Jen Chelini | April 25, 2023

Recruiting: Using a Third-Party Search Consultant

When you consider your options to hire new staff or find a candidate for a hard-to-fill position, it is wise to consider a third-party search consultant. What is a search consultant? At Leap Solutions Group, our search team is made up of experienced, career-long search consultants and recruiter professionals that help your company fill critical staffing needs. As an Executive Search Consultant, our team is an extension of your organization to find the best-fit candidates for your critical management positions. What is the value and benefit of working with a search consultant to find your next leaders and specialty employees? Let us take a look.

An internal hiring manager may be able to devote a portion of their days to search for the ideal candidates; however, with the many positions to fill, there may not be enough time or resources for a comprehensive, complex search for a key management position. To ensure finding the right person, third-party firms spend their time engaging with candidates, building their network of talent, actively sourcing, and researching the industry hiring trends. This building of the talent pipeline is core to what the Leap team does each day. On the other hand, a company hiring manager generally does not have the time to build a pipeline or cast a large net in the industry to find viable candidates. They can passively recruit and hope strong candidates come to them via the company careers page or from a posting on a job board. Their time is focused on the current role they are trying to fill. Building a pipeline can be difficult to do if you do not have a current opening. And most top candidates do not want to talk to hiring managers unless they have a current opening.

At the heart of the third-party search consulting firm is the database we continually build with a pipeline of qualified candidates. We foster relationships to build a strong network for use when the next opportunity strikes. A candidate’s profile will show up in our database search, and they may also come to mind based on previous interactions and the client’s current needs. We market the candidates to our client and test for cultural fit and relevance to the open position. With a solid understanding of both the client and the candidates’ offerings, we are able to make a timely introduction to the client and a potential candidate match.

Rather than posting a position and praying for applicants, successful third-party search consultants, in addition to their talent pipelines, have a cadre of passive candidates to explore for the client’s needs. Successful recruiters reach out to passive candidates, who often make the best candidate as they are currently in a position. These established relationships yield potential candidates and provide referral sources to colleagues and professional connections. The passive network brings active candidates to share with the client and allows third-party search consultants to be ready to find the right candidate for the role and move the candidates into the recruiting process. Statistically, a passive candidate is more likely to be highly qualified and does not need to seek a new position to improve their skill set or competencies. Recruiting passive candidates at Leap Solutions is a way of life. Since they are employed and not actively seeking a change, they seem to be more open about their career goals and typically, we move them to become more engaged in the process.

As your search partner, we inform and help candidates learn about why your company is a great opportunity. Key data points that you provide to us are shared with candidates, and this helps build enthusiasm for the position. As your representative, we consult with you as to why this candidate is the right one for you in this market.

We help you reality-check your requirements, timelines, compensation, and decision process by leveraging our strong understanding of both the recruitment process and the recruitment market. When competing for candidates, we make sense of what is going on in the market and realize how quickly candidates are snapped up as well as how fast other companies are making hire decisions. We dig deeper with candidates to know why they want a new role and when they are ready to make a move.

In both the short-term and long run, utilizing a third-party search consultant saves you time and money. Companies often receive hundreds of applications, and a search consultant is ready to sift through, sort, connect with, contact, and screen the right candidates for you. We conduct background and reference checks to ensure the candidate representations are accurate. We reconcile the candidates that not only look good on paper but are the right fit for you. The bottom line, we efficiently and effectively seek the right candidates to ensure your investment in a search consultant yields the ideal employee.

Are You Ready to Leap?

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Leap Solutions is a diverse group of highly skilled management, organizational development, and human resources, and executive search and recruitment professionals who have spent decades doing what we feel passionate about helping you feel passionate about what you do. Our HR specialists can help you get a handle on the ever-changing COVID-19 guidelines, programs, and legislation that may impact you and your employees. We are available to work with you to develop practical solutions and smart planning decisions for your organization’s immediate, near, and long-term needs.

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Tracy Long | September 8, 2021

By Tracy Emmerich and Tracy Long

Finding and retaining top talent is a core strategy of all businesses. Without a top-notch team of people dedicated to delivering on the promises of the organization, the most well-conceived business plan is not sustainable. Total rewards are key to ensure you are rewarding and recognizing your talented team. At Leap Solutions, we support our clients in the development and implementation of their total rewards plan and systems. As you read the newsletter, consider how you recruit and retain your team, what is working, and what needs to be strengthened. Finally, consider what your best would look like when you have all the top talent you need delivering on your promises.

In this issue of our newsletter:

Recruitment and Retention
Total Rewards Defined
Total Rewards Strategy
The Changing Workforce
Pay Equity
Compensation Analysis

Recruitment and Retention

The signs are everywhere – HELP WANTED… Now Hiring!…Hiring Bonus!

Labor shortages caused by instability in sectors like leisure and hospitality are compelling people to seek different career opportunities. Parents (mainly women) laid off and caring for their children have either not returned to the job market or are finding alternatives that provide a better work/life balance. And there’s the trending concern about the “great resignation,” predicted to create a Turnover Tsunami (HR Magazine, Summer 2021, Society for Human Resources Management) of employees who wanted to protect their income during COVID and are now burned out, dissatisfied with their employers’ return-to-office policies, and/or are just looking for better opportunities.

Employers are struggling to find, motivate and retain top talent. So, what is the key to recruiting and retaining employees? Assessment of your recruitment and retention issues — effective onboarding, meaningful work and relationships, and well-trained supervisors — are musts, and as is evaluating your organization’s total rewards strategy.

Total Rewards Defined

Total rewards are a combination of direct and indirect compensation.

Direct compensation includes base wages of hourly pay, salary, or piece rate; differential pay (for example shift pay); commissions; bonuses; and incentive pay.

Indirect compensation includes health and welfare benefits, medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability; retirement and other long-term benefits like 401(K) match, SEP IRAs contributions, HSA contributions, profit sharing, and stock options; paid leave such as vacation, PTO, sick, holidays, and bereavement; and perquisites (perks) like employee discounts, training and development opportunities, social or gym memberships, childcare assistance, pet insurance, recognition programs, flex-work, casual Friday, and more.

Total Rewards Strategy

Developing a total rewards strategy requires knowledge of employee motivations and desires. For example, twenty-nine percent of employees say that their mental/emotional health has deteriorated as a result of the pandemic (Willis Towers Watson Survey 2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey). This is a significant number that can even be higher for essential workers and not something that many have paid attention to in the past.
Additionally, your strategy needs to be in alignment with the company’s goals. What is your value proposition? Are you the low-cost leader or are you pioneering innovative products or services? In what phase of the life cycle is your organization? Are you a start-up that places value on basic benefits and wages, but emphasizes high incentives, or are you a mature business that values expanded benefits including perks and bonuses? Your answers help you decide to lead, match, or lag the market in pay and benefits.

The Changing Workforce

Selecting the ‘rewards’ of total rewards should be reflective of:

your company’s values
the nature of work (in office or work from home)
employees’ changing expectations regarding pay transparency, stability, well-being, and flexibility
employee demographics and the employee behaviors that you are trying to encourage

Don’t assume one size fits all. Rewards should span the employee life cycle, from accommodating single employees just entering the job market, to mid-career with families, to those nearing retirement.

Total rewards are not just for full-time employees anymore. Employers embracing part-time employees will find a larger pool of potential employees who can be more committed than their full-time counterparts.

Pay Equity

Many companies are realizing that pay equity issues are built into existing systems and require concerted efforts to eliminate inequities. California, Oregon, and Washington are among several states that have banned employers from asking job applicants about their salary history; questions which can reinforce and perpetuate pay inequality. Inequities can be identified through annual reviews of wages.

Work from home has created its own pay equity issues. Employers have primarily based pay on the location of the employee. For example, if you have lived in a lower cost of living area, you have typically been paid a lower wage based on that area, and vice versa. Employers allowing their workforce to work from anywhere must decide pay based on location (where the employee lives or where their home office is located), pay based on the type of position and level of qualification, or a combination of the two. Complicating the location issue is nomadic employees who may work in multiple locations throughout the year while companies allow employees to work remotely.

Compensation Analysis

A good rewards strategy ensures that you have relevant, up-to-date market information to make compensation decisions. To remain competitive, semi-annual or quarterly reviews should now supplement annual wage reviews. Hard-to-fill positions or Hot Jobs may require more frequent analysis. Even if your overall strategy is to match the market, you may want a separate strategy to lead the market for certain positions that require you to be more competitive.

Leap Solutions Group Can Help

Developing a total rewards strategy is a thoughtful, deep dive process that requires understanding your business, your reward philosophy, employee needs (now and in the future), and the changing environment. Recruiting and retaining talent remain a challenge for the foreseeable future. The cost is too high not to have a well-thought-out strategy that positions you as an employer of choice. Leap Solutions Group is here to help you evaluate and develop your total rewards philosophy, assess your current compensation and benefit offerings, and create solutions for a thriving workforce.

Give us a call so you can take that help wanted sign out of your window!

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Scott Ormerod | March 9, 2016

Recently, Leap Solutions was retained to recruit a CFO for an existing client. The client has been with us since 2005 and the current CFO was retiring. Leap has assisted in every hire including the President/CEO. This in depth involvement allows us to fully understand the culture of the organization and quickly assess candidates for the organizational cultural fit. Cultural fits refers to an organization’s employment brand that attracts and retains top talent and how the applicant’s values and aspirations are compatible with the organization’s values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

To commence the search, we engaged a small team of board members and the President/CEO as the “Search Committee” to support the interview process and make the final selection. We received a lot of applications especially in light of the job market. Vetting through the resumes was the easy task knowing the technical and cultural dynamics of the organization. What resumes quickly piqued our interest were shared and discussed with the client. There was a difference in opinion among the search committee about the applicants. The search committee focused on technical skills and education; whereas, we focused on both the technical and cultural aspects of the client organization.

Cultural vs. Technical Fit

The cultural knowledge comes from two sources: one is being intimate with the organization and having a clear understanding of our experience with the culture, and the other asking the right questions of the organization to define the cultural fit. So often, recruiting firms drive for placement with technical skills and forget to consider the cultural fit. Some recruiters might even say that placement is primary (the money side of the transaction) when in fact sustainability, technical capabilities and fit is the ultimate goal for a strong hire. Much has been written, and with good reason, about the cost of a hire and the impact of a bad hire, which results in only having to rehire again. Sometimes it is because the company is not clear on the position’s technical requirements, but the most common reason is because the person does not fit into the culture.

Selecting for Cultural Fit

The search committee had their favorite applicants and even made comments about the leaders of the hiring race. We, of course, kept emphasizing the selection process, evaluation criteria and while early leading candidates can emerge, we must see the process through to the end. Finally, when the field was narrowed to the top two candidates, both candidates clearly were technically capable of performing the duties of this position. One candidate had a broader skill set with larger companies, while the other had significant technical skills with smaller companies. After the final face to face interviews, the candidate with the perceived disadvantage because of smaller company technical skills became the top candidate because of their cultural fit. Remember, while both had incredible technical skills, the candidate that had both the technical capabilities and cultural fit was a clear choice at the end of the process. It is important to recognize that cultural fit is a key differentiator in the selection process. Individuals selected on with cultural fit in mind tend to contribute faster, perform better, and have longer tenure with the company.

The search committee at the end of the process said, “Wow, we would have never guessed this candidate would have come all the way through the process just from their resume and the first phone screen. We clearly made a great hire by allowing the process to work and focusing on both the technical and cultural fit aspect of the candidates.”

In the workplace, intellectual capital, along with individual and organizational qualities, represents a competitive value proposition for a company. As the employment market enters a hopeful economic upturn, top talent may be more difficult to secure. A tight talent market often can lead hiring managers to make decisions under strict deadlines and not incorporate the cultural fit throughout the hiring process.

Best Hiring Practices for Determining Cultural Fit

Ensure a clear and well defined job description focused on the technical aspects of the job is ready before the position is posted.
What is the organizational culture? What is expected of a candidate in regards to the cultural fit?
With whom does this position interact? Is there a broad or narrow spectrum of interaction with others?
In regards to the organizational culture, what specific values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors are acceptable and desirable for employees?
How might this hire change the organizational culture, if desired?
Are you hiring to find an exact fit to the previous position holder or do you want something different for the position?
Does your hiring process support discovery for technical and cultural fit? Ask and probe with a lot of questions and be sure to test the answers with more questions to understand both the technical and cultural aspects. Don’t be fooled by a person that interviews well, drill to the core.
Consider the various avenues to obtain perspective and input regarding candidates. Use committees, search teams or stakeholders to participate in the interview process. Work together to discover and uncover areas that might be overlooked. The variety of interactions can lead to important information and observations as you never know when a candidate might let their guard down, which might raise a red flag. One cautionary note, make sure the interview questions are vetted and approved to avoid misleading or illegal questions.
Thoroughly understand and state the organizational culture before vetting resumes. This will help you keep the “sleepers” in the process and discard the obvious candidates not meeting all the requirements.
Take your time and ensure a great hire. The cost of a bad hire is high and can send the wrong message within the organization. Making a good hire the first time not only saves considerable costs, but has a direct impact on staff morale, productivity, and performance.

For more information on understanding and hiring for organizational cultural fit, contact Leap Solutions at 707.527.0969 or email us at leap@leapsolutions.com.