Top 10 tips for senior role recruitment

Glass building verne-ho unsplash

It’s understandable to be apprehensive when you are planning senior role recruitment. After all, you will be placing responsibility for a part of the business that you have grown into their hands. However, there are many things that you can do to help ensure that the appointment is the right one:

1. Choose your partner wisely – partner with a recruitment consultant who will take the time to understand your business and work with you to help define the role.
2. Think strategically – don’t just go for a like for like replacement straight away – consider whether the role could be bigger or grow into something more aligned to your growing business needs.
3. Mind the gap – assess your current team in terms of personality profiling and work out if you have any gaps. For example if everyone is an attention to detail introvert then perhaps it’s time to hire someone with more business development/ customer focussed skills.
4. Be efficient – plan the process and don’t put in unnecessary steps that will only delay recruitment. A protracted recruitment process can send bad signals about the company to prospective employees and you run the risk of the best ones being offered roles elsewhere. Avoid cancelling interviews as again this sends very bad signals.
5. Be appealing – make the job advert appealing and be less descriptive than a job description. Often you can put off candidates who are very capable but worry that they can’t do everything in the JD. Instead, focus on the people skills you require and give a broad outline of the role. The finer details can be discussed at a later stage.
6. Get sociable – often with senior appointments there will be a three or six month notice period to contend with. To bridge this gap invite your future employee along to any planned social events to start getting them integrated in the company ethos and meet their future colleagues.
7. Plan your induction – Think about the induction process before the recruit is hired. This doesn’t mean just having a glossy starter pack ready on the first day, it’s much more than this. Perhaps arrange a series of visits/ meetings with important stakeholders within the business and assign a person to take responsibility for the whole process.
8. Assign a mentor – having a mentor can be very beneficial to a person’s development within an organisation, but finding one can be difficult. If there is a suitable individual already within the organisation who is happy to take on the role then it would make sense to initiate the process early to utilize their skills and knowledge.
9. CV says no – sometimes excellent candidates are overlooked on the basis that they don’t have experience in a particular sector. Whilst sector experience is fundamental in certain roles, finance is generally a very transferable discipline. Hire for ability/ culture – technical skills and sector specifics can be taught.
10. Be adaptable – if you find a candidate that is perfect for your organisation but perhaps too experienced for the role then think about whether you can expand the job specification to fit that person. Obviously budgetary considerations will come into play but if you can see a real gem then try not to let them get away.

Following these steps can not only help you to find the right person for your senior role, it can also help ensure that they stay with you for a long time to come.

Leave a Reply