Last year, a client asked me to contribute to an internal HR event and specify ten key success factors for employers when running an executive recruitment campaign.

I thought it may be worth revisiting that list in the context of the current climate, where businesses are endeavouring to assess and predict the shape of the post-virus landscape and with that, their management and leadership requirements. So in no particular order of priority, here they are...

Be clear on the salary and benefits package from the outset and critically, the upper salary limit you will go to for an exceptional candidate. A 10% variance is a game changer and will take you into an entirely different candidate pool.

Be clear on the job title, the precise scope of the role and its position within the structure. Any vagueness or indecisiveness here can potentially store problems with the favoured candidate later in the campaign Be mindful that you are selling as well as buying. Good candidates are likely to have other options, including staying where they are.

Ensure that the room for interview is tidy and ready for the meeting. Offer tea/ coffee/ water and pre-empt any possible interruptions.

Throughout the interview, be courteous, direct and business-like. Good candidates enjoy being challenged and will welcome the opportunity. However, don’t confuse challenging with impolite.

Pace – any relationship can become attenuated through the passage of time. Keep all parties regularly informed of the likely timescales and process. Once you have made your decision, move quickly and decisively.

Take note of your intuition when assessing people. A candidate may appear to tick all the boxes, but if you feel something isn’t quite right, then there is a strong chance that it probably isn’t! What appears to have worked in the candidate’s current employment may not translate to your organisation. Mechanistic assessment tools certainly have their place, but be careful not to be over-reliant on them.

Due diligence - speak to former employers and colleagues to check that your preferred candidates are who they say they are.

Maintain the contact during the appointed candidate’s notice period and reassure that they have made the right choice in agreeing to join you. It can be an insecure time for the individual concerned and with that, a realisation that things may not necessarily have been all bad with their current employer!...

Once you have decided to make a senior level appointment, commit to it and run a campaign that is specific, directed and timetabled. Also - use a single route; receiving multiple approaches for the same job is an immediate turn-off to good candidates.

This has been a familiar scenario throughout my career - I have been called to a client meeting, held off-site and out of office hours. There is great concern and apparently, a daunting problem that could be a threat to the business.

The discussion centres around the decision to replace a member of the senior leadership team. This individual is an employee of long-standing, has risen through the ranks from a junior level and as a consequence, exerts a strong influence across the organisation. This person is also a prominent personality within the sector and appears to “own” many of the key customer relationships. In short, this is the profile of the company legend.

The situations presented are either:
1. the person has resigned
2. the person is regularly hinting at resigning
3. or, the person’s relationship with the company is deteriorating

Of the above, the second and third situations are the most commonplace.

You can understand the anxiety. How will the market respond to this person’s departure? What will the customers think? How will the employees react? The decision to take action had been previously deferred, but the problem just won’t go away.

At the outset, there can be a fear that this person may may be irreplaceable. Who else can possibly combine all the knowledge, experience and personal following of the current incumbent?

However, what appears to be the most difficult recruitment scenario is rarely the anticipated nightmare. Actually, talented replacements will always be out there - candidates who are keen, ambitious and capable of stepping up to the challenge. They may even prove to be better than the incumbent.

The challenge is to find and attract such individuals. They may not be immediately visible and probably, not actively job seeking, but a carefully structured programme of research will identify suitable targets. The critical success factor will be a professional and credible introductory approach, backed up by a swift and positive engagement, to persuade people of the requisite calibre to come forward and confirm their interest.

Once the decision has been announced, the response is often surprisingly supportive. Despite what they might have previously implied, customers will demonstrate that the relationship does not actually hinge on just the person and once introduced to a credible and effective replacement, they will quickly adapt. The customers’ primary concern will centre around the continuity of the product and service, not just the person. Furthermore, once a legend has departed, you may find that some of the key customer relationships were perhaps not quite as strong as had been assumed.

Similarly, colleagues tend to accept the news with surprising ease and soon adjust. It may be a talking point for a few days, but the expected sensation just doesn’t happen. Employees will show greater loyalty to the company and their own jobs, than to the legend. After the event, it sometimes becomes apparent that staff had also detected that there was an issue, expressing that the decision to release and replace was perhaps the right one for all parties.

So the problem caused by the departure of a legend can soon be eclipsed by the positive impact of the replacement. Whether we like it or not, none of us is indispensable - not even the company legend.