Executive Search on Managerial Roles
Wondering how executive search differs from traditional white collar recruitment? Actually, the differences are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes by, because it is now common practice that even recruiting white-collar workers means active recruitment, direct approach and searching in all possible corners. Recruiting has long since ceased to be just about advertising the position and waiting for responses.
So the timeline is more or less the same:
Even so, the recruitment of MANAGER and TOP MANAGER roles has some specifics:
- DISCRETION: Both for the contracting party (the company) and for the candidate. Change at the top is always a sensitive issue. That's why we take care to handle information sensitively and discuss with you in advance which information we can tell the candidate directly and which we will leave up to you. It is also common for us to seek a replacement for the current manager. We can deal with that too.
- FORM OF INTERVIEW: Candidates in senior positions need to be treated "with kid gloves". We therefore dare not even call this interview an "interview". Rather, it is a chat about previous experience and experience. When introducing candidates, we take care to highlight the candidate's real and verifiable achievements.
- PERSONALITY DIAGNOSTICS: If you are unsure, we can offer you personality and performance tests as part of the selection process. However, please consider whether this is necessary. They sometimes unnecessarily prolong the selection process and are not always enthusiastically accepted by candidates.
- VERIFICATION OF REFERENCES: We will be happy to check references from previous employers for candidates before making an offer, if requested by you. For candidates in managerial positions, we consider this to be an appropriate addition to the picture you have painted of the candidate yourself. However, the basic rule of thumb is that references are checked at the end, as otherwise they will bias your own judgement.
- TIMELINE: : It is common that the selection process for a managerial/TOP management role may take longer. One to two months tends to be the standard, but we have also encountered selection processes that last six months or longer.
