Partnering With An Executive Search Firm: What Can Your Recruiter Do for You?

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recruiter talent conceptAshley PhillipsBy Ashley Phillips, Director of Executive Recruitment, Ashton Tweed

See this article on LinkedIn.

 

If you haven’t partnered with an external search firm previously, you might not be aware of the helpful services recruiters can offer. Aside from the obvious – researching, candidate screening, and submitting prospects to clients – recruiters offer other expertise to save time and ultimately money during the hiring process. When your company is in a time crunch to fill an essential position, it’s important to be familiar with all potential offerings from the firm in order to gain full advantage of their capabilities.

 

At retained search firms, executive recruiters work with you every step of the way before, during, and after your search is complete. Check out some of the offerings below:

 

BEFORE

When your company has a potential position to fill, it’s okay to contact a retained search firm before all the details are sorted out. An experienced recruiting team will partner with you to create a job description, choose a job title, and pinpoint exactly what you expect from the position. In partnership with your company, the recruiter will help to narrow down specific skill sets and abilities desired in an ideal candidate. They know the right questions to ask about your future position in order to attract the best candidates.

 

Specialized recruiting firms will have a knowledgeable foresight and will use this expertise to guide the process. Be sure you know whether or not the recruiting firm you’ve chosen has a special focus. In the case of my firm, we specialize in the life science industry, so we are best suited to partner with companies dedicated to the life sciences.

 

DURING

When considering an interview with a potential candidate, there is more to the process than checking résumés and conducting phone calls. Each firm has a specific process they follow. For example, by the time clients see résumés and candidate profiles from my firm, the candidates have already been thoroughly screened. They’ve each had at least one conversation with a recruiter, one conversation with a partner, and a video or in-person interview with the team before the client reviews them. This allows us to gather critical details about potential candidates – ensuring your company only spends time interviewing the top contenders. In many instances you might only see one or two highly qualified candidates, as most executive search firms believe in quality of the candidates over quantity.

 

Once you begin to think about entering the offer stage, extensive background and reference checks are typically conducted. Because this is an essential part of their job, recruiters can save you the time and effort by doing this work for you. With a partnership-approach to the hiring process, the right recruiting firm can handle these tasks to free up your time for more important things.

 

AFTER

Finding the perfect candidate is definitely the bulk of the battle. However, there is still work to be done after a client has chosen their top candidate, especially concerning the offer. These details include things like salary and benefit negotiations, title negotiation, relocation challenges, and choosing the appropriate start date. Already having developed a personal relationship with both the client and the candidate, recruiters act as good mediators to help both parties come to a conclusion on these sensitive matters.

 

Once the candidate is on-boarded into their new position, the recruiting firm will follow up with both the client and the candidate periodically to ensure all is going smoothly. In addition, they will be available to help resolve any issues that may arise between the two parties after the hire is complete.

 

As a summary, when your company has an immediate and time-sensitive hiring need, the services from an executive search firm can become very valuable. A good recruiter acts as a multifaceted tool to make the search for your new team member quicker and easier, while also providing better results. If you retain an external search firm, be sure to educate yourself about all they have to offer in order to get the most out of your partnership!

 

Looking for a search firm to help fill a new or empty position? Contact an Ashton Tweed partner today.

Share your insights! Contact jamesrudman@ashtontweed.com to contribute your life sciences article as a guest writer.

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1 Comment

  1. Simon Brooks says:

    I like that you took some time in the article to explain what happens after the search firm has found a candidate for you. After all, most business would just assume that they drop off of the map, but this is not true. A search firm will still have plenty of work to do including hammering out all the details of you hiring the executive that they found for you.

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