Closing Leadership positions in the Digital Space – Challenges and Way Forward

Written by Abhishek on Jul 11, 2018

Leadership hiring is an abstract process, subject to uncertainties and chances. The stages in the process are: Identifying the universe of all candidates who will fit the job description - Attract eligible candidates to apply - Have a hiring infrastructure which is able to evaluate all eligible candidates using a robust selection and assessment process and finally - do all of these in a reasonable span of time. While this may sound simple, most companies falter in one or more stages of this process.

Recently a leading technology firm was looking to expand its Digital practice to newer markets. They chose Han Digital to help identify a senior executive to help drive their new initiatives.

 

The Challenge: When we came on-board, we realized that our client had already met a couple of leadership candidates, but was unable to close due to internal differences of opinions. Their internal talent acquisition team did not have the experience to hire someone of this level of seniority. Moreover, the candidates whom they met were not adequately engaged and kept informed of the progress. Soon, they lost interest and dropped out.

 

The Solution: Based on our recent experiences, we suggested a time-bound, consultant-driven approach to help them hire the suitable candidate. For an effective approach, we listed down the essential steps with our client leadership team.

 

Step 1: Han Digital’s talent team mapped suitable candidates based on the client expectations. The long list contained eleven suitable names.

Step 2: Once the list was ready, a document that essentially spoke to prospective candidates was prepared. It spoke about the prospective client and its business, the Digital practice and recent updates.

Step 3: As a part of this document, we explained why the client was looking for someone to fill a strategic role. The roles and responsibilities that the position offered and the profile of the ideal candidate were listed out.

Step 4: Based on initial discussions by our senior consultants with the candidates, seven evinced interest to pursue discussions further.

Step 5: Later Han Digital directors held personal interviews with the seven candidates. Post these detailed assessments and evaluations, three candidates were submitted to the client for further process.

 

The Result: Our client met all three candidates and hired one. The entire process was completed in less than forty-five days. The candidate joined the client organization in the same quarter.

 

From this approach, we realize that business leaders appreciate a data-driven approach to hiring. Not all leadership candidates are actively looking out for a job. Hence the communication has to be targeted and effective. Though challenging it was, we were able to meet all of the client’s expectations including time, cost and quality.

 

Han Digital has been running confidential and time-bound campaigns for Fortune 500 companies for the past 15 years. Have a role to fill? Please email saran@handigital.com