A great company is only great because of the quality of its employees. In recent years, it’s become much more important for companies to place an emphasis not simply on having the right amount of employees — but on having the right employees, specifically. It’s not enough to hire someone who has the right qualifications on paper. They need to be the right fit for your company, both technically and in terms of personality. Some new hires may seem perfect for a company, but in reality life or personality conflicts cause them to be bad fits. A bad fit will either stay on until they’re let go, to the company’s detriment, or quit early. Either way, this means a lot of time and money wasted for the company. With that being said, many companies in recent years have employed executive HR search firms. Executive HR search firms aid companies in finding the right new hires outside of the company. This means that if the company is not able to fill a position internally, they’ll be more likely to find a great, permanent employee from outside the company. Executive search consultant services keep a few particular points in mind when searching for new employees, especially when those employees are meant to fill high level positions. Let’s find out what they are below.
1. Retention
Retention is a huge issue for so many companies, no matter how big or small. This refers to whether or not a new hire stays with the company; and in many cases, they just don’t. Now more than ever, people feel more comfortable with leaving jobs after a relatively short amount of time, where in the past they would stay longer. By the end of June 2015, 2.7 million workers had voluntarily left their jobs — that was a 25% increase compared to the prior two years. Why are these employees leaving? Sometimes, it’s just a matter of them not being a right fit for the company. The fact is that some companies hire people based purely on their paper application; they might not pay much attention to the fact that the new hire has a poor history of staying at jobs, or that their personality doesn’t “gel” well with other employees’. Executive HR search firms keep this in mind when looking for outside hires, and for that matter will pay closer attention to what makes employees leave a specific company. Don’t be surprised if executive search firms critique a companies’ employee recognition programs. In fact, 86% of companies with employee recognition programs report an increase in their employees’ happiness. This can lead to an employee staying rather than quitting.
2. Diversity
Diversity is a major issue in the workplace right now. Certain companies have come under scrutiny for having an imbalance in gender or ethnicities in their employee bases, and with good reason. Not only is a diverse staff more ethically correct — it also yields better results. According to recent studies, gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers, and ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform their peers. The fact is that a more diverse company benefits from having differing perspectives, as well as different backgrounds. If a company is made up of people who are all relatively similar, there will be less discourse, and therefore less progress when something goes wrong. This is why executive HR search firms keep diversity in mind; no matter what, they’ll suggest the best candidates. But they’ll remember diversity when searching.
3. Performance
One of the main reasons why employees are let go is an issue with performance. Nobody hires a person thinking that they’ll give a poor performance as an employee. But HR search firms are more likely to scrutinize employees’ personality traits as well as their work history. They can also get in touch with previous employers and ask questions about performance issues — getting to the bottom of any problems, and knowing about them ahead of time.