Our Managing Director Alia Majed has posted an insightful article on www.simplyhired.co.uk the article is posted here for your convenience…

Executive Search is all about process, not personality. Yes personality plays a part but please don’t try to ‘wing it’ when it comes to your success. Earn the placements you desire while enjoying the reverence, supremacy, and stature Executive Recruiters command! Ultimately recruitment is about client understanding and sales; you could join a company as a resourcer to really get to know your market and work your way up to becoming an Executive Recruiter. You need to have a consistent work ethic, the ability to follow a process, honesty and enthusiasm. An Executive Recruiter is a leader who comes across to others in the process as a partner.

Firstly know why retained executive search is different from other forms of recruitment and do your homework. You can draw a straight line from due attentiveness you put into calculating, selecting and engaging in an executive search assignment to the results you deliver. Importantly, sell the whole package to your candidates; never assume that executive candidates don’t have other career options. They are evaluating you as a recruiter and your client throughout the entire process as much as you’re evaluating them. Be an enthusiastic recruiter and really market what’s great about your client and the specific opportunity. If they’re a great fit, executive candidates will be enthralled by your narrative and feel a sense of support and enthusiasm from you and their potential new employer. From the very first conversation, even pre-interview stage you must sell the whole package – a search consultant can verify it and offer comparisons with other opportunities.

A critical part of the process is for executive recruiters not to be a stakeholder on any executive search assignment unless your client can clear their schedule to meet candidates and provide timely feedback. The opportunity cost of each executive assignment you work on is huge and the best candidates will not wait around if your client is not prepared and committed to make timely decisions. Most recruiters hear what they want to hear – an executive recruiter will appreciate that their time is precious and it’s better to decide from the offset if the assignment is worth working. Since 80% of your job is listening, make sure you tune into the tone of voice for hidden objections, when the person on the other end of the phone is talking, don’t be thinking of what you’re going to say next – listen to what they’re saying and don’t feed answers. You don’t want to match a job spec to a CV but you need to match opportunity to type.

Executive recruiters have great power once they understand their role and responsibility in the process. Recruiters are responsible for managing every step of the placement process. Once they appreciate their role, they can easily spot if there’s trouble brewing which could jeopardize an offer/acceptance and take the needed action to put the process back on track. How do you ‘fix’ a search in crisis? You start with asking the questions. When a client or candidate asks a question, seasoned recruiters answer the question directly and then ask another question to maintain control. I cower at the word ‘control’ but as a recruiter, all parties involved have a stake in the outcome and although it’s never articulated, we as recruiters are the leaders of the pack.

http://blog.simplyhired.co.uk/2011/09/what-you-should-know-about-executive-search.html

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