Recruitment is a complex process, especially at the executive level. For entrepreneurs, not only hiring is important but also is a source of many difficulties; hiring the top-level management can be quite challenging. This added difficulty is because of the stark difference between recruiting at entry level and for a senior level post.
Executive-level recruitment is one of the most important pillars of a successful organization as good leaders drive the entire business towards the right direction. However, hiring one wrong person at this position can prove to be devastating and can put the organization’s performance and reputation at stake. This means an executive hire requires more expertise and skills.
For each entrepreneur, hiring a ‘senior level’ position is very important although the requirement may be different owing to the nature and need of the business. However, it’s a recruiter’s job to attract the best talents at all levels but hiring a senior-level executive demand additional efforts to avoid any problem that could arise for the business in the future.
A wrong executive hire can cost you more than just money. This decision of hiring can be a turning point for the organization. Where an ineffective executive could affect the organization’s productivity, a good hire can prove to be beneficial due to their effective leadership and innovation-oriented mindset.
So, the question here is that what strategies can help you bring in the right leader for your executive-level post?
Networking is the key:
The ‘turning point' is all about networking! Presently, it is inevitable to avoid the power of social media and its role to aid recruiters in the hiring process. The most popular mediums to form a strong talent hub is through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are a great source to build a social media profile for an organization and use it further to recruit the best talent.
Executive-level hiring can be made cost-effective through networking since entrepreneurs are always looking for the maximum benefit. Making connections does not cost you anything. This probably should be the first approach to make a hire be it at any given level. This may help recruit an executive that might not be available through other means of recruitment.
Along with this strategy, there are other recruitment options available as well.
Increase the recruitment Circle:
You need to spread the word. Involve your best-performing colleagues in it, both in searching and then in interviewing. With the talent hunt, multiple people can help in picking up the best talent from their networks, as it will offer a wider area to pick from rather than a limited network of a sole recruiter.
Take some help from the Selection Panel:
Once you know the perfect hire for your job, make a selection committee at the executive level and take opinion from the entire selection panel to add value to your choice. Inform the short-listed candidates in a way that inspires them to join you because they are the ones at upper hand in this case. You may ask them to prepare a presentation of their best work or provide them with a challenging task to test their ability while simultaneously engaging their interest.
However, in this case, choose the interview panel very carefully. Pick only those who are well-equipped with the skills of their field since the candidate is a professional.
Be Ready to Negotiate:
An executive level hire depends not only on the candidate but also if the job description and the culture suit their own requirements. Therefore, the offer must have something to attract the potential candidate to head over to a successful appointment.
Be prepared to negotiate on the job terms and the salary. Bring everything in discussion with your selected candidate before you finally sign up with them since this hire can cost the company. Once, everything falls into place with the terms clear at both the ends, go for a written agreement!
Give feedback to all!
An important aspect of recruiting for any organization is where most of them lack. They never provide feedback to the rejected candidate which forms a basis for the bad name of the company and also for future references which might turn up amongst them if they are kept in tracked communication.
An Alternative:
Alternatively, if the situation turns upside down and by all means of networking through social media you are unable to find the executive hire for your enterprise, the other option would be of taking referrals or to choose among the available candidate pool. This option should always be kept open as most of the senior level candidates do not scroll through the web looking for jobs, since some of them may not even have a social media appearance. They should be sought after!
In the event that this option fails too then, it depends solely upon the reach of the recruiters at the executive level. Successful recruiters often know the professionals in the area and earn their trust to provide them with a better job and perks than what they already have and just like that it yet again falls back to networking!
So in order to staff the enterprise at the executive level, network as much as you can to create a circle of seasoned professionals!
Author Bio: Saman Fatima is a content writer at Embrace-IT and temp-team.dk which is a recruitment company (rekruttering)that helps to find talent. She formerly worked at National Magazine Pakistan as a writer and then an editor. A writer by day, and a designer by night, her passion is turning into a versatile person with all skills at hand while helping the people in all aspects of writing, editing, and social media analyses.