How to choose an executive recruitment agency that’s right for you

Unfortunately, there is a wide variance between the capability of recruiters given we operate in a relatively unregulated industry. There are plenty of recruitment agents and search firms around who say they can help (and many with some big claims), but how do you sort the wheat from the chaff?

Getting executive recruitment right has a significant impact on business

Recruiting a new executive to your team can have a huge impact on your business, and getting it wrong can literally cost you millions of dollars. In fact, research from Boston Consulting Group indicates that companies with advanced recruitment capability achieve, on average, 200% higher profits and 350% more revenue growth than their less capable peers.

Somewhat ironically, what you really need when choosing an executive recruiter is a selection process that is not unlike the one that they should use when hiring new executives for you.

Ask your prospective recruiter these 10 questions

To help you, here are 10 questions to ask of recruiters before you choose an agency to work with you:

1. We want to understand what we get for our investment. Can you please walk us through your full process, from scoping the role and building an Information Memorandum, through to selection tools and then helping us onboard the new executive?
2. How will you represent our brand to candidates? Show us relevant examples of your work and outputs you have generated for other clients (IM’s, Performance Profiles, One Pagers, Interview Guides, Selection Reports, etc).
3. What technology are you using to support the recruitment process and how does it work?
4. What do you understand about our business and what do you think the major challenges are that we might face in attracting talent to our organisation?
5. What questions (or questioning process) do you have for us? We want to know how you plan to mine the right information to build a thorough understanding of our needs and respond to the good questions that an A-Grade candidate will ask you.
6. What is the background and business credentials of the consultant/s who will be running this project for us?
7. How will you communicate and present information to us through the process? And what do you need from us as your client for this project to be a success?
8. What tools do you propose we use at the selection phase and how do you help us make the right decision?
9. How long will the process take and why? And what are the risks to this timeframe being met?
10. Do you have any competing client projects in progress or conflicts of interest in terms of doing this project for us? If so, how do you intend to manage this situation?

To get A-Grade candidates, choose an A-Grade executive recruiter

A-Grade candidates will look at your recruitment agent as a reflection of your company, so it’s critical to choose the right one. Just like a good interview, you want to look for gaps in the way recruiters respond to your questions and get evidence that the agent has a really thorough and proven process.

For executive roles you also need someone who is commercially savvy, unafraid to challenge your thinking and who can be trusted to represent you in a way that is aligned to your brand.