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Retained Executive Search

We conduct executive searches for an exclusive set of companies. Our clients are leaders who are building something great – and they need more A-players to be part of their team in order to achieve these goals.  They want Herrenkohl Consulting to lead them through the process of finding and hiring an A-player for leadership roles within their companies.  That is where our retained search solution comes into play.  

The seasoned recruiting team at Herrenkohl Consulting focuses its full recruiting efforts to finding and hiring a superior person for you role.  We tap into our existing contacts and actively reach out to new talent pools to find the best talent in the marketplace.

Overview:  Herrenkohl Consulting Executive Search Process

  1. Conducting Gap Analysis and Creating A-Player Profile: Starting an executive search is the best time to assess the team you need vs. the team you have. Who is the right person to put into your team? What kind of person will make big individual contributions and make your entire team better? How will we know the A-Player who is right for your team when we meet him or her? As we initiate an executive search with you, we ask and answer these questions using our Organizational Gap Analysis and A-Player Profile processes. These tools help us to create the recruiting documentation and interview scorecards that are used throughout the process to find and interview strong candidates for the role.

  2. Determining Skills, Required Experiences, and Cultural Fit:  We know a lot of talented people, but just because they are talented does not mean they are the right people for your team. We learn about your business and culture by spending time with your team.  Then, we review and confirm our observations with you.  Through this process we identify the ideal combination of skills, experiences, accomplishments, and cultural fit characteristics for the person we hire.

  3. Creating Candidate Mapping & Initiating Contact:  Based on the profiles we have created, we create a comprehensive talent map to guide our search efforts. During the search, we reach out to strong performers with whom we have relationships, but we also identify new pools of talent that are potentially valuable for your company. We initiate recruiting conversations with strong performers who are not actively looking for a career move, but are interested in opportunities to make bigger contributions and move to the next level in their careers.  

  4. Evaluating Candidates: Our retained search process is comprehensive. After identifying a potentially strong candidate, we first conduct a phone interview to review their resume, experience, and accomplishments. Based on that evaluation, we then spend considerable time conducting an in-depth interview conducted either in-person or via video conference. After a favorable comparative analysis using the A-Player Profile and correlating scorecard, we provide you with the candidate’s resume and our detailed assessment of his or her strengths and weaknesses in a Candidate Summary. Then, we facilitate a second round of interviews between you and the candidate.

  5. Checking References: We conduct thorough reference checks before you finalize any hire through one of our searches. We look for a pattern of enthusiastic, positive feedback in these discussions with current and past supervisors, peers, subordinates and industry contacts. We triangulate what we hear in reference checks with what we have already uncovered in our interviews.  This gives us the most complete picture of each candidate before you extend them an offer of employment.

  6. Integrating Online Leadership Assessments: Depending upon the client and the search, we will integrate online assessments into the search process. These tools help to verify the intelligence we gain during an interview. We pay particular attention to peoples’ leadership styles, communications skills, internal drive to achieve, goal clarity, optimism about achieving these goals, and overall personal effectiveness.

  7. Coordinating Interviews: When you interview candidates through a Herrenkohl Consulting search, nothing is left to chance. We prepare you for your interviews and work to ensure that you have all the information and insight you need to ask the right questions and explore the right issues.

  8. Negotiating and Finalizing Offers: Our job is not over when we present candidates to you. We work with you to negotiate the right compensation package for the people you hire.   Throughout the search, we navigate the financial and non-financial requirements required to hire your top candidate. We believe that knowledge and information are key for determining compensation packages that work, and we work assiduously to provide you with this knowledge during the whole search process.

  9. Managing the Transition: As a newly hired leader begins working for you, we provide you with recommendations for the on-boarding process to help these valuable new hires get traction and provide value quickly.  We also regularly contact the candidate to ensure a smooth transition and to address any possible issues/concerns that may arise as he or she successfully integrates into your organization.