Brentwood Search

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Why hire a retained search firm

In this extraordinarily difficult economic climate, we are often asked, “Why should I pay for a retained search, when I am looking to save money.”   A very common misconception is that there are so many unemployed candidates in the marketplace, it should be like shooting fish in a barrel.   We hear this all the time when a hiring manager is getting ready to fill a role.    While it is true that there are many, many unemployed people on the street looking for work, it is important to ask oneself, “Why was this person let go, while another kept their position.”

The answer often is that companies do not easily lay off their top performers, the best of the best.   Layoffs can often be a winnowing process to “clean house.”   If the role you are filling truly requires a “financial athlete,”   a high performer who can lead and progress through your organization, there is a good possibility that that person will still be happily employed.   Often this person is deeply embedded within an organization, and as an inactive candidate they can be hard to identify.

Companies will often take their search out to contingency firms, spreading the net wide and paying commission only when a firm successfully places a candidate.   You can get lucky this way.  However the biggest pitfalls are two fold.   A contingency recruiter will often go after the low hanging fruit.   He or she will show resumes of active candidates that have come their way, throwing the resume against the wall and hoping it will stick.   Minimal effort required.    As discussed above, active candidates, those with resumes in the marketplace, are often not the candidate that is the high-flier.

When you hire a retained search firm, you are paying for extra effort and personalized service.  More often than not the retained recruiter will have a deep specialty and can more fully assess a candidates’ strengths or weaknesses.    They will have a well developed network of relationships that can help uncover the “embedded” candidate.   And they will have the skills to “pry a candidate loose.”   At Brentwood Search it is common to recruit high performing candidates who are both happy and successful in their current companies, and who have never even considered looking, let alone been active in the marketplace.

Because a retained firm is working on fewer engagements at any given point in time the recruiters at that firm will aggressively be on the telephone, calling and networking to identify and convince a top candidate to look at an opportunity.

Is this sort of recruiting somewhat more expensive?  Yes.   But the results speak for themselves.   If you are placing a candidate into a mission critical role, a mistake can be ruinous to your company.   Or at least can be costly in terms of replacement, hours lost, business lost to name just a few.     A retained firm will give you in depth referencing, sometimes referencing even the referencer.    They will insist on background screening, in all instances, but particularly in instances where the executive has fiduciary responsibility or access to proprietary information.    At Brentwood Search, we use Corra Group  to do our background screening, and find that the level of personalized service that company provides is in keeping with our own philosophy of quality service.

A company is only as good as the team that is assembled.    It is our mission to provide our clients with personalized and in depth service, guaranteeing the best available candidates match the specifics of the positions they are hired to fill.

The question we ask our clients is:  “How important is this role to the success of your company and to you?”   If the answer is very, then retained search is clearly your best option.  You will save or make money in the long run.

Reduced Salary - Will This Hurt You Long Term

In this difficult economic climate, and particularly in Los Angeles, where unemployment is running far above the national average, job hunting can prove challenging.   We often encounter candidates who fear that taking a reduction in salary will create multiple problems down the line for their career progression.   We often will hear candidates say, “I’ve worked so hard to get to this point.  I’m going to hold out for a job that is at least a lateral from a compensation standpoint.”   Or “I really don’t want to take a reduction in title.”   We believe that expectations often do not reflect the reality in the marketplace.   We are currently beseiged with people in transition, and recruiters across the city are finding search assignments few and far between.   It is not unusualto see hundreds of applicants for a single position.    Supply and demand comes into play.   With so many strong candidates on the street, someone will be willing to reduce salary expectations for a shot at a permanent position with a good company.

We have frequently advised candidates in this situation to look at the long term opportunity.   If the company is a solid, growing company, it may be smart to take a strategic step backward to better position yourself for the long term.   Once in the door, a strong candidate can prove their worth and once again be on the path to career progression.

We will advise candidates to take a look at a strong opportunity.   When asked about compensation, it is often wise to say “I am flexible and am willing to entertain a fair offer that will allow me to prove myself.”   Very often HR executives will in the end fight to try to meet a candidate’s base salary, even though the original salary target was lower.   Much of this has to do with setting the right tone and to increase the possiblity of candidate retention.   When the recession is over, no one wants to lose top talent because they have been penny wise and dollar foolish.

The recession will turn, and companies will begin hiring again.  But until that time, candidates must accept the reality.   Rent or mortgages need to be paid.   Bonuses will be small, if they are paid at all this year.   Being out of work for 3 months or more will make it harder to recover your loss even if you eventually get a position at your desired salary.    Overall you could well be doing better in the long run even with a salary reduction, because you will have money coming in the door in the short term.

Employers in this economy are under great pressure to hold down costs.  It does not mean that they will regard someone who is flexible less favorably.

Hiring Freezes - Avoiding an Impact on Your Business

This has past year has been a challenging economic times for most companies.  And the end is not yet in sight. Throughout the first quarter of the New Year many businesses will be forced to layoff a significant number of employees.  Many other corporations have instituted hiring freezes while they assess the seriousness of their company’s position.  These are difficult decisions, but companies sometimes have no choice but to take these steps.

Still the end result of workforce downsizing often means that current employees, those that have survived round after round of layoffs, are having to shoulder greater workloads to make up for being shorthanded.  Not only can this result in employee burnout, but also a backlog of work that is not being handled in a timely fashion.   So how does a company deal with these short term overloads before they jeopardize the company’s ongoing business?

At Brentwood Search we have found that often during a hiring freeze, contract consultants are not considered “headcount.”   We are experiencing an increased demand for contracted professionals who can be hired to step in and help out during critical periods.   These professionals are highly qualified, sometimes executives who simply like the flexibility that contract work provides.   Others are between jobs, and contracting provides a stable income while they conduct their job search.

We tailor contract placements to fit a company’s exact need.   A manager will want someone who needs little training, someone who can simply step up and handle the task or project to which they have been assigned.   If the hiring manager is overburdened with work already, they will be reticent to devote a good deal of time to training temporary workers.

In the end, the work gets done in an efficient and cost effective way.   The burden is taken off of full time employees so that they can focus on the quality of work.   And in many instances the contracted consultant proves so valuable that when market conditions do improve, they have built useful relationships and may even have proved their value to the company.   It is not unusual to see contact consultants migrate to full time positions when hiring freezes are lifted.

Surviving a Downturn - What Your Company Can Do

Many companies are facing the reality of having to sharply reduce their workforce to cope with the current economic crisis.  Every day the news headlines report companies undergoing significant layoffs.   And department managers are finding that hiring freezes are restricting them from coping with periods of increased activity or deadlines.  What this means for a company is that everyone in the workforce is having to roll up his or her sleeves and committing to longer hours, simply to get the job done.

But what if that is not enough?   With mission critical deadlines looming and severely lightened workforces, many companies turn to hiring temporary consultants to help them deal with the overflow of work.   Often consultants are not officially considered “headcount.”   A department manager may be able to bring a contract consultant on to help with workflow, even during a hiring freeze.

Marcia Basichis, a partner at Brentwood Search, commented, “Though our executive search practice traditionally focuses on senior level retained search, we are seeing an increased volume of requests by many of our clients to hire temporary contract consultants to bridge the gap.  We love our clients and part of our role in tough times is to pitch in and help them weather the difficult times.   So we have expanded our practice to accept these type of engagements.”

Hiring a contract consultant can insure that the project gets done, and in a timely fashion.   A top search firm will work with business leaders to assess their needs and the profile of the professional that will best suit the temporary assignment.   They take the burden off our clients shoulders.  No longer does a busy executive need to take precious time away from critical work to find the right person for the job.   When an executive is shorthanded, as many are in these challenging times, the last thing he or she needs to do is devote precious work hours to rifling through resumes and qualifying candidates.  Sometimes in this situation, an executive who hard pressed, will make an impetuous decision in desperation, only to regret it.  It is no fun, having to undo work done improperly or haphazardly by someone who is not qualified in the first place.   A search firm will qualify candidates before they are presented to you, so you will get the best available consultant to fill your immediate need.

Often the professionals that are placed into consulting roles are simply in between permanent positions.   As the time required to conduct a job search and land a permanent position continues to lengthen, sometimes taking upward to six months,  contract employment can be a lifeline, providing income and stability in unstable times.   Many candidates find that the relationships made during these short term assignments often lead to full time employment - either at the company where they have been placed or through referrals to friends and colleagues of those executives with whom they are working.

Other candidates are finding that the flexibility that comes from contract work is particularly to their liking, or the variety of assignments enable them to develop and or bone up on specific skills.   For many professionals, working while searching for a new position is far preferable to spending the day at Starbucks, trying to look busy.

In either situation, your company will be able to find a top professional at an affordable price to help you through rugged times.   Marcia Basichis added, “We view this as a win-win situation.   Our clients are able to manage their workload and demands of their departments so that the company does not suffer.  Strong and reliable professionals are employed in stressful and difficult times.   And we are delighted to be of service to valued clients.”

In the Economic Meltdown Do You Have the Right CFO?

During the past few years companies have seen unprecedented growth.  Mergers and acquisitions were the word of the day.  Private equity companies acquired nascent companies, built them, and flipped them, realizing great profits.   It was like shooting fish in the barrel for top financial executives as they raked in extraordinary profits.   All was right with the world, and private equity firms received record return on their investments.  That was then.

With the recent economic downturn, the whole game has changed.    Not only are the quick turn profits drying up, but many private equity firms are finding that their portfolio companies are facing extreme challenges.   And a failure of a portfolio company creates real challenges for any private equity firm.   Many firms are reassessing their needs in light of the current climate.

A great “growth” CFO often cannot make the transition and become a CFO that will know how to rein in costs, how to restructure a firm, or how to keep a firm moving forward.   Often in these situations a firm’s best course of action is to replace its CFO.   The specific set of skills that are needed are often found in executives who have experience in knowing where and how to trim, where and how to lay a stronger foundation for future growth.

Marcia Basichis, recruiter with Steinbrun Hughes executive search, has seen an increased demand or executives who are experienced in helping companies weather such rocky times.   “We are now being retained to bring in Chief Financial Officers, who can grow companies organically, bringing real value to the bottom line.   Often restructuring CFOs have learned these skills through hard won experience in other downturns.  Picking the right candidate to guide your financial organization can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy.”

Basichis added that Steinbrun Hughes is hired to bring in consultants on contract as well.  She noted that this is especially effective when a company needs immediate action.  Such contracting assignments can actually run concurrent with a search for a permanent CFO replacement.

Adaptability in changing times is essential for companies in challenging times   Making sure you have the right personnel in place can lead to difficult choices, but may be a company’s only choice.

Brentwood Search is Open for Business

Welcome to Brentwood Search, the preeminent executive search service. In the future, we will be collecting relevant content about executive searches and industry in general. We will also be writing original articles and commenting on newsworthy stories as well.

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We will begin posting later this week on issues of interest to both companies looking to recruit top talent as well as candidates who are seeking their next challenging position.    We hope to bring you relevant information on the newest issues and developments in the workplace, as well as commentary on the changing environment within which we work.