As a former Partner at two different Top-10 Global Executive Search Firms I have learned a lot of best practices that I still use in our search firm, Quantum, today. However, there were a few things from a process perspective that I decided to do differently. One in particular, was to “calibrate” with my clients much earlier on in the search process. It isn’t that other search firms don’t elicit feedback from their clients – it’s just that I found they do it too late and it can potentially delay or even derail a search.
I was trained many years ago at a different firm to tell clients that we were experts in research and sourcing – and once we have the position specs, we will conduct our sourcing in the market and come back to them in 30 days with a “long list” of suspects (potential candidates). Once we obtain their feedback then, we would further assess the candidate pool and come back at approximately 60 days with a “short list” for the client to consider for interviews.
However, I saw too many times that waiting 30 days for critical feedback is way too long. Sometimes clients know exactly what they want from the onset of a search while other times the specs can evolve once they start seeing real candidates and/or resumes. That’s a normal part of a client “crystalizing” on exactly what they want – and sometimes what they don’t.
The downside is that an entire month of sourcing can be lost if there isn’t 100% alignment on the actual specs for the role. As search consultants, we become less effective if we have to go back to the market a second time with a different variation of the requirements.
I’ve always found in that initial week or two of sourcing, that we learn important information, competitive intelligence, compensation information, etc. in conversations with our sources, contacts or candidates.
All good reasons why I have added an extra step to our search process that actually makes it faster and more efficient – a “calibration” meeting at approximately 7-10 days. I emphasize that it is early feedback and that the initial candidate profiles or resumes are of the first wave of people we are talking to. They may or may not be people we recommend as short list candidates later on. The goal is to review backgrounds and experiences to determine what attributes are really most important to the client. It forces us to move from the theoretical “Ideal” candidate realm to evaluating and reacting to actual real-world individuals. We might hear – “this person looks perfect,” or “we really don’t want someone from that industry,” to “can you combine these two people into the perfect candidate?”
We also share with our clients the initial reaction to the new opening from the market – what we’re hearing about the company, the position, what’s going on elsewhere in the industry, M&A activity, downsizing, compensation input, etc. All things our client can react to and provide us with further perspective. It makes us much smarter at an earlier phase in the process. Ultimately the goal is for Quantum to stay on target during the search. By calibrating early on, we prevent getting off course and ensure delivering the type of candidates our clients are expecting. Not only are we much more efficient in the process, but we prevent a search from potentially derailing and also tend to complete searches in far less time as a result.