Selker Leadership

I remember 3 or 4 years ago while spending the better part of my day in an airport (as we search consultants often do), I ran into an old search colleague of mine from big firm partner days. I had been on my own for a couple of years at that point and was pleased to learn that during that time he had been promoted to partner and running a very successful search practice.

Over the course of the conversation, he asked me point blank why I had gone out on my own. I shared with him my vision to move the search process from a pure transactional approach to one where we were adding true value by actually assessing the candidates for the client company. I told him that I believed this was the future of search and that our industry needed to stop measuring our success in metrics like “time to fill”, and instead focus on matching candidates based on values and the cultural fit. This would allow us to gauge our success with the only metric that really mattered, the impact a placed candidate has had on his/her company.

To this day I can still clearly see the look of horror on his face when I told him about our 2 year guarantee on all placed candidates and philosophy that our job is not done until the placed candidate positively impacts our client’s results and culture.

I’ll never forget his response. He said, “Greg, I truly hope that your vision never comes to fruition. I hope the marketplace never adopts your philosophy and metrics because if they do, I’m out of a job.”

Sadly, this is true of 90% or more of my search colleagues. It is the fundamental reason that I started my firm. I got tired of seeing the escalating payments made in search fees for value that seemed to be ever decreasing, and I was somewhat sickened at the near total lack of accountability exhibited by search consultants to do something about this and actually deliver a better product and service.

On the surface, it would appear as if nothing is wrong with search. The major firms are once again reporting record growth. Fees are high, profits are up. The number of placements/year continues to escalate. Simultaneously, the services and value search firms have provided for their fees have consistently eroded year after year.

In the past, clearly a large portion of the fee paid to a search firm was due to their access to candidates. They were the keepers of the relationships. They had the database and the phone numbers. In the past, information about people was only available as a result of spending time with them. Building that database and the industry knowledge took time and it was valuable.

However in today’s Internet age, the proprietary database is a myth.

Today, surface knowledge about people is readily available. Finding out who is where and how to get hold of them is a dollar and a mouse click away. ’

Without the reliance on the proprietary database, major search firms now resort to selling on brand. You know the pitch for you probably have heard it numerous times. “Our brand gives us the access to candidates. We know who they are. They know us. And as a result, they call us back.”

Don’t be fooled. This is primarily a repackaging of the proprietary database. The lie at the heart of this market speak is, “we know who they are.” All this really means is, “we know where people are and know their contact information.”

I am not saying that brand doesn’t matter. As someone who spent most of my career in a major search firm, I can attest that 25% of return calls on most search assignments happen because of your brand. But that 25% higher probability of a potential candidate calling back does not translate into “knowing who people are.”

Now you might think that search consultants would use their “brand accessibility” to candidates to build a deeper knowledge base about these individuals and in doing so, would increase the value they bring to their client by providing strong behavioral assessment. They would use the time spent with candidates to uncover leadership behaviors, competencies and cultural values. However, this is not the case.

Don’t believe me?

Take a look at one of the recent candidate interview reports your search firm provided to you and compare it with the candidate’s resume. Is there any data in the report that is substantive? What conclusions in the report are not discernable from the resume? Do these conclusions truly provide you with a deep assessment of who the candidate is, how they behave and what their values are? By reading your search firm’s assessment do you now know how the candidate has demonstrated these values in the results which have been produced and consequently, why they would be a good fit for your company?

The truth today is that search firms get paid for getting the candidates into your door. The onus for assessing the fit of the individual to a company now rests almost solely with the client company, not with the search firm. Most search firms today play the numbers game knowing that the percentages are in their favor to produce at least someone who will be hired.

The question begs to be asked; shouldn’t you be getting more for that $100,000 plus fee than an introduction and the management of logistics?’

Companies are paying 100’s of thousands of dollars to search firms for their Brand and the myth of the proprietary database. And guess what, the search firms don’t care because the marketplace doesn’t demand more for their money. If they did, then just like my former colleague, the majority of search firms and search consultants wouldn’t know where to start and what to do.

So the next time you’re selecting a search firm, find out how the search consultant assesses candidates. Ask what guarantee your search firm has that the placed candidate will positively impact your company and how the search firm holds themselves accountable for the placed candidate’s results.

© 2007 Selker Leadership LLC