5 measurements recruiters use to qualify an executive hire
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Almost all executives at one time in their career have experienced pressure to land the right position. While that can be stressful depending on your circumstances, do you ever think about the pressures on the recruiters’ and hiring managers’ side of the hiring process?

In many cases, recruiters need to fill job openings quickly, even though as an executive going through the process it may seem like a long time from initial contact to hire. And the company wants their new hires (not matter what level they are) up to speed as soon as possible. The better qualified the candidate is, the faster they contribute. In an effort to better serve the company’s needs and incorporate best practices to enhance new hire quality, some recruiters and hiring managers have adopted these measurements:
  • Focus on both short- and long-term talent needs with the intent of having a qualified and interested pool of job candidates to choose from whenever a hiring need arises.
  • Select for fit with organization culture and values.
  • Involve employees in sourcing, recruiting, and selecting candidates who will become their co-workers and/or fill job roles that are similar to their own.
  • Source talent from places and using methods that have paid off in the past (e.g., LinkedIn. professional associations, board of directors recommendations, college alumni, network of executives that have resources, etc.)
  • Offer a comprehensive onboarding program that starts upon offer acceptance.
So what does this mean to you as an executive job seeker? This is golden information to you because you have insight into how recruiters qualify candidates for job opportunities. You know that recruiters might stockpile resumes for future searches and are selecting candidates according to cultural and values fit with the organization. Offering realistic job previews could mean that an executive is hired as a VP and groomed to take over the President position.

Employee referral programs that reward an employee if they help their employer find good candidates for job openings has had its merits. And while recruiters might be looking at potentials from top schools for lower-level employees, at the executive level, this translates to more of a “the CEO went to Ohio State, let’s look at this candidate who also went to Ohio State” type of influence. This was actually a differentiator for one client I was working with who made the 2nd tier of interviews based on the fact that he graduated from the same college that one of the high performers of the company attended.

Companies want to avoid the time and costs involved in hiring executives that aren’t a good fit for their organization. And they are constantly facing retention challenges, so measuring and improving the quality of their executive hires has become extremely important.