7 ways to attract exceptional talent to your leadership team

While every recruitment decision that a firm makes is important, hiring the ideal candidates for senior positions is critical to the success of any leadership team. Leaders at all levels, at a minimum, significantly affect the level of employee motivation and engagement, set the strategic direction of the firm, and assist and develop new areas of the business.  Acquiring leadership talent is also one of the most challenging tasks that a firm can face, exceptional performers will always be in demand. 

So with this in mind, here are 7 ways to attract seniors:

1.  The very first step is to think about the compelling message you want to go to the market with– why do staff enjoy working for us? What makes your firm and the role unique?

2.  Secondly think about the next bounce of the ball, seniors by nature are ambitious, and so they will want to know not only the now, but how they can progress in their firm. Create a roadmap or career progression plan before the first touch point.

3.  From here you can start craft a job description. This will help to figure out your needs. Think outside of just technical abilities, think about where the position fits into the structure, and objectives both here and now and 6 months’ and 12 months’ time, as a bare minimum.

4.  Once you have identified the requirements of a position, create a candidate persona to define your ideal candidate. Benchmark high characteristics and attributes in your top performers to use as a guide.

5.  Think long term and strategic what can they bring to the firm, what level of mentoring are you prepared to provide, what are the must have’s and where are the flexible points.

6.  Think about drivers and seed them throughout the process. Yes people will look to be well compensated for the move, but also think, ability to make an impact, opportunity for leadership and influence, strategic input into the overall firm not just their team

7.  Always be recruiting, always track competitors, who is doing well in your industry, reach out and network. Look at industry events 2 ways, not just meeting potential clients, but potential employees as well

As mentioned earlier, recruiting for senior positions is challenging, but highly important task, so don’t rush through it and be patient.