Finding the Right Executives for your Company

One of the most important hiring decisions you can make is finding the right executives for your company. If you’re a king, your executives are your generals. They coordinate the rest of your workforce and make sure everyone is working towards the same overall aim, whatever their position in the company.

When you’re hiring, finding people with the right experience and drive can have a huge positive effect on your company, as everyone benefits from their experience, and their ambition filters down to inspire everyone reporting in to them.

If you hire the wrong person though, the results can be dramatic. If they don’t really have the skills to contribute at the same level as everyone else you can expect to see both direct costs of training and development for them, as well as a hidden cost of lost productivity in their department. Far greater, however, is the depressive effect on everyone’s morale. A bad manager causes confusion, so other people’s effort can be misdirected and not advance the company effectively, stress, leading to declining productivity and even a cost in sick days, and worst of all, a high turnover in other more skilled members of staff. If you have a bad manager in an executive level position those negative effects filter down to affect everyone!

It’s worth investing time and resources in your search for new executives to avoid this worst-case scenario. One of the most important things you can do is work with an Executive Recruitment firm. They’ll have far more experience in filling specialist positions like this, so they can help you from day one. A trusted executive recruiter can help you refine your ideas of who you need to fill the position, useful skills and an appropriate salary, so you can begin your search with a more informed opinion.

Finding the right firm is a task in itself: good executives aren’t often recruited from high street recruitment offices. You need a firm who specialises in filling high level positions in your desired niche, and who you can comfortably have a close working relationship with.

One of the best places to start is your professional network. Speaking to other CEOs who have been hiring recently about their experiences can give you valuable information – not just leads to follow up but also people you wouldn’t be a good fit with.

As with so many things, a personal recommendation from someone you trust is the best endorsement a recruiter can have so begin your hiring journey there.