Headhunters are watching

Some people never have to look through the newspaper for jobs. For these high level executives, the jobs come to them. A discrete call from a head-hunter and an opportunity presents itself.

Steven Graham is the General Manager - New Zealand North for Synergy and says it's good to get the call.

"When you get the call it can be a bit flattering for the ego as long as you don't let it get to your head," he says.

Graham has accepted a head-hunter's invitation to change jobs twice in the past three years.

"The angle they'll come at is, 'do you know somebody who would be interested in a general manager role?'. They'll play that card often."

Synergy pinched Graham from TelstraClear which had pinched Graham from Microsoft. Graham had only been at Microsoft for two years but had become ripe for the picking.

"I always like to know where my next option is and it didn't really exist in Microsoft. I wanted more of a challenge and I could see it wasn't going to happen within Microsoft in Wellington."

For top executives, head-hunters won't just provide their next employment opportunity but also provide them with critical industry information.

"For me it's a wonderful channel to see what's going on in the market. I maintain a couple of contacts just to see the movement and what's going on out there."

Pinching top executives requires a great deal of secrecy and head-hunters are often tight lipped - something which Graham found off-putting.

"I would get the odd call from recruitment people. I don't know how they went about it. I'd ask them how they got my name but they wouldn't really share. They'd say, 'oh, we just heard about you'. So they didn't always tell you how they came about you."

A head-hunter's database is a closely guarded secret.

Maurice Ellett, managing director of Signium, maintains personal files and tracks the careers of more than 20,000 executive candidates.

"I can't think of anyone who operates in effective recruitment who doesn't have a database of candidates."

CEOs, aspirant CEOs, general managers and other upwardly mobile professionals are detailed in these extremely private databases.

To place these top jobs, Ellett says, it's not about just finding someone who can do the job but someone who can do it really well. The competition for the best candidates is intense.

"We strive to find an even better person than we've got on our short list. We've found in various assignments over the last two to three years where we've seen candidates who can do the job but we've striven out into the marketplace to find somebody who can do an even better job and found them."

Once the client retains a head-hunter to go out and find an executive for them, a lot of work gets under way.

"We have a research team that spends its time identifying the people who we think have the skills and experience to do the job that we're trying to recruit for. That requires intuition. It requires experience. It requires an intimate knowledge of the market and in many cases a good knowledge of the industry sector."

Knowing the client and having a clear understanding of what they're looking for is more important than actually understanding the functionality of the job, says Ellett.

"If the culture's not right, the person won't deliver, no matter how competent they are."

Approaching candidates has become easier for head-hunters. Mobile phones provide direct access to senior executives without having to tell their PA who's calling.

"If we can reach them after hours either on mobile or home phone number, it is a little easier to talk to them and it is certainly retaining a greater level of confidentiality."

Executives operating at this level are rarely swayed by money alone. Plucking them out of their current position requires a bit more than that.

"You have to ensure that you're approaching it from the point of view of a challenging opportunity, not one that just offers a higher level of remuneration. Remuneration is just a by-product that compensates the right person for doing the right job."

Ellett says that many times they don't know exactly what the candidate is earning anyway.

There are rules to approaching candidates. Reputable head-hunters don't approach someone that they have placed into the job or approach people working for one of their clients. It can be frustrating.

"Usually the people we think we would like for the next assignment are the ones that we've appointed to previous ones. We know those candidates so well that we just think they'd be ideal."

Ellett says these high level executives need to make moves in order to find greater challenges and progress their careers.

"A chief executive who moves every five to eight years is probably far more attractive than somebody who's staying in the chief executive's role for 12-15 years."

Stuart Walker is currently in that target time frame. He has been the managing director of Hansells, for six and a half years now.

He gets a call from a head-hunter about once a year and says it's always welcome.

"For all executives, a call from a head-hunter appeals to their ego in some form or another whether they admit it or not. I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to say they had been called but in reality probably haven't."

He almost made a move recently but decided not to because it was not a convenient move for his wife.

"I have to say one did catch my imagination about two months ago, particularly because of the location in Christchurch, but it's just not good timing right now."

When a head-hunter calls, Walker finds it important to discuss salary up front to keep from wasting everyone's time.

"I've had a couple of approaches recently where I've said, 'what type of package range are we talking?'. And they've been sometimes a good hundred thousand dollars out."

But Walker also says that taking a pay cut to do what you want to do is not always a bad thing.

"What I've noticed in those situations within a year or two they've either recovered where they want to be or in fact gone ahead even further."

When Walker was headhunted for his current role with Hansells, he was not the obvious candidate.

"I knew nothing of the grocery industry but I think the company was at a stage where that wasn't relevant.

"They just wanted some fresh thinking, some fresh blood and someone who was prepared to ask the question; 'well, why are we doing it that way?'."

One of the main things Walkers says to always remember when a head-hunter calls is confidentiality.

"You must never forget the fiduciary duty you have to existing shareholders. Any discussions you may have with another party, you've got to be careful as to what information is forthcoming. You could be giving away sensitive information without knowing it."

Get noticed

To attract the attention of a headhunter, Maurice Ellett managing director of Signium, says you need only do one thing - achieve.

"If they're achieving, they're upwardly mobile, their organisation is successful, then if we're looking for a CEO they will become visible."

But if the phone is still not ringing, Ellett says his door is open. He welcomes top level executives who may not have already been noticed.

Ellett says candidates who want to make themselves known to a head-hunter should talk with other head-hunters as well because they do not compete for candidates, only clients.

When the phone does ring, Ellett says to find out the exact level of the position and see if it's worth sitting down with the head-hunter.