Finding potential candidates for a new position or a backfill is a major challenge for any business. It involves effectively sourcing active job seekers by writing engaging job descriptions, identifying quality applicants, poring over resumes, and conducting insightful interviews.
The terms ‘executive search’ vs. ‘recruitment’ are sometimes used interchangeably to describe the process of finding and placing the best talent. While both methods are effective for identifying top candidates, there is a notable distinction between them. Let’s examine the distinctions between these techniques and their functionalities.
What is Executive Search?
An executive search service is a highly specialised, targeted approach to recruitment that aims to identify, engage, and land top talent for an organisation’s executive positions. These senior-level positions typically require candidates with a specialised skill set, which makes the staffing search process challenging and high-risk.
As a result, many firms turn to retained executive search over traditional recruitment services when filling executive-level roles. Retained search firms go through a comprehensive hiring process to accurately position executives by researching, evaluating, and interviewing top candidates. This service provides capabilities that exceed even the top HR departments’ bandwidth.
What Do Executive Search Consultants Do?
Executive search firms focus on placing candidates in exclusive, challenging C-level and upper management roles that often require a specific mix of education, experience, and soft skills. Candidates who have the right credentials are usually rare and difficult to find. Executive search concentrates mainly on passive job seekers during their search process. A recent study by Zippia found that 73% of potential candidates are passive job seekers.
Executive recruiters must take initiative to secure passive job seekers for executive positions. They may find promising candidates on social media platforms like LinkedIn or lean on the extensive networks they’ve built through previous work and connections. Following that, executive recruiters interact with candidates, talk about the available position, and assess their level of interest.
After candidates are found, the executive recruiter will interview them, discuss job specifics, and negotiate salary and benefits.They do all this while representing your organisation and encouraging the candidate’s interest in the opportunity.
What is Recruitment?
Standard recruitment processes focus on hiring staff for more general entry-level and mid-level positions. Since these roles are usually not specialised, your human resources team may handle these tasks entirely themselves or work with a recruitment company to outsource talent acquisition.
Companies that provide typical recruitment services often handle multiple job openings at the same time, advertising positions on job boards in order to attract a wide range of active job seekers. Since standard hiring for entry-level positions is not as specialised, these recruiters are able to swiftly find candidates, build up a large pool of resumes and applications, and promptly fill your open positions.
What Does A Recruitment Company Do?
Recruiters, unlike executive search consultants, target active job seekers using traditional methods instead of focusing on passive candidates. They post about open positions on popular social media channels like LinkedIn, advertise on job boards, and promote new opportunities via e-newsletters sent to a massive email list of job seekers. Only once applicants apply are they reviewed to see if they qualify for the role.
Key Differences Executive Search And Recruitment
Executive searches focus on high-level roles like the C-suite, senior VP, VP, and director. Typically, these roles necessitate a unique combination of academic qualifications, credentials, and professional background. Regular recruiters can assist in filling positions at mid-level and entry-level in various fields.
Selection Methodology
The executive search process employs a hands-on approach and collaborates closely with hiring managers to mitigate risks. Their tactics may include market mapping, direct outreach, assessments, and interviews. An executive recruiter will only recommend a candidate to your organisation for potential hire after they are confident about the candidate’s suitability for the role. The thorough selection process enhances the likelihood of the candidate fulfilling the job criteria and aligning with the organisation’s culture.
Recruiters find larger pools of candidates for hiring managers to select from. Although they may screen potential candidates to a certain extent, the main focus of their services is on presenting hiring managers with a wide range of candidates to interview, conduct background checks on, and ultimately make a hiring decision.
Candidates Considered
Higher-level roles demand a unique blend of experience, education, and skills. Recruiters may only identify a small number of suitable candidates to present to clients. Adding to the complexity, individuals vying for these positions generally recognise their importance to a company. As a result, they can be difficult to find and challenging to engage with. Executive recruiters are particularly skilled at overcoming this specific challenge.
Recruiters who are looking to fill mid- and entry-level positions may encounter various education, experience, and skill prerequisites. Nevertheless, these criteria are usually broad enough for recruiters to discover skilled candidates in one field whose abilities can be applicable to a completely different industry. Recruiters may send many candidates, sometimes hundreds, for the initial round of interviews.
Engaging the Right Executive Search Company
Executive Connections offers all of these benefits and more, including onboarding assistance and post-placement check-ins to ensure that your new hire is acclimating well. Our executive search experience shows a proven track record of placing quality candidates for top-tier positions. We are committed to making your next executive hire the best one yet.
Conclusion
Understanding the distinctions between executive search vs. recruitment can help your organisation choose the best approach for your hiring needs. It is very important to know when to engage executive recruitment companies, as selecting the right candidate for a high-level position needs professional help. Executive Connections can help you run your recruitment exercise until you are able to get the best employees for your company.
