What to look for in a headhunter

When it comes to engaging with executive search firms, I’ve seen a real apprehension or mistrust from first time founders. Why? “Seems SO expensive” is the most common answer. This is often followed by the founder thinking that they don’t really need support from a headhunter — and fairly so, they’ve been able to build an amazing team up until now. Another reason for some founders’ apprehension is the fact they’ve been burnt by a bad experience. The problem here is two-fold. Firstly, founders tend to under appreciate the work of a good headhunter. Secondly, not all headhunters — as with most things — are equal in quality, so may not be a suitable partner for building early stage companies

To address this, the EQT Ventures team plays part educator, informing companies on the importance of getting executive hires right and how external support can help, and also part connector. This involves helping companies find the right top-tier search partner through our trusted network. Although our portfolio companies are the ones that place the bets, our aim is to make the process of finding a great search partner as efficient and informed as possible.

When your startup’s scaling, hiring your first leadership team to address the management vacuum that often exists in the early stages is critical for hitting your next ambitious milestone. These new talent profiles are typically less familiar to founders because they’re experienced and functional specialists who often have a track record of successfully leading companies. These are people who will have a transformative effect on your business and lead you to the next big growth milestone. Why should you seek help at this stage? It can cost you more than you think if you get it wrong in a competitive space with aggressive growth timelines, a couple of bad exec hires in a row can even spell the end of a company. This helps put headhunting fees into perspective — if you choose your partner well, it will be an investment in building a winning leadership team rather than a cost you resent.

Once you’ve identified why and when you need external help, here are 10 characteristics to look for in a headhunter:

1. Strong reputation and network — Quality is linked to the individual search partner and the best ones are exactly that — a partner. Reference diligently and try to gain access to candidates who have been part of one of the headhunter’s process. Also keep in mind that the, quality of the search partner is often linked to the quality of their network. Most search firms have a research team to support candidate sourcing, but the best ones have rich, nurtured networks which mean building the shortlist isn’t a “start from scratch” exercise. Headhunters who take on roles that don’t have the bandwidth nor network for will almost always disappoint.
2. Gets under the bonnet of your company — Gaining an understanding of your vision, product and customers helps headhunters identify relevant candidates and create a compelling initial sales pitch. But the very best will dig deeper to get an understanding of the intangibles of your business — the values, culture and dynamics of your team. This is critical in presenting candidates who not only tick the box on skills and experience, but ones who will gel and thrive in your company’s environment. When hiring leaders, it’s particularly important to assess them in the context of the relationships they’ll have with the existing team.
3. True business partner to your startup — Not every headhunter is a credible talent advisor but, when it comes to the very best, the umbrella term ‘search’ downplays their role. I’ve known some search partners to have onsite whiteboarding sessions with their clients, scoping a role and where it should sit in the organisation and having conversations about the possible tradeoffs before even drafting the brief.
4. Helping you understand what extraordinary looks like — The challenge for many founders hiring their first set of executives is that it’s hard to know what good looks like and it’s not unusual for everyone in your first guided search to seem great. The best headhunters help you distinguish between ‘relevant’ profiles and ‘world-class’ profiles by presenting aspirational frames of reference at the start. Even if the likelihood of you scoring that specific person is low, they can help you build a realistic target profile.
5. Skilled in sophisticated talent identification — Identifying talent is not just a tick in the box, title matching exercise. It’s important for headhunters to be able to see different shapes that might be a fit, which means a level of sophistication when it comes to talent identification. An understanding that the ideal person may be coming from an unconventional origin is crucial to building a high-quality and comprehensive shortlist. If there’s not at least one wildcard on the list then it’s likely your search partner isn’t looking hard enough.
6. Helps you build diverse teams — Highlighting your implicit biases, which might be limiting your reach, is something headhunters can help with by presenting a diverse long list of candidates. One of our executive search partners adds: “We’ll talk to clients about their goals actively at the beginning of the search to tease out targets. If they have a particularly un-diverse leadership team, we’ll explicitly mention it and take a view on how important it is”. Great people tend to refer great people, so a simple, high impact search method is to manage a source list consciously and create a diverse pipeline through a diverse list of sources.
7. Leads a transparent search — Many founders can be left disappointed and in the dark once a search is underway. Regular daily and weekly updates and feedback is critical to building momentum in a search. This is made a lot easier when your search firm partner gives you access to a shared candidate-management platform which allows you to see progress in real-time. Be sure to ask if this is something your search partner can offer.
8. Extensively references the candidate — Conducting the referencing process is a core part to any search. This is something that a good headhunter will be trained to do extremely well with a mixture of formal and informal referencing. They will be able to read between the lines and gain access to references you might not be able to.
9. Helps close the candidate with aligned motives — Rather than being a middleman out to maximise commission, the best search partners are genuinely working with you and aligning your business needs with the needs of the candidate. Your relationship is worth more to them than a little more buck, so their motive shouldn’t be negotiating up the salary of a candidate to get a chunkier fee. Remember though — whilst they are able to bring great candidates to your doorstep headhunters can’t fix a poor candidate experience left by your team which can hamper your ability to close.
10. Is in it for a long-term relationship — Lastly and most importantly, it’s about building a relationship that lasts. One headhunter once told me “we want to be invited to the champagne toast at the company’s IPO party because we’ve helped them bring in multiple key executives”. Great headhunters genuinely care about playing a crucial role in recruiting key hires and they want to build a partnership that lasts beyond one search — for the long term.

If your search partner demonstrates most of the qualities identified above, it’s likely you’ve found a good one. Remember though, like the key to success in any relationship, it’s a two-way street. Staying aligned is critical, and founders who put in the time and effort to be a true partner to their chosen headhunter will benefit most and have the best chance of success when it comes to landing that dream hire.

Thanks to our friends at Erevena and True Search for their input, contribution and partnership.