Cornerstone Blog

Work has been a major part of most people’s existence for hundreds of years.

As the face of work evolved – faster, more complex, more stressful, less fulfilling – the idea of work-life balance became a dominant proposition. Or it did.

Three outcomes of the global pandemic have kicked it to the curb.

First was labelled the Great Recession in the U.S., where the pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history. In the second quarter of 2020, GDP shrank at an annual rate of 32.9%, nearly four times the worst quarter during the original Great Recession.

Then we had the Great Vanishing Act, when the US labour market lost more than 20 million jobs in one month in 2020 – and still has not been able to find seven million of them.

Now, we have the Great Resignation – a stubborn outflow from the workplace different from the 2020 exodus by being of choice. For the last four months in a row, a record number of Americans have quit their jobs – around 4 million a month or nearly 20 million between April and August, more than 60% higher than a year ago.

The phenomenon is global but differs in nature in North America. Elsewhere, the causes of job loss tend to be economic and with limited, if any, options. In the Americas, it is very much more an expression of “take this job and shove it, I ain’t working here no more”.

The Great Resignation is the phrase of Anthony Klotz, a psychology professor at Texas A&M. Klotz recognized early the emotional impact of the massive layoffs as businesses struggled to survive.

From organizational research, we know that when human beings come into contact with death and illness in their lives, it causes them to take a step back and ask existential questions,” says Klotz “Like, what gives me purpose and happiness in life, and does that match up with how I’m spending my time right now? So, in many cases, those reflections will lead to life pivots.”

So instead of a Great Resignation, what we are really looking at is a Great Re-think of the role work plays.

The desire to pivot did not arrive overnight. According to Tara Sinclair, a senior fellow at the Indeed Hiring Lab, this desire for flexibility and autonomy was already on the rise pre-pandemic.  But it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that employers began to embrace the technology that enabled employees to work from home.

“We all know this technology works now, so that genie is out of the bottle,” she says. “And I don’t think either the employer or the worker wants to put that genie back in the bottle.”

In other words, after over a year of disruption, people in the workforce this year have become reflective of their life and career and their jobs. And with over 10 million current job openings and widespread employer acceptance of remote and technology-assisted work, if you want to go do something different it’s not terribly hard to do.

The “shove-it” momentum has been prevalent in the healthcare, retail and food service industries which for years have been characterized by low wages, long hours, everyday stress and limited fulfillment.  These sectors are among many that will undergo significant change in order to face the new challenges of retaining and maintaining a productive workforce.

Next week we will take a look at a pandemic outcome that has not yet hit prime time: the impact of this workforce reset on talent management, recruitment and organization.

Last year we published four articles on the Cornerstone Global Blog detailing the harsh realities of finding exceptional leaders for a private equity portfolio company.

The series went into seldom discussed detail of what makes this such a challenge, and how the investor-owner structure creates unique pressure points and challenges in the leadership process.

The articles were written by Steve Manning while with Cornerstone Singapore.  Steve has moved on and Singapore CEO Edwin Yeo has spearheaded an initiative to collate and publish the articles as an e-Book with Cornerstone Marketing.

The title – “The Toughest CEO Search of Them All” – reflects the gritty, down-to-earth content that reviews a long list of challenges, seen and unseen, that stand in the way. The book is filled with hard-hitting advice that you are only going to get from someone who knows PE and has lived the journey.

It puts you in the position of the lead investor seeking to replace or upgrade the senior management team you just acquired.  Here’s how the book opens:

The dynamics at a PE firm are fast, aggressive and all conquering. As the investor leader at a newly acquired portfolio firm, you’re thrust into the position of tackling senior leadership management issues.

The bar is set shockingly high. According to a 2017 survey, 58% of Private Equity CEOs are gone in two years.

You know what you need. You can visualise what the next CxO team will be like, and what they need to possess in terms of experience and capability.

And you are in a hurry. You didn’t buy a $2bn company expecting to lure the right people over time. You want to move quickly.

But in-demand executive talent is scarce and hard to attract. You want to move fast, but you need to move wisely. The 58% came from impressive backgrounds with the first-hand experience that made them seem like a good fit.

It’s intuition you are looking for, not fancy excel models. And a leader develops intuition only once he or she knows an industry inside out, and that takes time. So yes, it’s a tough job.

The book makes it clear that under all the multi-faceted mayhem that surrounds a PE portfolio acquisition, the leadership vision and execution remain the most important factors:

“There comes a point early on when you want to take stock.  You’ve provided capital surety it is now only people that matter.

“Only people?

“How you act with management selection will determine your success.”

There is no charge for the book and it is available in several formats.

• You can read it online as a flip-book 
• You can download it as a regular PDF 
• You can share it with others as a link. https://www.cornerstone-group.com/pe

[ED NOTE:  Alejandra Aranda, President and Founder of Cornerstone Santiago, is a member of the AESC Regional Council of the Americas. She comments on a recent AESC global survey in La Tercera, a daily newspaper published in Santiago,]

The latest annual survey by the AESC (Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants) identifies the issues that most concern companies when looking for leadership talent.

Not surprisingly, executive search firms believe that COVID-19 will continue to be the number one external force their clients will face this year.  That said, it comes as no surprise either to learn that the primary topics of discussion on executive search revolve around leaders who can drive change.

But when you study the results closely, this catch-all concern for driving change needs to be more closely defined or qualified. The learning, or the change effort, must be directed to what companies require today.

You see this in the survey’s supporting data. “Hiring Leaders who can drive Change” (#1 topic) is closely followed by “Attracting Diverse Talent” and “Attracting Digital Talent.”  Talent managers need to consider these three needs as one. Without change management, diversity and digitization as active priorities, today’s organizations cannot be sustainable over time.

And it is worth asking if we fully understand the depth of these changes and whether we are carrying them out not just at the corporate and collective level, but also individually.

For example, we have to ask ourselves if we really understand the new digital environment in which our businesses operate, regardless of whether or not we work in an area related to technology.  How do we handle the transformation of an organization if we don’t have a minimal understanding of this new language – one that increasingly becomes a strategic axis for any company that wants to be successful and develop in the current environment?

So, although it sounds obvious to say that managing change and being in a state of constant learning are keys to creating value within the organization, the real issue is that today the learning must be directed surgically to what companies require.

 The risk in not adapting, or of not doing it well, is falling into obsolescence.

(This article first appeared in the global magazine of the AESC)

People and organizations will come out of the COVID-19 crisis changed, if not transformed. Next gen talent—specifically younger Millennials and older Gen Zs who grew up digital and came of age during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively, have been shaped by this disruption in meaningful ways. 

At the height of the pandemic at least half of all young people were worried about their futures. According to an International Labour Organization (ILO) study, “Thirty-eight per cent of young people, globally, are uncertain of, and 16 per cent are fearful about, their future career prospects.”

Concerns about the global economy remain and may be exacerbated by the rise in COVID variant infections and the threat of further lockdowns and disruption.

That fear is well-placed, considering the pandemic’s disproportionate economic impact on younger people. According to one economist, Luke Pardue at Gusto.com, workers under 25 were furloughed 73% more than those 25 and older, and they were 79% more likely to be terminated. 

In addition, research by Bart Cockx of Ghent University in Belgium found that it takes about 10  years for cohorts that enter the labor market during a downturn to catch up with cohorts that did not. 

It remains to be seen how younger professionals will approach their careers going forward. Before the pandemic and resulting upheaval, next gen talent was drawn to purpose-led organizations that aligned with their values. Those preferences are likely to be even more pronounced as economies stabilize and talent have the opportunity to consider how organizations conducted themselves under pressure and reimagined themselves through the recovery.

Fresh Expectations

Working and studying from home and the myriad disruptions of COVID-19 have given people the world over an opportunity to recalibrate their values, priorities and expectations. Key among them:

Mental health – Particularly for younger talent, well-being and mental health have come to the forefront—with urgency. This cohort experiences higher levels of anxiety and depression and will look to employers to provide robust services and destigmatize mental health issues.

Balance and flexibility – The lockdowns proved that office workers can be trusted to do their jobs remotely, and younger talent prefer continued flexibility with their hours and location to create better balance in their lives.

Communication – Effective communication was essential during the pandemic, and remains a deciding factor in employee engagement levels, particularly communication that shows leaders are willing to be vulnerable, authentic and transparent. For people who have been immersed in the immediacy of digital communication and social media, frequent feedback is essential.

Opportunity – Next gen talent’s desire for mentorship, training and a clear path to career advancement is not new but may be intensified by the economic uncertainty they continue to face. They are increasingly likely to develop multiple streams of revenue.

Learning – Keeping up with the pace of change will require regular upskilling and reskilling, and digital natives are eager to learn. A recent LinkedIn survey shows that 83% of Gen-Zers want to learn skills to perform better in their current role.

Aligned values – The pandemic and social unrest of 2020 exposed inequities and vulnerabilities that next gen talent cannot unsee. An organization’s purpose, commitment to ESG principles including environmental sustainability and track record on diversity, equity and inclusion are likely to weigh heavily as next gen talent evaluates current and future employers.

Future Leaders

Rising generations are increasingly committed to driving change. They expect both the private and public sectors to leverage their influence for good, and they will leverage their own influence—as consumers, voters, employees, entrepreneurs and influencers—to create the world they want to live in.

According to Sherif Kamel, Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo and President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, “The world needs a different leadership style that is more visionary, effective, pragmatic, engaging, empowering, compassionate, and transparent.

In the age of continuous disruption, there is a dire need for leaders who are humble, trustworthy, and willing to reach out to their constituencies and ecosystems for guidance, so they can effectively navigate through the endless uncertainties.” 

With their commitment to positive change, hard-earned adaptability and much-tested resilience, next gen talent may be uniquely positioned to lead the organizations of the future. COVID-19 raised the anxiety, uncertainty, resilience, and ingenuity of a generation.

The by-products of the pandemic also include empathy, compassion and gratitude —essential skills for the people who will perhaps guide the world through the next pandemic and shape the kind of communities and organizations, societies and economies we will become.

(The full article, with attributions, can be read here)

There was a time when you could sum up the recruiting business by saying “search firms are for clients, job boards are for candidates.”.   Covid put paid to that.

Executive recruiting today has become more homogenous.  It always was a comprehensive package with two essential components – matching and meeting the specific needs of both the company and the candidate – but the talent turbulence is subtly playing with priorities.

Take the client.

Two years ago, an executive recruiting firm would most likely be responding to the initiative of a client who knows – or believes he knows – what he wants and who also knows that when recruiting for a C-suite position, the best-fit candidates are not usually found on the job market.

The critical value-add sought from the search firm is a “partnership” leading to confirmation of the precise need and then finding the best talent for both the job and the employer culture. Post-Covid, we can expect a rebalancing of that partnership from being reactive to moving closer to the origination of the process. 

The vast majority of businesses are undergoing significant change in their workforce composition.  Top talent is going to review life choices leading to departure or perhaps to more self-satisfying conditions such as remote work which may not be acceptable to the company.

Companies likely have lost a lot of people already and this will pre-occupy the talent department but the good managers will also be looking out further — at a less cluttered view of their total human resources, evaluating what is now there and being creative about what is not there.  After all, if your home is wrecked by a tornado, you do not necessarily rebuild it exactly as it was.

This greenfield approach to talent is something that enterprising search firms should seize on.  Retained executive search has always been a management consulting process but now needs to become even more entrenched.  The recruiter can pro-actively become a part of the resource planning and identification process whether or not a specific search mandate is on the table.

I would imagine that smart businesses (if they have not done this already), will turn away from competitive tenders for every hire, settle on the search firm they most trust, and put the firm’s best professional on a standing corporate talent management committee.  I ran a service company back in the day with a client that supportive of my goals that I would walk on broken glass for them.

In the meantime, has life changed for the candidate?  Of course.

We’ve been in this chaos long enough for motivated top performers to be re-assessing their future.  That review will be based in their own, likely revised, work-life expectations.  They will also be influenced greatly by how their employer reacts to this new situation.  Most companies make loud proclamations of how they value their people and how their most important assets are those who go home at night.

Those assets may already have made a decision to look elsewhere. They are more likely to still be pulling down a paycheque but with less enthusiasm. And push has come to shove.

Is the talk getting walked?  Is there genuine interest and concern for the uncertainties facing staff ?  As time goes on and the pressure on the bottom line remains, employees are sensitive to how they are treated –- as precious cargo, or flung overboard to lighten ship? 

An interview in HuntScanlon Media summarized employee attitudes this way:

“People generally prefer to work for a company that is genuine and sincere, with a real sense of purpose. Employees will be thankful for sacrifices made on their behalf to help sustain the business beyond the Covid recession. 

On the other hand, candidates might be more open to move if they see that their employer doesn’t value them quite as much as they had thought.”

This in turn creates opportunity for a progressive search firm.

If indeed the best-fit business has become strategically better balanced between searcher and searched (see opening paragraph above) then one of the key improvements will be longer-term nurturing of talent-in-waiting. 

Search professionals are inundated with candidate CVs of varying value.  Hardly, if ever, does an unsolicited CV meet an open need. The pros, however, deal with everyone courteously and helpfully when they can, anxious to create a good memory of the experience for the applicant who may end up in a hiring position somewhere. 

Post Covid, many firms are extending that brief relationship with a future candidate. Here at Cornerstone International Group, we offer ongoing contact for relevant news and refer people to reputable executive job directories such as the AESC’s Blue Steps. Some of our colleagues offer accelerated coaching programs to refine the job seeking process.

In the meantime, consultants pay closer attention than ever to their key client companies, sensing who might be restless and keeping running, personal SWOT assessments.

It’s not new, and it’s not rocket science.  But it is gradually changing the face of the talent market.

Employee engagement will play an essential role in the challenge of restructuring the workforce after COVID.  What leaders must realize is that organizations get the employee engagement they deserve because they prompt it.

They do so in one of four ways.

Purpose-driven organizations that let employees co-create the path forward get employees committed to the cause. Those that invite their employees to contribute are more likely to get those contributions. Organizations with a command and control way of operating get mostly compliant employees. And organizations that continually re-organize and do not give their employees clear direction should not be surprised if their disengagement scores are way high.

1. Prompting Disengagement

Every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet new situations by reorganizing…and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

 – Petronius Arbiter, d. A.D. 65 – Roman governor and advisor (arbiter) to Nero

What’s most terrifying about this quote is that this is not a new problem. We’ve all seen leaders rip the heart out of organizations, close stores, eliminate projects, lay off people, put dramatically more pressure on the survivors. They change their messages continually, sometimes looking like the strategy of the month club. Then they are amazed when those left standing start disengaging.

2. Prompting Compliance

Sometimes compliance is what you need.

U.S. Army colonel Randy Chase visited the store on a navy ship at sea to buy a tube of toothpaste. He went to the end of the queue of people waiting to get into the store and said “good morning” to the man in front of him who took one look at him and ran away.

Colonel Chase had done two things wrong. (1) At that time, officers didn’t talk to enlisted men on ships except to convey orders and (2) officers didn’t wait in lines.

Where the army pushes decisions down and out in line with commander’s intent so people can react to changing situations in ground warfare, the navy has a strong culture of command and control to minimize the chances of devastating onboard mistakes. The army wants contribution. The navy needs compliance and has built a culture to get it.

3. Prompting Contribution

The army promotes a culture that prompts contributions. Communication is a critical part of this. Bryan Smith laid out five methods of persuasion in The Fifth Discipline Field book:

Tell – Sell – Test – Consult – Co-create

If you tell someone to do something, the best you can hope for is compliance. The good news is that all you will need is indirect communication to make them aware – things like emails or corporate announcements. Just keep your message clear and consistent.

Prompting contributions requires selling, testing or consulting to help people understand what is needed. This requires direct communication so people can ask questions along the way to get at why you want something done.

4. Prompting Commitment

While you probably can force compliance over the short term and certainly can encourage contribution, prompting commitment is inevitably an exercise in unlocking a passion that’s already there.

As Jim Whitehurst learned in his own onboarding as CEO of Red Hat, in an organization with high levels of employee engagement it’s more about sparking conversations and getting out of the way.

Hyper-committed people aren’t going to follow your direction. They’re going to do whatever it takes to drive the organization’s purpose.

Doing good for me and doing things I’m good at matters to everyone to some degree. On top of that, hyper-committed people care a lot about the doing good for others as part of their purpose. They have to believe in the cause. That’s why your communication with them has to connect with them at an emotional level to change feelings.

It’s why live performances have so much more impact than any note or video ever can. Magic happens when both communicating parties connect. Just as audiences get the performance they deserve, organizations get the employee engagement they deserve.

If you want magic, deserve it.

As the dire threat of the COVID pandemic came into focus, it seemed reasonable to assume a cold, cleansing wave to sweep through the business leadership class, nature ensuring that not all CEOs were up to the challenge and Boards fearful of what they had.

It didn’t happen. In the U.S., according to the Conference Board, in the first half of 2020 only 71 companies in the Russell 3000 Index (top 3,000 by market cap) announced CEO successions, 11% lower than the average turnover level.

The pace picked up in the second half, ending the year at a “normal” 11.6%.  Seemingly, companies chose to stick with the generals they had at the outset, but thought better of it as the dust started to settle.

Now, after a year and a half of total disruption of the workforce and work patterns, we have a better idea of the where the structure will start to buckle. A new report suggests that a stunning 52% of workers will be looking for new jobs this year.

It is an incredible expectation, but no longer a total surprise. As the pandemic dragged on and most workers were challenged by an upheaval in how and where they worked.  Experts began to recognize this was an insurmountable aggregation of stress and coined the phrase “turnover tsunami”.

With each day, this seems less of an exaggeration, notably because of the diversity of the challenge:

• Many people, possibly most, have found that working at home is extremely stressful. Especially so for women, single parents or young  families with husband and wife both working
• Equally, young upwardly mobile workers especially miss the social input and career opportunities of the office as destination
• For every company that can adjust and benefit economically from a dispersed workforce, there’s another, notably in manufacturing, which MUST restore a common workplace.
• Inevitably, the role of work itself is being questioned.  For some time now, several countries have been addressing the work-life balance, using technology to establish a shorter work week. Spain is the latest country to experiment with a 32-hour week.

Then we have the economics to consider. Many cities witness a daily flood and ebb of 300,000 or more people into the metropolis. Consider the impact on retail merchants or the business of office tower managers and owners, or the transportation planners if that slows to a trickle.

The Big Picture, then, is not much comfort.

So let’s re-focus on the microorganisms supporting all this uncertainty, the actual company workplaces of the world, and you’ll wish you hadn’t. How much of a mess do you think will be left behind if and when we ever do master the scourge of COVID?

Turnover is costly. At the threatened 50+%, it would be devastating. Think about the expensive processes behind recruiting, hiring, and training, the time spent onboarding a new team-member. 

When an employee leaves, you have to re-distribute duties to other team-members who are no doubt  reaching their own tolerance thresholds.  And you lose a valuable resource with possibly years of institutional knowledge.

It would seem the obvious strategy would be to minimize the talent loss to the greatest extent possible.  Which brings us full circle to the issue of leadership – what type of leader is required, where do you find him or her and how do you recognise them.

The Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants is the global standard  bearer of quality and ethics in the business of hiring executive talent. (Cornerstone International Group is proud to be a long-standing member.)  Earlier this year, the AESC surveyed its Regional Councils as to the issues dominating their clients’ thinking.

Overwhelmingly, the top issue is hiring leaders who can drive, rather than just ride, this “tsunami of change”.  The report opens up by saying:

“Covid-19 has been a stress test for traditional leadership.  Transformation and the pace of change are no longer new. Leading through transformation at a breakneck pace in the midst of a global pandemic, however, is unprecedented.”

We will be visiting this report in future posts and CIG also plans to survey clients of our 60+ members worldwide. Meanwhile, you can read the AESC report here.  

We are only halfway through what will likely end as the most memorable year in the lives of most people.  It’s hard to think of any confluence of events more potentially disruptive since the Industrial Revolution.

Have you identified the need to fill a critical executive level position…one that will play a key role in facilitating your strategic business objectives? In a highly competitive and dynamic business environment, selecting an executive with the appropriate skills who will contribute as a key team member is crucial. However, finding and recruiting senior level talent is becoming increasingly difficult. 

Given the high cost of a poor hiring decision and the importance and timing of finding the right person, many organizations choose to engage an Executive Search Firm. As a specialized branch of management consulting, Executive Search Firms are experts in assisting clients with the critical and challenging task of bringing top executives into an organization.  

Unfortunately, many organizations fail to properly qualify Executive Search Firms, often with disastrous results. An under-qualified executive could be hired, or a critical position could go unfilled. In both cases, the bottom line will be impacted…either through lost revenue, or the inability to achieve strategic business objectives.  

The following list of questions (and answers) has been developed to assist in the identification and selection of an appropriate Executive Search Firm. A firm/consultant’s responses will allow you to effectively assess their experience, competence and potential to achieve a successful outcome. 

1. What are your firm’s industry focuses – who are some of your current clients?

This determining factor allows an organization to assess a firm’s market and functional knowledge relevant to their specific situation and need.  One must have confidence that the consultant knows where to look for the top talent, and how to engage and recruit them.  This knowledge usually comes from conducting similar searches and understanding the nuances of your particular market.  Confidence that your selected consultant knows the territory will support a cohesive and functional client/consultant relationship throughout the course of the project.

2. Who will be doing the work; how is your firm structured?

Given the consultative nature of search, it is critical to determine how involved and engaged the lead consultant will be during the course of the project. Will the consultant who sells or ‘pitches’ the assignment do the majority of the work?  Is the research and candidate development conducted in-house, or outsourced to a third party?  Does the firm have the appropriate project management and communication tools to ensure timely and accurate feedback?  Who, exactly, will be accountable for your specific project?  It is critical that your choice will be engaged and hands on.

3. How many searches does the consultant handle simultaneously?

Here is a good question to ask as a follow up to the previous discussion.  A consultant handling six or seven projects at one time is average. Once it gets above that number, quality will drop. You need to be comfortable that your project is going to receive the time and attention needed to be a success.  

4. What percentages of searches are successfully completed? Is there a guarantee should the placement fail?

The industry average for completing projects is between 65% and 70%. This is partially a result of cases when specifications and/or business conditions change, organizations restructure, or the skill set you seek does not exist.  While there are many variables that can affect this number, a reliable number should be in the 75% – 90% range.  The key here is to be wary of the firm that tells you that they have a 100% completion rate. This is not realistic!

Most firms offer at least a one-year guarantee to replace a candidate who does not work out for reasons that should have been foreseen (i.e. excluding illness etc.).

5. What are the timing and key milestones of the process?

In most cases, executive level searches take between 90 and 150 days to complete.  Most professional and competent firms/consultants will be able to provide you a well defined and detailed outline of their process and timeline. Typically, you should expect a detailed progress review, including a list of pre-screened and qualified candidate backgrounds between weeks four and six, and begin to see candidates face-to-face between weeks six and eight.  

Note: Since the Covid pandemic, all early-stage and many late-stage intervierws are conducted on line..

6. What are the firms current “off limits,” i.e., where is a firm blocked from recruiting candidates based on existing client relationships?

This is a critical question to ask either large firms with specialty practice groups, or smaller firms focused on specific functions or market sectors.  Firms typically cannot recruit from an existing client for one to two years after an assignment. If a large number of target companies (those where the majority of potential candidates are currently employed) are blocked, your ability to access a strong candidate pool could be severely limited.  

You must also ensure that there is agreement with your chosen firm as to the length of time they may not recruit from your organization. Be careful not to let the fox into the henhouse!

7. How is candidate quality assured? 

The lead consultant needs to have a clear understanding of the performance metrics and evaluation tools that will be used by you and your organization to judge candidates. It is important to have confidence in their abilities to understand both your organization’s culture and the scope and requirements of the position to be filled. 

The search consultant must function as your agent in the market to both engage and recruit the best available talent. They must have the ability to recruit the best candidate for the job, not the best candidate looking for a job. 

8. How and when are references conducted?

This has continually been a key issue and one that is fraught with pitfalls.  Consultants must be able to reach beyond just career history and focus references on discussing competency, character and potential. References should be sequenced into the process. We recommend that at least two are completed before you decide on a final candidate. This will go a long way in eliminating the possibility of costly and potentially embarrassing problems later in the process!  Final references should be checked with a combination of supervisors, peers, and subordinates, and with individuals other than those provided by the candidate. Keep in mind that while you may want to do ‘backdoor’ references yourself, in order to protect a candidate’s privacy, all references should be coordinated through your search consultant.

9. What is the search firm’s role in candidate negotiations and closing?

This is a crucial step, one in which a professional search consultant should be both comfortable and experienced.  He/she must be able to effectively negotiate and communicate with both parties to achieve successful outcomes.

10. What are the fees and expenses?

Retained search firms typically bill between 30% and 33% of a candidate’s first-year total cash compensation, paid in three equal installments over the first three months of a search.  Most firms bill you for all expenses directly attributable to conducting the search, and some firm’s bill for non-itemized, or communication expenses.  Upon request, firms may agree to a flat fee, or a discount based on volume of work.  In some cases, firms will tie the timing of their invoices to their successfully attaining specific stage gates during the search process, including linking a portion of the professional fee to the completion of the assignment.

11. Is the search firm accredited, are a member of an Industry Association?

There are several key industry associations for retained Executive Search Firms, the most visible and important being the AESC (Association of Executive Search and Development Consultants). AESC members comprise an elite group of top-tiered, retained Executive Search Firms.  All members agree to abide by the Association’s Code of Ethics and Professional Practice Guidelines and meet strict membership criteria.  Membership in the AESC is the only form of quality accreditation that exists for retained executive search consulting.

In Conclusion:

Regardless of size and scope, not every firm is perfect for every search. A professional search consultant, whether a member of a firm or a sole practitioner, must provide your organization with the tools, resources, and information to make a knowledge-based decision for the recruitment of superior talent. In order to have the confidence necessary to identify and recruit the best available talent to your team, I encourage all current and potential users of retained executive search, (regardless of pre-established relationships), to evaluate and interview face-to-face a minimum of two firms, prior to making a final selection.

Reliable and non-biased information on search firms (locations, practice specialties, scope of services, etc.) is available at the Association of Executive Search Consultants  www.aesc.org 

We also invite you to learn more about Cornerstone International Group’s Retained Executive Search services.

What once were considered ground rules in both job seeking and recruiting are changing rapidly. As the pace picks up again, both candidates and employers need to examine post-Covid job expectations and recognize that new opportunities have entered the mix. Here are some examples.

1. Should you take the opportunity to change industries?

Sometimes a well-qualified candidate, who is clearly ready to assume greater responsibility, is reticent to change industries or deviate from a traditional career path.

Today there are more compelling reasons than ever for changing industries. These include accelerating your professional development, broadening your skills, adding interesting and accomplished people to your network, increasing employment opportunities going forward, accessing the global world, challenging yourself, and finding greater engagement via pursuit of something you are more passionate about.

Changing industries may benefit a candidate in the following ways:

Allow for More Rapid Professional Growth

Changing industries may allow the candidate to take on more responsibility as a manager and grow his or her salary more quickly than staying in one sector.

Unleash Innovation Potential

When you change industries, you see the possibilities for innovations. Post Covid brings greater expectations Your mind broadens and you can create something new by combining different skills that you have developed from different places. There are many individuals who have found great success by moving from one vertical to another because cross-pollination can lead to greater creativity.

Increase Your Network

When you have moved industries, you will have different connections from different backgrounds. This will increase your reach and help you grow in your future. When you have a good network, you can use it for building a business, for hiring good people, or for finding new opportunities for yourself.

If a candidate has spent significant time in one industry, they may not realize how well their experiences and skills may translate elsewhere. Not every industry is the same. Some industries and companies will value certain skills more highly than others.

Some verticals organize themselves differently and a candidate may be happier in some circumstances than in others. It’s not that the grass is always greener. It’s that we tend to thrive better in a garden than in a forest.

2. Should you consider embarking on a new career?

Over the last decades, having multiple careers within a lifetime has become increasingly common, not just in the U.S. but also in Europe. With technology giving us the ability to work from anywhere (and COVID demonstrating to everyone that this is possible) even more people are now considering a working life that spans multiple careers.

Understanding that you need not follow a single career path can open up new vistas. Creative thinkers have discovered the antidote to boredom, burnout, job insecurity, and many other workplace woes may be “The Slash Effect.”  This is when you move successfully from one career to another, and maybe even to another. You may know of lawyers who became entrepreneurs, journalists who became marketing executives, doctors who became venture capitalists, or CEOs who became teachers. I even know of a pharmaceutical marketer/HR executive/company founder/executive recruiter.

A few things that may help you prepare for your next “slash”:

Use your current career to help you cultivate the skills required for your next one.

Take opportunities provided by your current employer to expand your skills set, be curious about what other departments in your company do and consider taking classes in areas that interest you.

Think about investing

Many people are interested in the investing world regardless of their career. Investing can give you the freedom to pursue other careers smoothly. When you invest, your money works for you so you can work on other things that interest you and you create capital that you can use to start a business.

But understand that if you’ve got household obligations or a family depending on you to be there physically and emotionally, the timing might not be right today. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make plans for a second career later in life. If that’s the case, understand and establish expectancies to work, leisure, finance and health.

We’re looking at business use of social media. Last week, we decided that many companies which invest in online marketing plans for most social media are missing the boat.  Let’s back up and start by defining what we are talking about.

Business Marketing in general takes one of two forms. For Business-to-Consumer (B2C) your target is the individual buyer. For Business-to-Business (B2B), your target is the buying influencer – often a group of influencers for big-ticket items.

Social media comes in a thousand shapes but is similarly distinguishable. Most is group or community-based (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) bringing together in some cases hundreds of millions of people sharing the same interests. As we pointed out last week, hoping to attract these people with a business message is fishing in the wrong pool.

To direct a business campaign to a broad social audience you have to start by dropping the sell. Community-minded social media adherents can be very zealous and will damn-and-blast any commercial intent. So, marketing overly to the FB crowd is a no-no. Be more collegial. Think support, not sell. Grab the customer’s attention, not her wallet.

Thoughtful customer support programs in community media can be extremely successful. But that wasn’t your goal. You still haven’t found the answer to finding a way to access these gazillions of people in marketing terms that will bring them into your funnel. That way is with LinkedIn.

LI was created from the beginning for professional networking. It has 346 million male and 360 million female users worldwide. Security is stricter and your content therefore safer – FB reportedly has over 90 million fake user profiles.

LI was originally structured as a high-end job database and the powers of its algos are extraordinary. With Boolean Search – AND, OR, NOT – and some search experience, you probably can find the only left-handed shepherd in Patagonia under 30 and with a Yale degree.

The other big attraction of LI to business marketing campaigns is its own multiplicity of media tools. You can pin-point paid ad campaigns as narrowly or broadly as you wish. You can build your stature as an industry leader by sharing news and content on your company page.

There are four different sections (Company Pages, Showcase Pages, LinkedIn Groups, and LinkedIn Advertising), each of which are cornerstones to the successful use of LinkedIn for Business. I would suggest you start with HubSpot’s excellent intro LinkedIn for your Business.