Proactive Steps for Attracting the Best Executive Talent

In an increasingly global war for executive management talent, no matter how bright the future prospect for your business, the most exceptional candidates for senior management roles will assess whether it has the right stuff to magnify their performance and thereby bolster their career. Companies that assume they can attract great executive leaders are often the ones that can't make their own business case to potential recruits and who fail to attract the highest calibre management candidates in the first place.

So what can your organisation do to spark the kind of gravitational pull that companies like Google, General Electric, Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Porsche and many private equity-backed companies have when it comes to attracting the best management talent?

Pezim, Managing Director with TRANSEARCH International/Bedford Consulting Group in Toronto, and his global consulting partners with TRANSEARCH International point to what employer organisations can do to greatly improve their visibility to desirable executives who may someday be persuaded to explore new career options.

The first is to develop a talent scouting strategy that can also evolve into a succession risk management tool.

"Right now, we are working with a well-known North American financial services company that recognises they have a number of executives who will be eligible for voluntary retirement within the next two years," Pezim says. "Rather than wait, we have met with the CEO and senior vice president of human resources and looked at where they are the most vulnerable and mapped out ten of their competitors' organisations and our message to prospective candidates is to solicit their interest in confidentially being considered on a competitor's succession plan."

The other proactive step employers can take to manage executive management succession, Pezim adds, is to build a complete, market-oriented view of the organisation's leadership brand strategy.

"Our recruitment brand assessment, or what we call 'Blueprint', requires a deep dive on our client's corporate DNA, and we ultimately formulate a corporate recruitment brand proposition in seven words or less," Pezim explains.

An organisation's ability to attract top talent through effective executive search hinges on its culture, the quality and reputation of its products and services, and, simply put, 'the sex appeal' of its career growth potential. That being said, there are no gimmicks. The organisation's authenticity and identity will shine through or not. Establishing and projecting that reputation is a key strategy in selling executive job opportunities, through encouraging an industry's best to seek out and approach the company or being open to approaches when they come.