Research from the Executive Search Information Exchange (ESIX) shows that more than 40% of executive searches fail and that hiring companies are the reason for about 70% of these failed searches. The costs of these failures can be an extreme burden. A company that fails to fill a vacancy may suffer from negative team performance, loss of customers, and weak branding. And, after failing to hire a desirable candidate, companies may settle for someone less skilled. In this day and age, filling a vacancy may seem like an easy task, especially with so many ever-improving technological solutions to find and hire the right candidate. However, hiring companies still mishandle executive searches. Often enough, these companies are making mistakes that include:
Delayed start or inefficiency during the hiring process
Eliminating viable applicants due to incorrect education or experience standards
Staffing changes affecting the leadership of the executive search
Little to no buy-in from other executives
Ultimately, the key factors to avoiding executive search failures are efficiency and commitment. There must be in-depth research done, agreement among recruiter priorities, and consistent expectations before the hiring process ever begins. Dedicated leadership should focus on appropriately considering every candidate who meets and surpasses the desired threshold. This process should remain efficient, reducing the associated costs and ensuring productivity in decision-making. While recruiters need to remain mindful of hiring candidates who may be unqualified, the potential time and money, that could be wasted, means that speed is still very important. Gallup estimates that the losses in productivity caused by actively disengaged employees, amount to somewhere between $450 billion and $550 billion for companies in the U.S. each year. These losses could be avoided and greatly diminished by fine-tuning the hiring process to hire the correct executive from the start. This candidate will fit the company’s values and be beneficial for current and future challenges and opportunities. Finding this ideal hire is directly affected by the company’s cohesion, engagement and familiarity with the executive search process.
Chillmark Advisors seeks to help both the hiring companies and the applicants by cutting down on wasted time and resources. By matching companies with their most fitting applicants, we do exactly that. Our goal is to provide a filtering service for hiring companies and a holistic job search for executives searching to fill a position. Executive search firms like, Chillmark Advisors, help to minimize the wasted time and money that so often results from failed, or simply inefficient, executive searches. Therefore, we can help chip away at the 40% of executive searches that fail.
The unreliability of executive searches is typically the result of mistakes made by both the hiring company and the applicant. By reducing the errors made by both parties, Chillmark Advisors helps to streamline and simplify the process, making it easy for both the business and the executive. As is so often the case, our services can provide the perspective lacking from a transaction between the first two parties; but it is still up to the applicant to utilize that power effectively.