As a follow up to our last post, which featured a few of the key characteristics of a top performing executive recruiter, we wanted to highlight a few more to round out the list. The following list highlights the traits that really put a search specialist over the top.

How To Find The Best Executive Recruiters

  1. Organizational skills: Executive job searches often come with many moving parts and varying dynamics. The best recruiters get ahead of the curve by staying organized and focusing on top priorities. Setting clear, specific, and prioritized objectives typically require extremely thorough organization.
  2. Trustworthiness: Successful recruiters are skilled at building long-lasting relationships. An outgrowth of this characteristic is trust, which comes into play with both the hiring company and the candidates. It’s true that a candidate who trusts his or her recruiter are far more likely to divulge mutually beneficial information that often best determines if the match is a strong one. The really strong recruiters take that trust a step further by checking in with candidates long after their first day on the new job. Retention is important to hiring companies and recruiters can help ease the transition.
  3. Going old-school with communication: While texting has become the norm for easy communication, picking up the phone or (gasp!) meeting in person is what it takes to really get to know a candidate and determine if he or she would be a good cultural fit. Technical skills aside, a phone call or a face-to-face meeting is how an effective recruiter can make the right assessment.
  4. Not afraid to pull out of an agreement if it doesn’t feel right: A recruiter that just wants to sign on the dotted line and move on is not the right one for your organization. A solid executive search process takes steps to ensure the right candidate is identified and recruited, resulting in a perfect fit. That being said, even the best process can yield uncertainty in the end and the most successful recruiters will follow their gut, double back and identify a candidate that does feel right. This ensures the job won’t be vacant a few months down the road.

Interested in learning more about what our search process entails? Check out Torch Group’s Signature Search Process™ for insight into the steps our expert search consultants take to ensure the perfect fit. And, be sure to visit our blog Pass the Torch regularly for helpful content focused on executive search and recruiting success.