A Year Long Recruiting Process

A year-long recruiting process. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Or, how about a high-pressure recruiting process where you are feeling stressed to get the hire in place so you can pull up out of the weeds? Both scenarios are tough but consider the year-long process and what it can bring to you.

This week we are putting an offer out for a CMO position that has been in the making for the last twelve months. The CEO met the candidate well over eight months ago, but company’s priorities shifted, and other key VP hires needed to be made. The CEO also got pulled away as he leaned into the Series C fundraise. We worked hard to keep our candidate engaged and set up a series of meetings with the CEO that kept her transparently informed on why the delay while continuously getting her excited about the business opportunity and what this will mean for her own career trajectory. The two formed a deep bond and last week, as we were assembling the offer, she said to me that although the experience was incredibly long, it was actually an outstanding process that has left her with absolutely no question about her choice or her excitement about what’s ahead. She has mapped out her business plan and is ready to jump in. They, in turn, are fully aligned with her ideas and now have the budget to support a significant team build and a real investment in marketing and brand building.

I SHARE THIS STORY WITH ONE LESSON:
BUILD YOUR BENCH AND START TALENT MAPPING

The top miss for CEOs is not building a network of executive talent that can be assets to their company in years to come. They may not be ready for a COO today, but they will be as their company grows. Taking the time to understand the marketplace, your competitors, and the talent out there BEFORE you are ready to hire, makes the hiring process all the easier and saves you exponential amount of time and money.

There are two paths to doing this:

1. Carve out time weekly and directly research and cold reach out to interesting talent.
2. Hire a trusted recruiting partner (internally or externally) to work with you on talent mapping. Working with a partner to assess your current organization and talent, and proactively introduce you to talent that could be critical hires in years to come, can be a healthy investment that will get you ahead and give you the opportunity to build a talent-optimized organization.

Either way you choose to go at it, get ahead of it. A longer period where you are getting to know the executive talent marketplace, and understand more about potential candidates, will bring tremendous rewards. People want to network and building long-term relationships with exceptional talent is one of the best investments you can make for your company.

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