoped would be the “bag to end all bags.”

Later, reflecting upon this uncharacteristically impulsive purchase, I was struck at how essential it was that this email had come from a brand as strong and desirable as Kate Spade. Without being able to physically look at (or in this case, touch) my purchase before I made it, I was willing, based on reputation alone, to quickly and easily spend $100+ dollars because I felt an extremely high level of certainty that the product would be a superior product regarding design and construction. The leather would feel “rich” and the detailing would be high-quality. I was not enticed by the brand itself per se, but by the inherent quality I felt I was guaranteed, especially in light of the bargain I was getting via the sale. A “weaker” brand might have evoked a level of skepticism that might have caused me to second guess my purchase. But I didn’t have one moment of uncertainty…thanks to the years of marketing that Kate Spade has done so well…both traditionally via advertising and via word of mouth marketing.

What do you think? Is a product’s positive brand image even more important than ever in the virtual and digital age? Does the same hold true for non-tangible items, such as services?