| An
executive search can be a harrowing endeavor. In fact, filling a job often
becomes a full time job in itself. But, like any overwhelming project, this
one can be made less so by dividing the project into smaller tasks, with the most
important coming first. The search plan is the foundation upon which your
search will be built and therefore, must be given due time and thought before
the search is begun in earnest. Job Descriptions
that Sell Job descriptions that merely laundry
list responsibilities do a great disservice to the organization that wrote it.
Larry Slesinger, a Washington,
DC, based nonprofit management consultant with 21 years of experience explains
that “Job announcements are marketing pieces that need to both accurately describe
the job AND motivate good candidates to apply AND help potential sources to recommend
the right candidates.” In order to set
your job description multitasking, you’ll need to follow a couple of Larry’s tips,
such as “Don't make it an exhaustive and exhausting list of duties and tasks,”
and “Make sure that the description outlines why this particular job is important
for the organization and its future.”
A job description should be written after consultation with all the relevant stakeholders
to an organization, including key staff, board members, funders and clients.
This process, almost a mini-strategic planning session, brings consensus to an
organization at a time of transition, and more often that not, becomes a stabilizer
in a leadership vacuum. The job description, when complete, should describe
the organization’s history, where it imagines its future, and the kind of personal
and professional characteristics that will bring it there. Finding
the Candidates Once you’ve gotten your job description
finalized, accepted and owned internally, it’s time to show it to the world.
Each of your stakeholders in the job description writing process should have been
asked for ideas for candidates and sources of potential candidate names, as well
as organizations in which your candidates might be lurking or websites, listservs
or newspapers that they may be reading. Use the
Internet to conduct research on the best places to post your job description;
it’s fast and easy and renders fact-finding phone tag obsolete. Worthwhile
sites allow multiple pages of text and the ability to choose more than one of
each of industry, function and geographic region categories. Equally important,
make sure the site factors both the active and the passive job seeker into their
service, i.e., they should have an easy to navigate database used by daily surfers
as well as a newsletter which can be read casually by those who are only beginning
to explore.
Gather the prices, traffic and niche data for all of the potential sites before
placing job announcements online. Most websites offer an option of a simple
online form or an e-mail address to which postings may be sent. Keep in
mind that website postings tend to be cheaper and faster than print, although
some of the industry papers have web components as well.
Finally, any headhunter will tell you that networking is an essential way to reach
prospective candidates. Create master lists of industry leaders and other
sources of ideas from colleagues; develop a plan for contacting these people in
a systematic method. Be prepared to share your job description with them
through snail mail, e-mail, on the Internet and by fax. Follow up on every
good lead; some of the best candidates are often within a few degrees of separation
from you. Should you hire a professional? Most
search firms present a final pool of 6-8 qualified, interested candidates from
which the search committee may choose to interview. Typically, these candidates
come, in equal thirds, from advertising, their database and from new networking.
Not using a search firm may limit your pool by one to two thirds.
“An executive search consultant proactively recruits the most talented professionals,
extending a non-profit's pool of potential candidates far beyond inbound applicants,”
according to Mary T. Wheeler, Senior Vice President with the Development
Resource Group, an executive search firm based in New York City which has
worked exclusively with nonprofit organizations throughout the United States since
1987. “Many of these candidates,” she continues, “are professionals fruitfully
working and developing their careers. And, as a result, the type of candidates
generated through a consultant's proactive search process includes those who,
although content, are willing to entertain a new opportunity.” It is specifically
these individuals, those who could be tempted but not reading the classifieds
or surfing the job posting sites, that will extend your pool to its full potential.
Organizations looking for executives in specific
functions, development for example, may also benefit from utilizing a combination
of advertising outreach and a headhunter’s savvy. Katina
Leodas of Leodas Solymar, a Boston-based national firm specializing in advancement
touts, among a search firm’s merits, “a nationwide network of contacts in the
field; the ability to successfully market positions to high quality prospects
and candidates; time and willingness to make literally hundreds of cold calls;
excellent interviewing and deep reference checking skills; a ‘sixth sense’
about character and integrity; and the kind of attention to detail that leaves
candidates feeling that they have been communicated with honestly and treated
fairly.” |
