THE OLD RELO DAYS ARE MOSTLY GONE
Pre-2020, national searches tapped large pools of candidates who could sell a current home and find and finance a new one elsewhere. Not so easy under today’s housing inventory and mortgage rate conditions. And relocation of externally recruited executives is expensive and not without risk; sometimes new hires do not follow through and instead fly in and fly out weekly.
Observes one CEO client headquartered in a mid-size midwestern city, “Remove relocation possibilities and the resulting finite local talent pool creates high stakes executive recruiting - as if you are operating within a walled city."
TOUGH TO RELO TODAY
Since 2020, and especially after 2021, two factors have derailed widespread relocations: High mortgage rates and tight “For Sale” housing supply, limiting the relocatable national candidate pool. Further, it introduces more instances of candidates professing their willingness to entertain long-distance commutes, however many employers later suffered the downsides of new senior leaders flying in late on Mondays and out early on Thursdays.
SOLUTION: OPTIMIZE THE SIZE OF THE LOCAL EXECUTIVE CANDIDATE POOL
When out-of-area candidate cannot relocate, employers must look locally. What does this do to the local talent pool? Once employers in the same geography pursue a fixed local executive pool, the competition is fierce and the sole solution requires access to every local employer’s talent.
THE CHOSEN SEARCH FIRM MATTERS AS NEVER BEFORE
Under these conditions, employers utilizing external executive search must be very savvy in selecting the size and location of the search firm that can approach the local candidate pool.
When considering large global or multi-office USA search firms, know upfront that, due to your company’s industry, large and regional firms might already serve half the relevant employers which means many industry-relevant executives are “off limits;” unavailable for those firms’ search consultants to recruit away. Active search assignments suffer from a greatly reduced available candidate pool, all due to the large firms’ blockages which are magnified locally.
Is there an ideal firm size and location to provide employers with the largest local executive talent pool for where the role is located? Yes. A boutique or mid-sized search firm which employs partners/consultants who bring with them the reputation, prior pedigree, and training of a top global firm, but now are working in a size model that has no existing-client-off-limits blockages.
Even better, if that firm is located away from your geography, they can recruit out of the most relevant, local, top-tier employers – where top executives are within drivable commuting distances.
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