A business is hard pressed to succeed without exceptional management and leadership at the top. You want innovative, forward-thinking, driven, and savvy leaders who fit in well with your company, but who can also provide a fresh perspective and way forward in a rapidly changing world. But where do you start? You may need to go beyond your in house human resources team and look outward at an executive placement agency or an executive search firm for top talent acquisition. They’ll likely have a wider network of contacts and a bigger pool of candidates to draw from, ensuring that you find individuals who are perfectly qualified for the job, sync well with your corporate culture, and grasp both the challenges facing your industry and the opportunities to be seized.
Why Look at an Executive Placement Agency?
A good and reputable executive placement agency has connections everywhere. Their network encompasses far more contacts than a typical business could muster and many offer onboarding consulting as well as executive coaching and support in areas like talent retention, leadership development, and executive coaching. They’ll be up to date on what you’re looking for, from basic qualifications to fitting in with the work culture and expertise in their fields. They’ll be able to shape a recruitment plan and onboarding plan that works with your company.
How Can an Executive Placement Agency Benefit Your Company?
There’s been a bit of a sea change when it comes to employment in recent years. A 2016 Gallup poll showed that millennials can be considered the “job hopping generation” — three-fifths are open to getting a new job at any given time, far more than other generations. In the past, it was common for employees to stick with one company, receive a pension when they retired for their hard work, and that was that. Now, there’s far more flux when it comes to jobs and businesses must stay competitive in recruiting (and keeping) top talent.
Here’s where an executive placement agency comes in. They can save your business time and resources by conducting a search for top talent that your HR department couldn’t. They have backchannel connections and can recruit executives from other firms. Some placement agencies may even interview candidates and onboard the individuals who are hired, letting your current employees focus on other tasks. A good onboarding program can change your retention rate — for the better.
Apart From Good Leadership, How Can I Make My Company Stronger?
Encouraging diversity (in all forms) has proven to benefit companies who actively work to be inclusive. According to McKinsey’s research, if a company is gender-diverse, it’s 15% more likely to outstrip their peers and if the company is ethnically diverse, that percentage goes up to 35%. Diverse companies are perhaps so strong because there are a number of different perspectives coming to the table and their insights can help make for a better office culture, services, and products.
Good benefits — offering a retirement plan, generous vacation time or maternity/paternity leave, bonuses, etc., — can also make a difference. An individual may take a lower-paying job if it has more perks than a higher-paying one. Some companies are going the extra mile and taking on gym expenses, food orders if employees stay late at work, and so forth.
Funnily enough, one of the simplest things to do is often the the thing that least happens. Recognizing employees’ good work and appreciating them goes a long way. Over 85% of companies who have employee recognition programs said that worker happiness went up. A Gallup poll showed that only a fifth of workers polled thought that their manager did a good job of encouraging them to put out their best performance. Without something as simple as motivation and praise, workers can become disincentivized.
If you’re seeking top executive talent, it’s wise to start researching some executive placement agencies. They can get you the results you’re looking for with fewer drains on resources, time, and energy on your business’s part.