Why choose Executive Search?

May 25, 2022

Executive search lends itself well to three things: identifying individuals with hard to find skillsets, selecting senior individuals with a certain range of experiences, and gaining a better understanding of the talent landscape.

Before founding Fram, I worked for an Executive Search business, and indeed for the first four years of Fram’s life we worked an almost exclusively retained model. It’s a business model that has real merits, but we responded to client and market demand and introduced contingent search into our services. I have to say having the flexibility is great, and it’s also better in some ways for a key constituent in the recruitment process – the candidate. Most executive search agreements give the client “ownership” of a candidate until they’ve hired or declined the candidate. This often means that the headhunter can’t introduce that individual to the other firms, even if the candidate wanted them to. In many ways, it’s right. The client has paid upfront for a search consultant to build a shortlist for them, and not for their competition. However, this is one of the reasons why recruitment firms should have flexibility in their model. In many instances, search isn’t right or necessary to solve the problem the client is facing. That said, in boom times like these search firms won’t work without being retained, and in down times - they are more humble.

I’ve never not completed an executive search. In short, it’s because I only ever take things on I know I can complete, and it’s also process. Some would say I need to push myself more (I’d disagree).

Every hire is important, but personality profiling, market intel, and ensuring the whole market is covered isn’t always required for each hire. Sometimes a selection of good people with a particular skillset meet many clients’ requirements. It’s quick, efficient, and works remarkably well given how little time both interviewer and interviewee spend together. Actually, if you wanted to spend time really getting to know someone in the current recruitment climate, you’d end up hiring nobody as your competition would pip you to the post. However, meeting a selection of people isn’t always possible, or the right way to go about things. In short, executive search lends itself well to three things: identifying individuals with hard to find skillsets, selecting senior individuals with a certain range of experiences, and gaining a better understanding of the talent landscape.

Identifying those in the market, not just on the market

“Linkedin search” I hear you say. “Everyone is on there”. Actually whilst many are, many really aren’t, and you’d be surprised how many people don’t really interact on Linkedin. If you want to comb the entire, or vast majority, of a talent pool you need to go further. You need to speak to a wide range of sources including industry peers, suppliers, and former colleagues. You need to comb press releases and conference speaking lists and a whole range of other sources. However, if you’re seeking to make a key hire it’s time well spent.

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Data & reporting

In larger firms, there are many stakeholders. It’s important that they can view the progress of a search, understand clearly if search partners have worked hard to build a diverse shortlist. Executive search enables business leaders to gain a better insight into the competitive landscape.

Detailed candidate profiling

An executive search profile of a candidate can be an invaluable tool for hiring panels. It provides an objective view of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and areas to probe further.

Appointing the right panel of interviewers

Your search consultant can help you define the right process to put candidates through, and the best people to sit on the hiring panel. If you need to hire a CEO with a marketing background, then you need someone in the process who knows what “good” looks like.

Executive search can seem expensive and a brave step to take. However, like in any recruitment assignment, you are paying for the Consultant’s time. For someone experienced, to dedicate their time to your assignment and to helping you get the right person. Over the longer-term it will help you save money. Therefore, if you have a challenging or strategically important appointment to make, I couldn’t recommend it more.

About Fram Search

Established in 2010 by Simon Roderick, a recruiter with 20 years City recruitment experience, Fram Search is a specialist financial services recruitment consultancy. We focus on permanent and interim recruitment in the UK & internationally.

We provide high quality contingent and retained recruitment to boutiques and global brands. We have long established relationships and access to deep talent pools. Fram takes a highly consultative approach, and we have a quality over quantity ethos. We are proud that our contingent fill rate is nearly three the industry average and we augment our retained search methodology with rigorous psychometric testing. Champions of diversity & inclusion, all staff have undertaken unconscious bias training.

Please contact us on 01525 864 372 / [email protected] to learn more.