The World of Head-hunting Has Changed

I have blogged before on the increasing demands of candidates in the face of the new war for talent – how the power has shifted from fast economic growth and the matching dearth of candidates, to fractured markets and the emergence of numerous new niches creating talent gaps.  Wise companies recognise that these VUCA times require them to work harder to identify and secure the very best talent but that they also need to pay attention to retaining the very best people & how to drive the highest levels of productivity from them. In order to know who to retain you have to assess first who your most talented people are, check they are in the right roles, qualify their skills, get to know them deeply and then match the long term opportunity to that person.

Historically Head-hunters have not seen this as their business, rather they have stuck doggedly to their core offering, however in the mid noughties, partly in response to the declining economic outlook they started to search around for additional revenue streams and focussed in on broadening their offer (see here) now ten years later the focus is starting to pay off. As a recent article in The Economist highlights:

Gary Burnison, Korn Ferry’s boss, says he sees his firm as a McKinsey for “talent strategy”, combining traditional headhunting with such things as coaching managers, succession planning, and analysing and improving corporate culture. Korn Ferry now gets just over half of its revenues from executive search, down from 90% a decade ago. (Source)

Gary Browning, our CEO at Penna welcomes this shift

“VUCA times and the “Black Swan” events ( highly unpredictable, disruptive and consequential) they generate,  require a new more holistic  approach to Talent Strategies – it is encouraging to see that firms like Korn Ferry are waking up  to this realisation. At Penna we have taken a full talent approach to our client work for over a decade and believe that there has never been a more appropriate time to ensure that organisations attract the right talent for the role, the context and the moment, ensuring that the person is supported and engaged throughout the early days and into their career”

We believe that this not only guarantees a better outcome for everyone it also helps us to build a strong, more stable business.  It also means we can manage complex delivery, for example I recently managed a campaign for a Networks business that required a new CEO and at the same time to hire ten senior members to the newly defined team. To maximise the market profile they also wanted us to advertise the positions. As a result I led a programme of delivery that included creative comms (including website build), the construction of a suite of formal assessment tools, the design of a 90 day coaching programme for the successful CEO, the management of advert respondents and crucially extensive research led Executive Search globally. 

The world of head-hunting has changed and Penna is at the heart of this shift.

How to Secure the Best Candidate at Interview

I spend a vast amount of time interviewing candidates that I approach with opportunities. The key point here is that I "approach them". Generally speaking they are not looking for a job, it is therefore essential they are considered with this in mind. However I think the general approaches that I outline here are the same if you want to secure any preferred candidate. The war for talent is not over, it has instead shifted slightly. Beth Axelrod's book that first popularised this concept was anchored on the fact that economies were booming and the skills base was not keeping up. Now we have shifted to slow growth and/or recession the best candidates are move nervous to move, this is further exaggerated by the fact that there has been a boom in certain niche skill requirements - each creating its own skills gaps. Moreover, no matter what the market conditions there are always a limited number of outstanding candidates.

When you add to this the importance of cultural fit to a business if you find a great person who also has the skills then you need to fight to secure them. As a result the best employers know that you can not interview any candidate with the mindset of "why should I hire you" - chances are they might think of you as arrogant as they don't yet know if they want the job. The interview is a chance for you to sell your company and an opportunity and to attract them. Seems obvious doesn't it? Yet so many companies get this wrong. Candidates are assessing employers too and your attitude and/or interview process tells them a lot about the culture and how you treat people generally. Candidates will steer clear very fast if they test the temperature and find it wanting.

Right from the 1st point of contact you want everything to be positive and welcoming to candidates. Make sure all your correspondence is warm and welcoming and that the people who front your recruitment are positive. An attitude that gives any impression that the business is an unhappy or negative place to be will but people off. When you meet with a candidate for the first time make sure there is a clearly agreed agenda in place with all interviewees. Plan out what you want to achieve and who are the best people to deliver the messages.

Use the recruiter / HRs notes to plan out what the candidate will need to know. A good recruiter should also be able to coach you on the candidates emotional hot buttons - the things personal to them that they will need to know or see. For example, if the candidate is very visual in their thinking prepare a presentation with lots of images and graphs, if they are detailed and analytic get numbers together in a spreadsheet in advance and so forth. The meeting needs to start with an appropriate introduction to the business, the main selling points as if you are pitching to a prospective client. Include the things you are most proud of. Then it should move to more detail of the role, the vision you have for that role if it performs and what you expect of the future. Only after this point should you then move to questioning the candidate and this should be done by check backs "how does this sound to you?", "is this vision aligned to what you want" and then progressively move towards more probing questions such as "help me understand when in your career to date you have solved a similar issue" or "how does that resemble your skills"?

 Assuming you handle this right and get the balance between selling the business and assessing them - then you will have the best candidates willing themselves to do well so they can join your team. But go in under prepared and the very first thing that you say is: "so tell me about yourself and why you would be good in this role" then you will make the candidate double take, draw in a depth breath and flounder because they haven't a clue what you need or indeed if they even want to tell you, resulting in a missed opportunity for you both.

 Sounds simple but it is remarkable how many great candidates I have sent to interview who come back and when I ask if they want the job they say "I don't know".