Maximising Success when Recruiting a New Role

However excited and inspired the role sponsors are to go to market, ensure the initial organisational, role and cost-benefit analysis is carried out as thoroughly as any other investment proposal. 

Ensure there’s commitment and support from the sponsors’ bosses, and the broader organisation. 

Consider whether the targets being set for the new role are realistic, and/or whether other people and resource will need to be available. 

Spend time on defining the role and leadership profile – be clear on any obvious challenges and align the key stakeholders. 

Ensure the executives who will be part of the interview process are fully briefed and ‘on message’. 

Ensure senior leadership carve out time for interviews – and help land the preferred candidate. 

Ensure everyone involved in the process commits to a diverse longlist and shortlist, and to having interviewers from a diverse range of backgrounds. 

Aim for no less than six weeks and no more than three months to pass from first interview to offer – and five interviews for a local or Director-level hire and 10 for a global or C-level one. 

Deploy a range of interview types, including site visits and social interactions. 

In candidates’ eyes, at least, 30-minute interviews run the risk of seeming shallow; more than 2 hours is a case of diminishing returns. 

Use case studies and presentations to provide a realistic assessment of strategic thinking and communication skills.  

A wrap-up meeting between the hiring manager and preferred candidate at the end of the process gives both sides the opportunity to reflect and ask questions before committing. 

Don’t use psychometric assessments as a proxy for your judgement – a robust interview process will give you enough evidence of how a candidate truly shows up. 

So will referencing, so leverage this extensively, particularly for evidence of making successful transitions and winning the respect and support of new colleagues. 

Before offer, sense-check that you and the candidates are not only using the same words, but also that the new hire’s goals are clearly determined and objectives set – and you’re both clear on what is expected to be delivered, and by when. 

Use the output of the psychometric assessments when shaping an onboarding and onward development plan. 

Accept the fact that that hiring the best candidate in the market won’t automatically ensure success in the role: just because you’ve scrupulously vetted and referenced the candidate for their skills, leadership qualities and perceived cultural ‘fit’ or ‘add’, don’t leave the induction, and particularly cultural integration, to chance: when executives fail to integrate, it’s seldom down to what they do, it’s usually how they’ve gone about it. 

However great your culture is, be really up front about “how things get done around here”, and brutally honest with feedback, reassuring the new hire that even some of the most talented executives that have joined have had to work on modulating aspects of their character.