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Executive Search Firms |
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The consulting firms Executive search (informally headhunting) is the process of recruiting individuals to fill executive positions in organizations. Executive search may be performed by an organization's board of directors, by executives in the organization, or by an outside executive search organization.
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Process
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[edit] Executive search industry
The executive search industry has two distinct fields, retained executive search and contingency search. Retained search firms are paid a retainer fee regardless of whether a successful placement is made. Contingency search firms are usually associated with slightly lower level executive and specialist roles.[citation needed]
Search consultancies are often entrenched in particular market sectors. Their market sector networks are used along with various methods to seek candidates for a particular job. Normally the individuals are not actively seeking a new job. It is the job of the search consultant to approach these individuals with a view to taking them out of their current company and placing them in another, often a competitor.
Executive search is an extremely lucrative industry and successful search consultants can earn large sums. For this reason there is fierce competition to work in this sector. New recruits will normally start as a researcher to gain exceptional market knowledge and experience before progressing to consultant.
The service is paid for by the client company or organization, not by the hired job candidate. Potential job candidates are identified, qualified and presented to the client by the executive search firm based upon fit with a written or verbal Job Specification developed in conjunction with the client. Assessing degree of potential fit of the candidate with the job specification is a key activity for the search firm, since the most common reason a search consultant is engaged by a client company is to save time and effort involved with identifying, qualifying and reviewing potential candidates for specific leadership positions.
It is common for a potential candidate to be identified by the search firm via a telephone call. Often the phone call is the result of a recommendation from someone inside the existing network of the search firm. Quality oriented search firms work hard at cultivating and continually updating their network of contacts so that when a search assignment is awarded they will be ready to start qualifying potential candidates. Another way to identify potential candidates involves search firm "research", which is contacting targeted people in specific companies who appear to fit the job profile in some logical manner. Some of the best candidate referrals come from people who could be candidates for the job themselves but for any number of reasons are not interested at that particular time. [1]
[edit] Retained executive search firms
Retained executive search firms are firms paid a retainer by companies who wish to recruit a specific person for a specific position. This type of arrangement is typically reserved for recruiting CEOs and other senior executives who earn in excess of $300,000 per annum. There are large, specialist global firms who engage in this activity, as well as regional and local firms. Some firms specialise in specific industries, while others are generalists.[citation needed]
Job seekers who qualify for senior executive level searches often rely heavily on executive recruiters for career advancement. It may be worthwhile to contact executive search firms if you qualify, but do not expect them to take time out of their schedule to talk with you or see you. They are driven by their specific assignments for their clients: they find people for roles, not roles for people. Executive search consultants at these large firms are often the "career makers" for famous CEOs and captains of industry, though it is a fairly secretive world where those that are qualified are contacted, but others don't know they exist.[citation needed]
Association of Executive Search Consultants
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The Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) is the worldwide professional body representing the retained executive search industry. Founded in 1959[1] in the United States, it is today a global organization with its international headquarters in New York City, and a European office in Brussels[2].
[edit] Structure and role
The AESC’s membership of over 270[3] firms is split into three regional councils: The Americas (North and South America), EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia-Pacific[1]. Between them, these firms carry out over 50,000 executive search assignments per annum.[citation needed]
The Association has a number of regional and global committees to address issues within the industry, such as Government Relations[citation needed], Ethics and Professional Practices[4]. These bodies are elected annually. The AESC also organizes a number of local and regional events.
In addition to promoting and maintaining professional and ethical standards, the AESC provides training through its Campus program, attempts to broaden public understanding of the industry and serves as an advocate for the interests of its member firms. In 2000 the Association also developed bluesteps.com [1], a subscription-based internet service to create a link between job-seeking executives and member search firms.
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