Finding qualified employees is very difficult and time consuming task.  Any employee that has placed a job opportunity advertisement of any type can tell you countless stories of unqualified individuals that have applied for their advertised position.  The higher the pay, the more people that will apply.  The time and money spent wading through hundreds of applications looking for the right people can actually put your company at a financial loss, without a guarantee of a successful candidate.  So what happens when you are looking for highly qualified help, above entry level? This is where an executive search consultant comes in.

Get Help

When it comes to finding help, get help to find them.  There are companies that specialize specifically in recruitment.  An executive search consultant will work with your company to locate the exact employee that you are searching for. They will meet with you to find out both you and your company’s needs and goals, and will match you up with the employee you desire.

How it Works

An executive search consultant charges a fee for their services.  The money spent on this service can be more than justified by the reduced downtime and training that would have been needed if you had done your own recruitment.  In addition to this service, an executive search consultant will have pre-tested any qualified employees to ensure that they are fully able to back up any experience and knowledge listed on their resume.  They will do all background checks for you and verify any certificates or training needed.  If they do not already have qualified personnel that match your required job description, they will advertise and interview for you to locate one.  In short, you contact the agency with your desires, they will meet with you to ensure that they fully understand your needs and then will deliver qualified staff for you.

Is it worth it?

Let’s say that you are looking to replace the Vice President of your firm.  You place an advertisement hoping to catch the attention of the right potential employees.  This same advertisement will also catch the attention of anybody looking for a permanent position of status.  You will receive resumes from hundreds of people that are interested in your advertised position, some will be highly qualified, and some will not be.  Once you receive these resume’s either yourself or a member of your staff will need to review each one of them to ensure that the correct potential employee’s are not overlooked. Resumes then need to be short listed, and calls will have to be placed to qualifying individuals for prescreening and interviews.  Once the interviews have been conducted and completed, you will now need to review them, choose the individual and hope you made the right selection. Essentially you are doing the job of an executive search consultant – but you have better things to do!

This entire process can take over a month to complete.  The time allocated to this could easily been spent elsewhere in company management.  You saved money you could have paid somebody else, right? Or did you?  Review the time spent, converted downtime and resources. Did you really come out ahead? Your other option is to contact an executive search consultant and have them do this entire process for you. Is it worth it?  The answer would depend on the time and resources that you have available for recruitment. For many companies, the answer to this is obvious.