The Art of Search Consulting: Identify, Engage, Assess, and Close

By Paul M. Heller, President
Cromwell Partners

This article is based on excerpts from an interview with Mr. Heller

I work in search and recruiting, so the goal of my position is to identify, attract, and deliver the highest quality candidate for my client. In other words, I advise my clients in the acquisition of human capital. I work for companies that are looking to hire top talent individuals to help in their organizations.

To work as an executive search consultant, you must be intuitive, trustworthy, a good listener and a team player. You have to be able to put your own agenda second to your client’s agenda. Managing business transactions that are driven by human behavior is a major challenge of this industry and a main element of the work. Outcomes are dictated by the personal choices that somebody makes in their career. As a result, what may seem logical from a career standpoint to one person is not logical to another. Each individual transaction is a singular event and you have to approach each project with flexibility and problem solving skills.

You also have to help the client understand the individuality of this process. They need to know that a good search consultant is not just someone who knows where everybody works. A good search consultant is somebody who can identify, attract, and engage anyone they want to.

Very few people understand what goes into being a successful search consultant, and so it follows that very few people understand how to differentiate themselves in this field. We do so by delivering a service and a process to our clients that help separate us from our peers. We believe that a search has four components: identify, engage, assess, and close. We apply those strategies to help our clients recruit people whom they could not hire on their own. In our process, we emphasize our experience and assessment skills to first understand the priorities and interests of our candidates and then subsequently determine whether they match up with our clients’ needs, as opposed to describing what our client is looking for before understanding the full picture of a candidate.

We look to complete our searches in a very time-efficient manner. We are a large boutique that is concentrated in financial services and our goal is to present our client with candidates to interview as quickly as possible. We expedite this process by presenting qualified candidates to clients as soon as we meet them, as opposed to waiting until we comb the entire market. In addition, we track the hours worked on each search and should we reach a certain point of hours where we have not found the requisite candidates, we revisit our strategy to assure that we are approaching the project in the most appropriate manner. This process allows us to monitor our progress more effectively.

The Changing Role of the Search Firm

Large internal recruiting departments comprise a growing trend in the corporate world, so outside recruiters are expected to provide more services to clients. The search firm is expected to deliver a lot more to its clients now than it used to in order to compete with the capabilities of the internal recruiting staffs. Extra services that we provide clients include market intelligence, informal and formal reference checking, and personality assessment.

In addition, the priorities of candidates have changed over the years. It’s the job of a search consultant to understand these changes and adjust their assessment process accordingly. The era of the big corporate mentality has changed among candidates with the advent of technology and the emergence of small and mid-sized companies, so candidates have and will continue to value quality of life issues much more than they have over the past ten years.

The availability of not only resumes but all information over the Internet puts the onus on us to come up with information more rapidly and more effectively than clients and candidates can do on their own. While the search engines and research engines (such as Google, Hoovers, Big Dough) provide a lot of information on topics and people, at Cromwell Partners we rely on our ability to integrate that public information with our own relationships and contacts to uncover hard-to-find people.

Rules of Recruiting

Never hire somebody you don’t think could take your job one day. As a manager, you shouldn’t ever be afraid to hire someone who is potentially stronger than you are. The danger of not following this advice is not allowing your company to hire the best and brightest available. Good people are attracted to companies that provide advancement and long-term growth. Managers who put themselves before the company can stagnate the growth of their employees.

Always try to ascertain whether someone generates business of their own efforts or because of what their firm does. Is somebody developing business because they’re good at it, because their client liked them, or because clients have to deal with the firm? When an individual changes firms, there is always an adjustment to the ways and means of one firm from the other. The eventual success of someone who transitions from one firm to another heavily depends upon whether their clients and business relationships are aligned with the individual or their previous firm. If they are not aligned with the individual, then this can lead to unfulfilled expectations at the new firm.

Always make sure the candidate has a rational reason for accepting the job, as opposed to just doing it for money. There are many reasons why this is important, including the ability to have a candidate resist a counter-offer and join your company, as well as his or her commitment to succeeding in the role for the long term. Someone who is solely focused on money will always be looking for the next big offer and will not have the same loyalty as someone who is attracted and committed to the job that they are performing based on the job’s merits.

Recent State of the Recruitment and Search Industry

The hiring process has become more difficult in the past five years due to a tremendous restructuring of the financial services industry. As a result, there probably have been more jobs created than there is available talent in the workforce. In addition, the boom of the Internet created a level of wealth that changed people’s priorities with their jobs. We deal with these challenges and shortages by using our experience and understanding of the markets that we serve to offer creative hiring ideas for clients. Within financial services, the usual scenario is that all companies are looking for the same kinds of people. It is our job as search consultants to not only recruit candidates of obvious backgrounds for the roles that we are retained on, but to use our technical expertise in our markets to identify alternative ideas. Only with proper assessment can you really understand the priorities of individuals, and often times once you understand those priorities you can uncover interesting ideas.

It is actually easier to find strong candidates when the economy is poor. Some of the most successful companies today were companies that took advantage of the available talent in a down economy. For example, during the widespread layoffs on 2001 and 2002, UBS was able to hire people who were downsized by these layoffs. They stayed the course and didn’t cut people when business was slow. They took it as an opportunity to shape and maintain the right talent.

The Search for the Right Fit

The right fit between an employee and a company depends on a combination of professional, cultural, and stylistic characteristics. Across the board, trustworthiness and effort are the most critical characteristics that a candidate needs to possess, but we also look for someone whose DNA about business is wired to the DNA of a prospective employer. Of course, the candidate has to first and foremost be qualified for the job for which we are recruiting. Beyond the technical skills, however, his or her professional priorities and values have to be synergistic with those of our client. The job that we are filling also needs to maximize the candidate’s strengths.

When we work with a client, we remain very cognizant of understanding them and their position within their industry. We also look to recruit somebody whose experience and background is set up for success within the context of the company. For example, if somebody is successful at selling IBM, but our client is an emerging technology company with less brand recognition, we have to determine whether that person’s success is due to the IBM brand or his or her sales skills. We have to ask whether or not someone is successful at a specific company because of where he or she is sitting or because he or she is actually talented.

Employee-Company Relationships

I think that today there is less trust and loyalty between employees and companies. Employers have less trust in the employees’ decision-making capabilities, and employees are less confident that company decisions are based purely on performance. People feel that there are a tremendous amount of politics and ancillary factors that go into promotions and awards.

We are in a more opportunistic society today than ever before. The productivity-focused re-engineering of corporate America, along with the accessibility of information about other companies and jobs, have made employees aware that they have to look out for themselves at all times. They have to view themselves as stock and their career as their portfolio. They have to look at maximizing their performance.

Also, we are in a much more competitive society, and unfortunately it takes a lot more to be successful. We have to attend private high schools, attend top colleges, and often attend top graduate programs. It is a more intense and competitive world than it used to be. Sometimes this can lead to companies being unrealistic in their demands on people, with the hope of gaining a certain edge through a hire. Companies will sometimes tend to focus only on tangible results, as opposed to the whole picture of performance. Clients are more cognizant of the need to hire professionals who will make an impact; individuals who are proactive and will hit the ground running.

Employee Needs

Employees value being rewarded for good performance, not just with money, but with opportunity. They want the chance to take advantage of professional and personal opportunities, and to do so while working with honest people. They want a work environment that is trustworthy and stable.

Management needs to invest its time and energy in growing the company and its people. It needs to be aware of employees’ performance and when they deserve either rewards or constructive assistance. It needs to be able to offer the necessary guidance to allow employees to excel.

It is important for a company to allow for the sufficient time and thorough process necessary to find the right candidates, but it is also important for that company to understand the needs of its employees. In this competitive world, it is just as important for a company to be attractive to potential hires as it is for those candidates to be attractive to the company at which they are seeking employment. Finding the right fit between employee and enterprise means finding a way for each to understand each other’s needs.

Paul Heller is President and founding Partner of Cromwell Partners, an executive search firm founded in 1991 and headquartered in New York City. The firm is dedicated to serving premier financial institutions and major corporations worldwide. Mr. Heller has nineteen years of experience in executive search and has completed several hundred searches in the global financial services industry. Searches completed have been for middle to senior level corporate finance, capital markets (sales, trading, research, global derivatives across fixed income, equities and commodities), as well as alternative investments (hedge fund and private equity/venture capital) positions, in a wide variety of markets. With a national and international client base, his search experience spans the United States, London, Hong Kong and Latin America.

Paul’s success can be measured by his track record of referral and repeat business. His strengths lie in the ability to develop strong relationships with both clients and prospective candidates and his thorough technical understanding of the financial services markets. This comprehensive knowledge allows Paul to serve as a true consultant to his clients, offering resourceful solutions that consistently enhance the financial performance of their respective business units. In addition Mr. Heller has participated in strategic buildouts for companies as they enter new markets and/or product areas. Over the years, he has completed searches for many prominent firms including CSFB, UBS Investment Bank, Rothschild North America, Deutsche Bank and several multibillion-dollar alternative investment firms.

Prior to entering the executive search industry, Mr. Heller was responsible for corporate promotional sales for a New York based specialty advertising and promotions company. He graduated from Queens College with a B.S. degree in Economics. He is married with three children and resides in Scarsdale, New York.

Dedication: I’d like to dedicate this chapter to all my search colleagues, clients, and candidates who have allowed me, over the past eighteen years, to collect the experience necessary to become a leader in my field.