Improving Communications Between Executives and Search Firms

In the online world, over the past few years, platforms for collaboration have emerged such as Just Eat for fast food vendors or Uber for taxis. But has there been collaboration in recruitment of employees? After all recruitment is more complex than ordering a pizza or a taxi.

A decade ago, with the emergence of social networking, employees were able to put their CV online and effectively display themselves to the employers. Sites such as LinkedIn and others enable the candidates to conveniently display their job and education history, and perhaps more importantly, they provide networking which adds a level of transparency about candidates and employers alike. LinkedIn and others are the collaborative platform for employees to offer their services to a wide range of customers, in the same way that Uber acts for taxis or Airbnb for short term rentals.

This collaboration though, leaves senior executives in the lurch. CEOs for example can be on LinkedIn but since their profile is followed by their employees and Board, they must carefully display satisfaction in their current role. A CEO in a large company cannot express anything that would indicate that he prefers working for a start-up, or he mustn’t emphasise previous achievements while at a competitor.

CEO’s supplement their networking efforts by communicating with the search firm industry. They send a more detailed CV to the search firms and meet with relevant search consultants. In these confidential meetings the CEOs express their real career aspirations and talk about their major achievements. An American living in Europe might be able to express a desire to return to America, or a CEO currently working on a turn-around situation might tell the search consultant that his biggest achievement was leading an IPO 6 years earlier; all of which cannot be shared on an open network.