Executive Recruiting for Dummies

Recruiting for high-end executives requires a special skill-set, and Executive Recruiting For Dummies is here to help you add this niche talent to your arsenal. Whether you're an in-house human resources manager or a professional recruiter at a search firm, this friendly guide walks you through each step of filling that senior, executive, or other highly specialized position. This book covers the globalization of talent and the advantages of executive recruiting. It provides expert guidance on finding the right candidates, conducting hardy screening and interviewing processes, closing deals, and more.

There are 10,000,000 businesses in America that hire at least one senior executive a year, and most turn to commissioning a third-party organization, such as an executive search firm. Rather than losing that next top-tier recruiting job, let Executive Recruiting For Dummies show you how to add this highly desirable and sought-after skill to your resume.

• Learn to recruit with precision
• Create a robust interview process
• Close the deal with a winning offer
• Find out how to work with professional recruiters

Discover how to find the best talent and retain and attract clients  with the help of Executive Recruiting For Dummies.

David E. Perry has completed more than 1,000 searches on five continents negotiating over $300 million in salaries. His near perfect success rate is 300% better than the industry average— one reason why The Wall Street Journal dubbed him the "Rogue Recruiter."Mark J. Haluska works internationally to fill positions from upper- middle management to president and CEO -level positions. Mark is a self-taught recruiter and has packaged deals as high as $4.2M.

Foreword xiii

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: The World of Executive Recruiting 5

Chapter 1: 3, 2, 1, Blastoff! Getting Started with Executive Recruiting 7

What Is Executive Recruiting? 8

Ace of Case: The Business Case for Executive Recruiting 9

A Demanding Supply Issue 10

Oh, Grow Up! The Growth of Executive Recruiting 11

Chapter 2: Talent Show: Why Talent Matters 13

Value Pack: Redefining Value in the Knowledge Economy 14

Paradigm Shift: Understanding the New Recruiting Paradigm 15

Triple Play: Three Steps for Tapping Top Talent 16

Step 1: Figure out what you’re looking for 16

Step 2: Find people with the knowledge and qualities you seek 18

Step 3: Hire the person who best matches your needs 18

Chapter 3: Rock and Role: The Role of Recruiting in Business 21

That’ll Cost You: The High Cost of Poor Hiring 23

Hocus Focus: Putting the Focus on Hiring 25

Fitty Cent: Fitting In and Fading Out 26

Chapter 4: Key Club: Identifying Key Personal Characteristics 29

Work Your Core: 28 Attributes of Successful Executives 30

Character 31

Intellect 32

Business intelligence 33

Leadership 34

Emotional intelligence 35

Super Fly: Avoiding Superficial Evaluation Factors 36

Flew the Coop: Building a Cooperative Culture 37

Part 2: Planning Your Search 39

Chapter 5: Plan Do! Devising a Plan 41

Plan Up: Putting Your Plan Together 42

Sharing your plan 45

Looking at a sample plan 46

You SLA Me! Hammering Out the Service-Level Agreement 48

Defining expectations in an SLA 48

Looking at a simple SLA 49

Chapter 6: Team Up: Assembling Your Search Team 51

Who’s on Your Executive Search Team? 51

The hiring team 52

The recruiting team 52

The support team 53

Search Me! Assembling a Solid Search Committee 54

Chair-y Picking: Selecting the Search Chair 55

External Affairs: Choosing an External Recruiter 56

Budgetary considerations 57

Retained recruiters versus contingency recruiters 58

Niche recruiters versus generalists 59

Big firms versus boutiques 60

Critical questions for external recruiters 61

The recruiter scorecard 65

Chapter 7: Dividing to Conquer: Parceling Out Your Process 69

Analyze This: Performing a Needs Analysis 70

Confirming the need 70

Defining the requirements 71

What’s Up, Doc? Generating the Necessary Documentation 71

Research Engine: Researching the Market 72

Source Code: Sourcing Candidates 74

Recruit Pursuit: Recruiting Candidates 74

The Big Short: Interviewing Your Short List 75

Point of Reference: Checking References 76

Sound Off: Making an Offer 76

All Aboard: Onboarding the New Hire 77

Get Your Kicks: Hosting a Kickoff Meeting 78

Here Comes Trouble: Troubleshooting Your Hiring Project 80

When your search hasn’t yielded enough qualified candidates 80

When your hiring process takes too long 83

When good candidates drop out after the first interview 83

When good candidates refuse the offer 84

Chapter 8: Don’t Be a Tool: Exploring the Tools of the Trade 85

Daily Digest: Our Everyday Tools 86

Tools for connecting with professionals 86

Project-management tools 87

Assessment tools 87

Communication tools 88

Recruitment Rock Stars: Following Top Thought Leaders 89

Even More Recruiter Tools 90

Leading social networks 90

Recruiter associations 94

Mobile recruiting apps 95

Miscellaneous recruiter resources 96

Part 3: Doing the Pre-Search Prep Work 99

Chapter 9: Resign of the Times: Reacting to a Resignation 101

Lizard Warning: Getting Control of Your Lizard Brain 101

What not to do 102

Reprogramming the simulator 103

Next Steps: Key Decisions after a Resignation 104

Do we really need a replacement? 104

Can you use the succession plan? 105

What level of competency is required? 106

Chapter 10: Documentation Station: Generating the Necessary Documentation 109

First Things First: Who Is Your Client? 110

Order Up: Writing the Job Order 112

What is the job title? 114

Where is the job located? 114

Who will the new hire report to? 114

What does the position entail? 115

What kind of compensation are we talking? 116

Why is the position open? 116

What type of educational background is required? 116

What type of experience are you looking for? 117

What type of management style would you prefer? 118

What personality type would be the best fit? 119

How important is executive presence? 119

What is the pattern of growth or decline for the company, division, and/or group during the last two years? 120

How quickly does the client expect the new hire to make a contribution and what results does the client expect? 120

What is the key to success for this position? 120

Detail Work: Detailing the Job Description 120

Performing a SWOT analysis 121

Drafting the job description 124

Comparing apples to apples 127

Finding wiggle room 127

Soliciting input 128

Styling and Profiling: Composing the Position Profile 129

Ad It Up: Writing a Solid Job Ad 132

Bad job ad 132

Attention-grabbing ad 133

No Résumé? No Worries! Collecting a Confidential Candidate Brief 138

Building the form for a confidential candidate brief 139

A sample confidential candidate brief for a CFO 140

Reviewing a confidential candidate brief 143

Guidance System: Creating a Detailed Interview Guide 143

Contents of the interview guide 144

Sample questions 145

Chapter 11: Research Party: Conducting Candidate Research 147

Hope Is Not a Strategy: The Importance of Candidate Research 147

Texas Hold ’Em or Fantasy Football? 148

Your Step-by-Step Research Guide 150

Meeting with the search committee 151

Meeting with individual committee members 151

Seeking help from former candidates and from colleagues 154

Scouring public databases for candidates 154

Researching companies 155

Researching industries 157

Chapter 12: What Is This Sourcer-y? Sourcing Candidates 159

Back to the Future: Modern Sourcing 160

Sock It to Ya: Sourcing’s One-Two Punch 161

High-level sourcing 162

Ferreting out the details by phone 164

Wooly Boolie: Using Boolean Logic to Simplify Sourcing 164

Sample Size: Conducting a Sample Search 166

Searching on LinkedIn 166

Searching on Google 170

Keep It Going: Sourcing on an Ongoing Basis 172

Cruising alumni networks 172

Reaching out to your extended network 172

Keeping track of the competition 172

Building your brand 173

Stacking your bench 173

Powering up HR 174

Part 4: Locating and Evaluating Candidates 175

Chapter 13: Recruit Reboot: Recruiting Top Candidates 177

Passive Aggressive: Passive versus Active Candidates 177

A-Listers: Paring Down Your List 180

Assessing your farm team 180

Sifting through résumés and online applications 181

Evaluating referrals from your network 181

Checking the hot list 183

Following up on your targeted list 184

Bench Press: Benchmarking Your Search 184

Choosing the benchmark candidate 186

Approaching and interviewing the benchmark candidate 186

After the interview 187

Head Case: Headhunting Prospects 188

Making initial contact 188

(Dis)qualifying the candidate 192

What’s next? 196

Chapter 14: Interview Interlude: Interviewing Top Candidates 197

Stage Right: Understanding the Progressive Two-Stage Interview Process 198

Stage 1: Identify, evaluate, engage 199

Stage 2: The five-part robust interview 199

Preppy Handbook: Prepping for Each Interview 201

Sending the itinerary 201

Reviewing documentation about the candidate and position 202

Getting the hiring team up to speed 203

Preparing documentation for the candidate 203

Afterburner: After the Interview 204

Face Time: Conducting the First Face-to-Face Interview 205

Getting the candidate’s story (again) 205

Fact-checking the candidate’s story 208

Closing the interview 209

Chair Up! Conducting the Search Chair Interview 209

Getting the candidate’s story (yet again) 210

Assessing whether the candidate can deliver the desired outcomes 210

Determining whether the candidate has solid interpersonal skills 212

Answering the candidate’s questions and wrapping up the session 212

Closing the interview 213

Next steps 213

Hire Rise: Handling the Hiring Manager Interview 213

Assessing the candidate’s systems thinking 214

Gauging the candidate’s creative thinking 214

Evaluating the candidate’s leadership style 214

Closing the interview 215

Finishing the Search Committee Interview 215

Prepping for the interview 216

Conducting the formal interview 217

Meeting informally 217

Next steps 217

Present Tense: Carrying Out the Candidate Presentation Interview 219

Candidate as Customer: The Importance of Candidate Experience 220

Chapter 15: Point of Reference: Checking References 223

Identifying the Two Big Questions Reference Checks Will Help You Answer 224

Can the candidate do the job? 224

Is the candidate a danger to others or to your company? 225

Who Should Do Reference Checks? (Hint: The Hiring Manager) 226

Formulating a Plan 227

Who You Gonna Call? 228

Direct references 230

Indirect references 233

Steering the Conversation 234

Chapter 16: Happily Ever After: Sealing the Deal 239

Pay Up: Calculating Compensation 240

Compensation tips 241

Assembling a compensation checklist 242

Everything’s Negotiable: Negotiating Like a Pro 245

Preparing for negotiations 246

Choosing the negotiator 247

Projecting a positive attitude 248

Breaking an impasse 248

Special Delivery: Delivering the Offer 249

Counter-Intuition: Dealing with Counteroffers 250

Agree to Agree: Composing a Solid Employment Agreement 252

All Aboard! Onboarding 253

Finders Keepers: Retaining Top Talent 254

Challenge 254

Communication 255

Compensation 256

Part 5: The Part of Tens 257

Chapter 17: Ten Key Principles of Effective Executive Recruiting 259

Remember It’s Always a Seller’s Market 259

Sell First, Buy Later 260

Be Opportunistic 260

Use a Boutique Search Firm 260

Be the First to Walk Away 261

Build a Farm Team and Draft Only A-Players 261

Seal the Deal with Psychic Cash 261

Leverage Your “Manning Factor” 261

Qualify for Integrity 262

Don’t Hire a Liar 262

Chapter 18: Ten Keys to Working Successfully with the Search Committee 263

Identify a Clear Agenda for the Board 263

Agree on a Prioritized Sourcing Strategy 264

Articulate the Organization’s Return on Investment for Recruiting 264

Set Realistic Expectations 264

Do a Reality Check 265

Be Consistent with the Messaging 265

Create an Emotional Link 266

Conduct a Discerning Candidate Analysis 266

Negotiate a Successful Offer 266

Let the Search Chair Close the Sale 267

Chapter 19: Ten Reasons to Use a Professional Recruiter 269

Satisfying Stakeholders 269

Easing Your Burden 270

Reducing Opportunity Cost 270

Being Nimble 270

Building Trust 271

Being Discreet 271

Inviting Continuous Improvement 271

Bringing Competitive Intelligence 272

Increasing Retention 272

Getting Your Money’s Worth 272

Glossary 273

Index 281

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