Executive Recruiting For Dummies

Tips and strategies to fill executive-level positions Recruiting for high-end executives requires a special skill-set, and Executive Recruiting For Dummies is here to help you add this niche talent to your arsenal. Whether you're an in-house human resources manager or a professional recruiter at a search firm, this friendly guide walks you through each step of filling that senior, executive, or other highly specialized position. This book covers the globalization of talent and the advantages of executive recruiting. It provides expert guidance on finding the right candidates, conducting hardy screening and interviewing processes, closing deals, and more. There are 10,000,000 businesses in America that hire at least one senior executive a year, and most turn to commissioning a third-party organization, such as an executive search firm. Rather than losing that next top-tier recruiting job, let Executive Recruiting For Dummies show you how to add this highly desirable and sought-after skill to your resume. Learn to recruit with precision Create a robust interview process Close the deal with a winning offer Find out how to work with professional recruiters Discover how to find the best talent and retain and attract clients  with the help of Executive Recruiting For Dummies.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xiii Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: The World of Executive Recruiting 5 Chapter 1: 3, 2, 1, Blastoff! Getting Started with Executive Recruiting 7 What Is Executive Recruiting? 8 Ace of Case: The Business Case for Executive Recruiting 9 A Demanding Supply Issue 10 Oh, Grow Up! The Growth of Executive Recruiting 11 Chapter 2: Talent Show: Why Talent Matters 13 Value Pack: Redefining Value in the Knowledge Economy 14 Paradigm Shift: Understanding the New Recruiting Paradigm 15 Triple Play: Three Steps for Tapping Top Talent 16 Step 1: Figure out what you’re looking for 16 Step 2: Find people with the knowledge and qualities you seek 18 Step 3: Hire the person who best matches your needs 18 Chapter 3: Rock and Role: The Role of Recruiting in Business 21 That’ll Cost You: The High Cost of Poor Hiring 23 Hocus Focus: Putting the Focus on Hiring 25 Fitty Cent: Fitting In and Fading Out 26 Chapter 4: Key Club: Identifying Key Personal Characteristics 29 Work Your Core: 28 Attributes of Successful Executives 30 Character 31 Intellect 32 Business intelligence 33 Leadership 34 Emotional intelligence 35 Super Fly: Avoiding Superficial Evaluation Factors 36 Flew the Coop: Building a Cooperative Culture 37 Part 2: Planning Your Search 39 Chapter 5: Plan Do! Devising a Plan 41 Plan Up: Putting Your Plan Together 42 Sharing your plan 45 Looking at a sample plan 46 You SLA Me! Hammering Out the Service-Level Agreement 48 Defining expectations in an SLA 48 Looking at a simple SLA 49 Chapter 6: Team Up: Assembling Your Search Team 51 Who’s on Your Executive Search Team? 51 The hiring team 52 The recruiting team 52 The support team 53 Search Me! Assembling a Solid Search Committee 54 Chair-y Picking: Selecting the Search Chair 55 External Affairs: Choosing an External Recruiter 56 Budgetary considerations 57 Retained recruiters versus contingency recruiters 58 Niche recruiters versus generalists 59 Big firms versus boutiques 60 Critical questions for external recruiters 61 The recruiter scorecard 65 Chapter 7: Dividing to Conquer: Parceling Out Your Process 69 Analyze This: Performing a Needs Analysis 70 Confirming the need 70 Defining the requirements 71 What’s Up, Doc? Generating the Necessary Documentation 71 Research Engine: Researching the Market 72 Source Code: Sourcing Candidates 74 Recruit Pursuit: Recruiting Candidates 74 The Big Short: Interviewing Your Short List 75 Point of Reference: Checking References 76 Sound Off: Making an Offer 76 All Aboard: Onboarding the New Hire 77 Get Your Kicks: Hosting a Kickoff Meeting 78 Here Comes Trouble: Troubleshooting Your Hiring Project 80 When your search hasn’t yielded enough qualified candidates 80 When your hiring process takes too long 83 When good candidates drop out after the first interview 83 When good candidates refuse the offer 84 Chapter 8: Don’t Be a Tool: Exploring the Tools of the Trade 85 Daily Digest: Our Everyday Tools 86 Tools for connecting with professionals 86 Project-management tools 87 Assessment tools 87 Communication tools 88 Recruitment Rock Stars: Following Top Thought Leaders 89 Even More Recruiter Tools 90 Leading social networks 90 Recruiter associations 94 Mobile recruiting apps 95 Miscellaneous recruiter resources 96 Part 3: Doing the Pre-Search Prep Work 99 Chapter 9: Resign of the Times: Reacting to a Resignation 101 Lizard Warning: Getting Control of Your Lizard Brain 101 What not to do 102 Reprogramming the simulator 103 Next Steps: Key Decisions after a Resignation 104 Do we really need a replacement? 104 Can you use the succession plan? 105 What level of competency is required? 106 Chapter 10: Documentation Station: Generating the Necessary Documentation 109 First Things First: Who Is Your Client? 110 Order Up: Writing the Job Order 112 What is the job title? 114 Where is the job located? 114 Who will the new hire report to? 114 What does the position entail? 115 What kind of compensation are we talking? 116 Why is the position open? 116 What type of educational background is required? 116 What type of experience are you looking for? 117 What type of management style would you prefer? 118 What personality type would be the best fit? 119 How important is executive presence? 119 What is the pattern of growth or decline for the company, division, and/or group during the last two years? 120 How quickly does the client expect the new hire to make a contribution and what results does the client expect? 120 What is the key to success for this position? 120 Detail Work: Detailing the Job Description 120 Performing a SWOT analysis 121 Drafting the job description 124 Comparing apples to apples 127 Finding wiggle room 127 Soliciting input 128 Styling and Profiling: Composing the Position Profile 129 Ad It Up: Writing a Solid Job Ad 132 Bad job ad 132 Attention-grabbing ad 133 No Résumé? No Worries! Collecting a Confidential Candidate Brief 138 Building the form for a confidential candidate brief 139 A sample confidential candidate brief for a CFO 140 Reviewing a confidential candidate brief 143 Guidance System: Creating a Detailed Interview Guide 143 Contents of the interview guide 144 Sample questions 145 Chapter 11: Research Party: Conducting Candidate Research 147 Hope Is Not a Strategy: The Importance of Candidate Research 147 Texas Hold ’Em or Fantasy Football? 148 Your Step-by-Step Research Guide 150 Meeting with the search committee 151 Meeting with individual committee members 151 Seeking help from former candidates and from colleagues 154 Scouring public databases for candidates 154 Researching companies 155 Researching industries 157 Chapter 12: What Is This Sourcer-y? Sourcing Candidates 159 Back to the Future: Modern Sourcing 160 Sock It to Ya: Sourcing’s One-Two Punch 161 High-level sourcing 162 Ferreting out the details by phone 164 Wooly Boolie: Using Boolean Logic to Simplify Sourcing 164 Sample Size: Conducting a Sample Search 166 Searching on LinkedIn 166 Searching on Google 170 Keep It Going: Sourcing on an Ongoing Basis 172 Cruising alumni networks 172 Reaching out to your extended network 172 Keeping track of the competition 172 Building your brand 173 Stacking your bench 173 Powering up HR 174 Part 4: Locating and Evaluating Candidates 175 Chapter 13: Recruit Reboot: Recruiting Top Candidates 177 Passive Aggressive: Passive versus Active Candidates 177 A-Listers: Paring Down Your List 180 Assessing your farm team 180 Sifting through résumés and online applications 181 Evaluating referrals from your network 181 Checking the hot list 183 Following up on your targeted list 184 Bench Press: Benchmarking Your Search 184 Choosing the benchmark candidate 186 Approaching and interviewing the benchmark candidate 186 After the interview 187 Head Case: Headhunting Prospects 188 Making initial contact 188 (Dis)qualifying the candidate 192 What’s next? 196 Chapter 14: Interview Interlude: Interviewing Top Candidates 197 Stage Right: Understanding the Progressive Two-Stage Interview Process 198 Stage 1: Identify, evaluate, engage 199 Stage 2: The five-part robust interview 199 Preppy Handbook: Prepping for Each Interview 201 Sending the itinerary 201 Reviewing documentation about the candidate and position 202 Getting the hiring team up to speed 203 Preparing documentation for the candidate 203 Afterburner: After the Interview 204 Face Time: Conducting the First Face-to-Face Interview 205 Getting the candidate’s story (again) 205 Fact-checking the candidate’s story 208 Closing the interview 209 Chair Up! Conducting the Search Chair Interview 209 Getting the candidate’s story (yet again) 210 Assessing whether the candidate can deliver the desired outcomes 210 Determining whether the candidate has solid interpersonal skills 212 Answering the candidate’s questions and wrapping up the session 212 Closing the interview 213 Next steps 213 Hire Rise: Handling the Hiring Manager Interview 213 Assessing the candidate’s systems thinking 214 Gauging the candidate’s creative thinking 214 Evaluating the candidate’s leadership style 214 Closing the interview 215 Finishing the Search Committee Interview 215 Prepping for the interview 216 Conducting the formal interview 217 Meeting informally 217 Next steps 217 Present Tense: Carrying Out the Candidate Presentation Interview 219 Candidate as Customer: The Importance of Candidate Experience 220 Chapter 15: Point of Reference: Checking References 223 Identifying the Two Big Questions Reference Checks Will Help You Answer 224 Can the candidate do the job? 224 Is the candidate a danger to others or to your company? 225 Who Should Do Reference Checks? (Hint: The Hiring Manager) 226 Formulating a Plan 227 Who You Gonna Call? 228 Direct references 230 Indirect references 233 Steering the Conversation 234 Chapter 16: Happily Ever After: Sealing the Deal 239 Pay Up: Calculating Compensation 240 Compensation tips 241 Assembling a compensation checklist 242 Everything’s Negotiable: Negotiating Like a Pro 245 Preparing for negotiations 246 Choosing the negotiator 247 Projecting a positive attitude 248 Breaking an impasse 248 Special Delivery: Delivering the Offer 249 Counter-Intuition: Dealing with Counteroffers 250 Agree to Agree: Composing a Solid Employment Agreement 252 All Aboard! Onboarding 253 Finders Keepers: Retaining Top Talent 254 Challenge 254 Communication 255 Compensation 256 Part 5: The Part of Tens 257 Chapter 17: Ten Key Principles of Effective Executive Recruiting 259 Remember It’s Always a Seller’s Market 259 Sell First, Buy Later 260 Be Opportunistic 260 Use a Boutique Search Firm 260 Be the First to Walk Away 261 Build a Farm Team and Draft Only A-Players 261 Seal the Deal with Psychic Cash 261 Leverage Your “Manning Factor” 261 Qualify for Integrity 262 Don’t Hire a Liar 262 Chapter 18: Ten Keys to Working Successfully with the Search Committee 263 Identify a Clear Agenda for the Board 263 Agree on a Prioritized Sourcing Strategy 264 Articulate the Organization’s Return on Investment for Recruiting 264 Set Realistic Expectations 264 Do a Reality Check 265 Be Consistent with the Messaging 265 Create an Emotional Link 266 Conduct a Discerning Candidate Analysis 266 Negotiate a Successful Offer 266 Let the Search Chair Close the Sale 267 Chapter 19: Ten Reasons to Use a Professional Recruiter 269 Satisfying Stakeholders 269 Easing Your Burden 270 Reducing Opportunity Cost 270 Being Nimble 270 Building Trust 271 Being Discreet 271 Inviting Continuous Improvement 271 Bringing Competitive Intelligence 272 Increasing Retention 272 Getting Your Money’s Worth 272 Glossary 273 Index 281

About the Author :
David E. Perry has completed more than 1,000 searches on five continents negotiating over $300 million in salaries. His near perfect success rate is 300% better than the industry average— one reason why The Wall Street Journal dubbed him the "Rogue Recruiter."Mark J. Haluska works internationally to fill positions from upper- middle management to president and CEO -level positions. Mark is a self-taught recruiter and has packaged deals as high as $4.2M.