Executive Searching In South Africa
The executive search profession 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.
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. executive search
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 recruiting 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. executive search company
in other simpler words - An executive search firm is a professional company, online or otherwise, that attracts, hires and develops people as leaders for the purpose of holding responsible positions in organizations and companies, specifically for positions where the job entails planning and taking action on behalf of the employer. The firm is hired by an organization or company, not the potential employment candidate.
The executive search company headhunts for candidates based on identification of them as being suitable for such a potential position, qualified to do that position and able to provide a suitably aligned verbal or written presentation regarding their suitability for the position in question.
One of the most important tasks that an executive search entails is in assessing the fit aspect of the potential candidate to a specific position. It is important that this search is done efficiently, saves time and can identify key aspects of suitability such as qualifications, experience and the ability to lead.
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