"We at Reliant Energy have been extremely pleased with the quality of candidates brought forth by TD Madison & Associates. We were also equally impressed with his ability to work effectively throughout all stages of the recruiting process, from position scooping and candidate identification to interviewing and final negotiations. They offered strategic insights on the CLEC industry and helped us think through longer-term organizational issues. We would not hesitate to use TD Madison again for another senior-level search at Reliant and would wholeheartedly recommend him to other firms seeking to build a topflight management team in the telecommunications arena."
Mark B. Slaughter,
President & COO
Reliant Energy Communications
Frequently Asked Questions for Retained Search Firm
There are plenty of candidates on the market today, why should I engage a search firm to help me find one?
The simple truth is that yes, there are more candidates available than in recent years, however sourcing candidates is only one aspect of the role of a search firm. For most companies, the perfect candidate is a unique combination of personality, leadership skills, intelligence and competencies. Simply placing an ad online or in a publication is usually not enough to draw the right candidate. For starters, the candidate you seek may not be in the job-seeking mode and is not visiting either the classified ads or online job boards. Secondly a recent study by Drake, Beam Morin stated that less than 7% of executive jobs are filled by way of the Internet.A quality search firm goes well beyond the simple sourcing of candidates. They provide valuable guidance and in-depth insight from the inception to the closure of a search on issues such as behavioral traits, emotional intelligence, position performance, compensation, direction and hiring strategies for candidates. In a senior executive role, a search firm often provides the objectivity necessary to successfully conclude the search.
What is the difference between a retained firm and a contingent firm?
A retained firm works exclusively for the company and focuses on the specific needs of the business to ensure a qualified candidate is identified for a position. Whereas a contingent search firm typically represents the candidate. This is a very important distinction especially in a senior level role. Contingent firms typically maintain a “hot list” of candidates that are highly marketable and these candidates are presented to multiple companies in a practice known as “parallel processing”. A retained firm typically will work with the client to develop a highly detailed position specification and corporate profile. These documents provide the search firm with in depth information on the company and the ideal candidate and also serve as a tool to present to qualified candidates for their review. It is after this has been developed that a comprehensive search strategy is planned. This plan often involves the targeting of specific candidates from competitors and provides the search firm with a roadmap for the search. The major point to remember is that the retained firm works solely for you and your company and will at all times represent your best interest when it comes to the fulfillment of the role.How you determine the ability of a retained search firm?
In the retained search industry there are three types of firms: large national firms, industry
specific firms and boutique firms. Large national firms like Korn/Ferry and Heidrick & Struggles
bring to the search well-established processes and name recognition. Larger firms typically cater to Fortune 500 clientele. Industry specific firms usually choose to stay within those market segments that they know.Boutique firms are somewhat of a hybrid with some choosing to concentrate on industries
and others that are generalists. Boutique firms offer a unique combination of size and service.
Most of the larger firms have a list of candidates or companies that they cannot recruit from due to “hand’s off agreements” that they have with existing clientele. This may severely limit the candidate pool. Boutique firms, because of their smaller size are usually not affected as much by these agreements. In larger firms, the search may be directed by a “Partner” but in fact a significant amount of the work is done by less tenured associates. In most boutique firms, the senior partners are active participants in all aspects of the search process.You are expensive, why should I pay that large fee?
While it is not inexpensive, the fee that you pay to executive search firms is usually more cost
effective than you might imagine. For instance, a start-up software company was looking for a
senior Vice President of Sales. They placed an ad in a number of industry magazines and in
national newspapers. After not getting the qualified response they desired, they placed an ad in a well-known online job board. They received 6000 resumes in 3 days. After paying over $8,000 for the postings, they found that 99% of the resumes they received were not qualified for the position. After narrowing the choices to the top 40, they commenced interviewing the candidates by telephone. This narrowed the list to the top 10 whom they proceeded to fly in to their corporate headquarters for personal interviews. They emerged with a split opinion on three of the candidates and subsequently brought those three back for more extensive interviews. They eventually chose to offer the position to a candidate who they relocated from the West Coast at a cost of $50,000. The candidate lasted 3 months in the role and was terminated. The total cost for recruiting this position has now moved well beyond $100,000 and the company is left without a VP and has to start the process again. This does not take into consideration the “soft costs” of not having the correct person in the role over this period of time. A retained search firm can eliminate a majority of these issues by presenting only highly qualified candidates within a 3-4 week period. A major fundamental flaw with the search approach outlined above is that they were targeting “active” job seekers as opposed to drawing from the “passive” pool. Most quality
retained search firms target the passive job seeker for several reasons but first and foremost is that they typically perform better.I have a human resource department; they are perfectly capable of filling this position. Why should I hire you?
Most human resource departments are generally reactive by nature and are not specifically geared to provide targeted search. They usually work fine for line and staff roles where you are targeting the active job seeker. Executive level search however is a different process. The CEO or the board of directors best determines the strategic direction of a company and for that reason, it is wise to engage objective outside assistance for the fulfillment of these roles. There should also be some separation between the company employees and the process of recruiting a new leader for a number of reasons. Access to sensitive information or strategic direction, the need for a confidential search in the case of an incumbent or the fact that a highly visible search can send unwanted signals to competitors, vendors or employees. A professional search firm fulfills a number of functions that a typical human resource department is not designed to provide.Contact us today to discuss how we can help you.