For many organizations, finding quality talent can be tough — and finding quality executive talent can be even tougher. Executive search is labor-intensive, complex and requires a rare combination of skills and business expertise. By utilizing an executive search firm to source and recruit senior-level talent, companies can eliminate turnover, increase diversity in the C-suite and board, improve the quality of candidates, and fill leadership positions quickly and discreetly.

Here are five compelling reasons why your company should consider bringing in an external executive search partner for your next important leadership hire.

1. Not Enough Time or Resources to Take on an Executive Search

Attracting, recruiting and hiring a top-level executive cannot be done passively. The recruitment of and outreach to top candidates is a strategic and time-consuming task that often requires multiple team members working at once.

Depending on the size of your company, you may not have a big enough team of internal recruiters to assist with your senior-level hiring needs. Whether you have 5,000 or 100 employees, it’s not always practical to have internal staff with the expertise necessary to hire for every position. When hiring for more niche or complex roles, it becomes particularly important to consider support from an executive search firm. Not only could using underqualified team members result in a bad hire, it also depletes HR resources that would be better deployed somewhere else.

2. Current Senior Leadership Lacks Diversity

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace is no longer “nice to have," it’s an essential part of achieving a company’s full potential. In order to change the composition of the C-suite and board, organizations today need to consider how their executive search processes will support their DE&I goals.

To achieve those goals, companies must have a plethora of diverse candidates in their candidate pipelines and talent pools. While this may seem like an obvious first step to improving leadership and board diversity, it's an area where many companies still struggle and, as such, one where executive search firms can contribute substantial value.

Partnering with an executive search firm that specializes in sourcing and placing diverse executives is one of the easiest ways to grow your pipeline of inclusive talent. Successful executive search strategies will look past cookie-cutter talent and focus on finding individuals who can add unique and valuable attributes to their teams.

3. Seeking a Candidate with a Unique Mix of Skills

If you have an important search in which you are looking for the proverbial “needle in the haystack,” a qualified executive search firm can help make the impossible seem possible. Solid search firms will deliver a slate of candidates with the right mix of knowledge, skills and experience. However, the best search firms will also advise on things like cultural fit, ambition and emotional intelligence to help their clients meet their most specialized leadership needs.

Executives aren’t the type of candidates that spend their time sifting through job boards or websites for open positions. More often than not, finding the right candidate for an executive position requires having the right network of qualified connections and a solid brand reputation to attract top performers to the organization. Executive search firms focus on those specific areas, devoting time and resources to networking and marketing to build an extensive database of highly qualified executive candidates.

4. Lack of Internal Bench Strength or Have Few Senior Executive Successors

If you sense a key executive might be on the verge of leaving, a search firm can help develop a succession plan to tee up executive hires in advance of the need. Executive search partners will work with you to address talent gaps and make plans to close them, as well as identify talent that already exists in your business and opportunities for growth and development.

5. Desire for a Strategic Advantage Through Better Executive Hires

Executive search firms are in the business of finding and delivering top performers. Any time a company has a critical leadership search, it's an opportunity to add a top performer to your bench and drive massive results. Executive search firms tend to be more effective in recognizing top performers since they have the chance to interact with and evaluate them more frequently than their clients. They interview and assess top performers for a living; it’s what they do, day in and day out.

The Benefits Are Clear

Whether your company is looking to add an executive to round out your C-suite, replace a departing leader or diversify your board, tapping into the robust capabilities of an executive search firm can make a world of difference. Not only will a dedicated search partner provide access to a wider talent pool, it will also enable your organization to make more strategic and informed hiring decisions in less time.

Interested in discussing these opportunities with one of our executive search practice leaders? Connect with us now to learn more about executive recruiting.