In this series, we’ve been examining the most important aspects to consider when selecting a search firm. Today we’ll cover questions around search firm value adds.
Today we’ll be focused on retained search. If you’d like to become more familiar with other types of search, please feel free to review our series on the differences between retained and contingency firms.
What Value Add Does Your Search Firm Deliver?
A search firm’s core business is to deliver qualified candidates that a client can hire for a specific role. Therefore, how the firm goes from a need to a solution or end result is the most important aspect for consideration.
That said, there are other ways that search firms can add value to your company.
Some examples include:
- An additional set of eyes / ears in the market for deal flow, clients, and partnerships or when your company is raising money
- Reports on the labor market, tips on hiring, and other resources to assist you in successfully onboarding exceptional talent
- Compensation benchmarking and white glove market reports on your competition
- Offer letter and onboarding guidance and assistance
- Employee guidance if your firm is downsizing
- Partnerships and referrals to other firms that may serve different segments of the human capital ecosystem
- For example, through our partnership with WholeStory, we offer candidates the opportunity to complete a WholeStory profile. WholeStory helps you create a professional profile that highlights key life experiences. When a WholeStory profile is created, it offers a unique and focused way to communicate candidate strengths that are beyond technical expertise, like character traits, people skills, and leadership capacity.
Beware of firms that will only speak with or assist you if you have a need for their primary services “today.”
Search firms that play the long game and build true partnerships will be glad to help you in support of requests you have today, even if those requests don’t involve immediate engagement of their services. Don’t be afraid to reach out and leverage your search firm’s deep knowledge and data sources to help get your questions answered.
If you’d like some help with this, and to understand how you can overcome some of these issues, please contact us.