Do your Recruiters Meet your Expectations?

A White Paper from
NextGen Global
Executive Search
©2012 NextGen Global Executive Search LLP 1
Do your Internal & External Recruiters Measure Up?

Introduction ∞
Chapter 1: Why Many Executives and New Employee Hires Fail ∞
Chapter 2: What the Studies in Poor Performance in New Hires Reveal ∞
Chapter 3: Bad Interviews are a Result of Poor Recruiting Processes ∞
Chapter 4: The Top Areas of Failure with Percentage of Respondents ∞
Chapter 5: Why Technical Competence as the Primary Identifier is so Bad ∞
Chapter 6: Why 50% of ALL New Hires are Either Bad Hires or Miss-hires ∞
Chapter 7: Defining Performance Objectives over Job Descriptions ∞
Chapter 8: Why Retained Search is Actually Cost-Effective ∞
Chapter 9: Conducting “behind-the-scenes” Industry Reference Checks ∞
Chapter 10: Going a Step Further before Short-Listing Candidates ∞
Chapter 11: High Impact Onboarding - Longer Retention Rates ∞
Chapter 12: Conclusions ∞
Chapter 13: Contact Information ∞
Table of Contents

The facts about recruiting “high impact A Players” and avoiding failure rates
cannot be denied. Unfortunately, too many organizations fail to take these
facts into serious consideration. Retention of key talent and effective recruiting
are significant and difficult problems for most companies.
Introduction

A study of executive failure pegged the average failure rate for recruited executives in
their first year at between 40% and 50%. (Executive Search Information Exchange 2001)
On average, the cost of a failed executive is estimated to be more than $500,000 or 2.5
times salary. And that does NOT include organizational, opportunity, productivity, and
transitional costs for the new executive. (Mercer Management 1999)
The cost of a bad hire ranged from one to five times annual salary. 26% of respondents
reported that replacing an employee that doesn’t work out cost their organizations three
times annual salary and another 42% said bad hires cost two times annual salary. (Right
Management 2008)
75% of newly hired executives are having trouble with interpersonal skills (the ability to
build relationships, collaborate, and influence others). A troubling finding of the study is
that many of these executives had both strong technical skills and years of previous
management experience and yet they fell short in the interpersonal area. (American
Society for Training & Development 2011)
46% of newly-hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve
unequivocal success. But contrary to popular belief, technical skills are not the primary
reason why new hires fail; instead, poor interpersonal skills dominate the list. (Leadership
IQ 2009) ©2012 NextGen Global Executive Search LLP 4
1: Why Many Executives and New Employee Hires Fail

The study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can’t accept feedback,
23% because they’re unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because
they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong
temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary
technical skills.
The three-year study by Leadership
IQ compiled these results after
studying 5,247 hiring managers
from 312 public, private, business
and healthcare organizations.
Collectively these managers hired
more than 20,000 employees during
the study period.
2: What the Studies in Poor Performance in New Hires Reveal

While the failure rate for new hires is distressing, it should not be surprising:
82% of managers reported that in hindsight, their interview process with these
employees elicited subtle clues that they would be headed for trouble.
But during the interviews, managers were too focused on other issues, too
pressed for time, or lacked confidence in their interviewing abilities to heed the
warning signs.
Before we blame the Hiring
Manager – remember the
recruiter set all this in place – AND
that is where the FAILURE started
in the recruiting processes.
3: Bad Interviews are a Result of Poor Recruiting Processes
Wait a minute!

Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from
bosses, colleagues, customers and others.
Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one’s
own emotions, and accurately assess others’ emotions.
Motivation (17%): A sufficient drive to achieve one’s full potential and excel
in the job.
Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job
and work environment.
Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the
job.
Study from Leadership IQ 2009
4: The Top Areas of Failure with Percentage of Respondents

Highly perceptive and psychologically-savvy interviewers can assess employees’
likely performance on all of these issues. But the majority of recruiters and
hiring managers lack both the training to accurately read and assess
candidates, and the confidence to act even when their assessments are correct.
Unfortunately, technical competence remains the most popular subject of
interviews because it’s easy to assess. But technical competence is a lousy
predictor of whether a newly-hired employee will succeed or fail.
In addition, Human Resources
focuses on one-size-fits-all
behavioral tests which may reveal
general aptitudes but fails to
measure and predict performance
for the actual role and fit into the
department/organization.
5: Why Technical Competence as the Primary Identifier is so Bad

The financial cost of hiring failures, coupled with the opportunity cost of not
hiring high performers, can be millions of dollars lost, even for small companies.
This is due to a combination of poor internal recruiting process, the use of poorly
defined job descriptions that ignore the specific business need to solving either
the unique technical challenges or defining in detail the corporate objectives,
plus most executives are simply too busy to perform an intensive interviewing,
screening, behavioral and intangible assessment throughout the entire Talent
Acquisition life cycle.
It is true that 50% of ALL hires are
either bad hires or miss-hires.
And that is especially true in
“customer facing” roles.
6: Why 50% of ALL New Hires are Either Bad Hires or Miss-hires

Are your recruiters still
working on “HR or legal-
defined” job descriptions?
Do they have the expertise
to use SMARTE to define
the “Performance
Objectives” of the role
they are recruiting for?
7: Defining Performance Objectives over Job Descriptions

2 Education/Experience
Personal/Professional
Background
44 Personal/Professional
Background
4
1
3 Adaptability
5 Corporate Culture &
Company Lifecycle
6 Accomplishments
Skills/Intelligence
Do your Recruiters define All of the Tangible Skills & Experiences Required?

Why does the position exist,
or if replacement, why?
What aptitudes and
leadership qualities are
mission critical?
What accomplishments and
external/internal motivations
are non-negotiable?
Conversely, which are not
needed?
Asking the RIGHT Questions Determines the Role’s KPIs
Benchmark
Key
Performance
Indicators
Determine the
critical goals and
major business
successes the
candidate will be
accountable for
producing.

thought processing, reasoning
, and persistence traits
motivational factors and
problem solving style
conflict resolution skills
planning and organizational
skills
execution and project
management techniques
leadership qualities and
relationship building skills
Identify Key
Intangible Traits of
the Ideal Candidate
Do your recruiters look
BEYOND skills, experience,
education, and
accomplishments?

When it comes to Key Positions, why risk your stakeholders’ investments on
poor internal recruiting processes, poor screening by contingency based
search firms, or job postings? Why hire a B or C Player?
Why choosing a retained search firm actually SAVES you money in the long run.
The really good ones use Performance Based Fees in which the majority of the
fees are paid on meeting measured deliverables. They should also have be
speedy, transparent, and in the end resulting in new hires that positively impact
your bottom line.
8: Why Retained Search is Actually Cost-Effective

Work with the Hiring Manager to develop real-time
hypothetical reasoning and situational scenario
behavioral interviewing questions and mini-projects
for potential candidates to reveal if they have the
motivations, aptitudes, leadership, learning ability
and intelligence, accomplishments, persistence, and
adaptability to fit the specific role and move your
strategy forward.
What? Our recruiters NEVER thought about this?
©2012 NextGen Global Executive Search
LLP
15
10: Going a Step Further before Short-Listing Candidates

How silly that anyone actually believes references provided by a candidate are
not skewed - meaning useless!
Your recruiters should confidentially cold call former customers, colleagues, and
vendors that the candidates have worked with; these reveal the best unscripted
references possible.
How silly that anyone actually believes references provided by a candidate are
not skewed - meaning useless!
Your recruiters should confidentially cold call former customers, colleagues, and
vendors that the candidates have worked with; these reveal the best unscripted
references possible.
9: Conducting “behind-the-scenes” Industry Reference Checks

How about Onboarding?
A performance evaluation tool is
not near enough. Before that a
customized onboarding program
SPECIFIC to that role/position AND
the performance objectives of the
role needs to be put into place.
Performance, Growth, and Retention are Key
Many HR department uses a “one-size-fits-all” approach to ongoing
evaluations. The problem here is your internal and external recruiters should
be CUSTOMIZING a Performance Evaluation Tool to measure the new hire’s
progress for THAT PARTICULAR position.
11: High Impact Onboarding - Longer Retention Rates

You should customize the onboarding process for each new hire with
intentional activities spread out over several months (phases) to assist in the
new executive or leader’s assimilation into the culture/department, measure
performance, and initiate the growth potential.
The retained search firm you choose should include a full one year
replacement warranty to ensure the placements meet
performance objectives sooner and are retained longer.

Does your onboarding program FOR THAT NEW HIRE instill confidence in
you AND the new executive or leader that the transition process into your
culture, department, and leadership development is sound?
Does it ensure a new leader will be effective in a short time?
Does your onboarding program FOR THIS HIRE improve the average
retention time of your leaders and executives?
Is it gaining you a competitive recruiting edge for leadership talent?
Does it maximize the chances that the new leader will be engaged quickly
with the company’s culture, the department’s people, and the executive
team?
Is your Executive Onboarding and for that matter
Employee Onboarding World Class?
If it does NOT do ALL of the following, either you are
missing a key component in recruiting or your existing
internal recruiters and 3rd party executive search firms are
not meeting YOUR RECRUITING OBJECTIVES.

©2012 NextGen Global Executive Search
LLP
20
Phase Objective Timing
Affirmation Ensure the new leader or executive
constantly believes he/she made the right
decision.
Begins no later than the Offer Letter and
continues through Day 90.
Welcome Communicate a highly-personalized
message of acceptance and attention.
Begins with the Acceptance Letter and
continues through Day 30.
Foundation Transfer company, department, and role-
specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes for
accelerated competency.
Day of Acceptance Letter through Day 60.
Assimilation Immerse new leaders in the company
culture and help them be proud of it.
Most important phase: Acceptance through
Day 120 (3 months).
Contribution Within a predetermined number of days or
weeks, begin to see real productivity from
the new hire and provide a positive
Day 15 through Day 120 and beyond.
Is your Talent Sustainability strategy based on Customized High Impact Onboarding with a
Schedule for Every Stakeholder to be Involved or Driven and Run Mostly by HR?

How can NextGen Global Retained Executive Search help?
Have an executive position or key staffing need you need to fill? NextGen can
fill that search assignment using our proprietary Performance Based Retained
Search process.
Our placements are backed up by the best warranty in the retained search
business – a one year replacement.
We strictly recruit “A Players” who produce 8 to 10 times more than even “B
Players”. Bear in mind that studies show that up to 55% of all workforces are
“C Players” (bodies who show up and do minimal tasks).
Each placement we make includes a customized Renewal™ World Class
Onboarding program. This assures the candidate assimilates into the culture
quickly, produces sooner rather than later, and is retained longer.
12: Conclusions

Offices in Chicago, Annapolis, Dallas, Nashville, Boston, Palo Alto, and
London, UK
Craig Hufford
Managing Partner
Practice Lead in Retained Executive Search
Aerospace & Defense, Airborne Power, Cyber Security
Enterprise Systems & Mobility, Data Centers
Medical Devices – Neurotransmitters, Imaging, Dialysis
Toll Free: (888) 501-5580 x 101
Direct: (630) 378-0005
Mobile: (630) 240-0041
Email: craig@nextgenges.com
Web: www.nextgenges.com

Do your Recruiters Meet your Expectations?

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