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Retained Search Firms
Recruiting & Staffing
Retained Search Firms
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Hello. I am looking for referrals to Executive Search Firms that specialize in IT professionals. I am working on a senior level position for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity and our traditional s
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Forums » Topic Forums » Recruiting & Staffing » Retained Search Firms
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Retained Search Firms
posted at 9/19/2007 4:56 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 9/19/2007 Last: 9/19/2007 |
Hello. I am looking for referrals to Executive Search Firms that specialize in IT professionals. I am working on a senior level position for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity and our traditional sourcing methods and contigency agencies have not been successful. Our next step is to utilize a retained search firm. Any referrals will be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. You can reach me via this forum or via my work email at: allison.katz@mmc.com. Thanks again. Allison |
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Retained Search Firms
posted at 9/21/2007 6:04 AM EDT
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Posts: 1771
First: 10/24/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I have worked with (or rather tried to work with) three retained search firms in the past, with astonishingly bad results.
One firm sent us ONE candidate who was badly dressed, dirty, smelly, unkempt, and rude (all this for a senior management-level marketing position!). When I called the firm about him, they said sorry, he was the ONLY candidate they could find (this in a major metropolitan area - population three million! - with a not-so-low unemployment rate), however they'd keep looking, by golly! (They never did send any more candidates.) The other two search firms never spoke to us again after they'd cashed their retainer cheques. Needless to say, I personallY wouldn't use a retainer-based search firm again. |
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Retained Search Firms
posted at 9/21/2007 10:55 AM EDT
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Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002 Last: 11/2/2009 |
I tend to agree, although I've found some of the smaller retained search firms try a lot harder than the old big (publicly traded) search firms.
A friend of mine from one of the top two US search firms told me that they've laid off over half their support staffs (the ones who really did the work), hired sales people instead of recruiters as their partners and the net result of all this has been that they're filling less than 50% of their search assignments. If you must go retained, go with a smaller one. Otherwise, go contingency with 3 or 4. Keep in mind that neither contingency or retained search does anything different than what a good internal recruiter can do. There are no magic Rolodexes anymore - the internet took care of that! |
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Retained Search Firms
posted at 9/21/2007 12:23 PM EDT
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Posts: 1103
First: 3/16/2007 Last: 8/19/2011 |
I network with a lot of SR Exec's across the US and I can tell from their experiences retained searches and even contingency searches are leaving them dissatisified. Sometimes they admit that they have not done a good job of determining or communicating position expectations; other times it is simply a poor quality candidate (scary if you think about that).
As a candidate in a number of retained executive searches, and as a user of those services as an employer or employer representative, I have been generally satisfied. I can recall one search where we did extensive needs and expectations analysis only to repeatedly change our minds as an organization. While we ultimately completed the search successfully it was not a good experience (mostly due to the insecurities of a number of internal decision makers and not because of candidate quality). This was not the fault of the retained firm but is a valuable lesson to anyone considering external resources for recruiting. Regardless the best resource I can give you is Kennedy Publications Guide to Executive Recruiters, sometimes called "the red book." |
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