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JMJ Phillip Featured In Wall Street Journal

Posted on February 15, 2023 by JMJ Phillip

In 2022, JMJ Phillip Executive Search was named one of the nation’s Best & Brightest Places to Work. The award, which is given on a city-by-city basis, was achieved across each of JMJ Phillip’s nationwide offices, including Detroit, Dallas, Denver, and Chicago.

What makes achieving this recognition even more meaningful is that the award is given to companies after a company-wide survey of employees. It is always rewarding to know our staff members enjoy working at the company, and achieving national recognition for our organization’s culture and work style is an honor.

As a result of winning Best & Brightest Places to Work, JMJ Phillip was recognized in the Wall Street Journal today.

JMJ Phillip Executive Search Recognized in the Wall Street Journal

How to select a retained executive search firm to hire in 2021

Posted on March 23, 2021March 23, 2021 by JMJ Phillip

What is a retained executive search firm?

A retained executive search firm offers services that requires upfront payments to retain their firm – this fee is credited towards the total referral fee for finding the desired candidate. Typical fee agreements are 30-33% of a candidate’s total compensation and will require the client to put 1/3rd of the estimated total referral fee down before the search can begin. Then, the second payment of 1/3rd is required when the search firm achieves the hurdle metrics, such as the submittal of 5 candidates that meet the ideal search criteria. Then, the final payment is made based on the “settled” amount which is the balance left over once the total compensation is estimated. In the case of a flat fee agreement, all three payments will be agreed upon at contract signing without the need to calculate total compensation.

Typical guarantee periods for retainer-based search agreements can range from 60-90 days to as long as one year or more depending on the risk profile of the industry and location.

When do companies typically bring in an executive search firm? What are the benefits? Disadvantages?

If you ever worked closely with a law firm, you’re used to “having them on retainer.” The same way great attorneys require you to put some money up to buy their dedicated time, executive search firms work in the same way. Think about this for a moment. If you want the absolute best in the market, do you think they are going to get to work without you having skin in the game? Well OK, we know the answer to that.

The greatest benefit of hiring a top retained executive search firm is having dedicated resources from one of the top companies in the business. When you put your money down, you’re buying focus and a sense of urgency. You’re also usually getting the top billers in the firm to work on your project. Knowing that human capital is your greatest resource to stay competitive in 2021, especially as fast as the world is changing, hiring a retained search firm makes complete sense.

Companies that often hire retained executive search firms are doing so because they cannot afford to compromise on quality of hire. Whether the search is a discreet replacement of an incumbent, a key executive placement or they have the desire to bring someone in, at any level, with experience from their competition, then retained services are the only option.

For example, at JMJ Phillip Executive Search we get calls every week from new and old clients asking us to find them someone from Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, GE, Google, and so on.

Which, not surprisingly, this is what everyone seems to want in the year 2021. And who doesn’t want to make a hire from one of the leaders in the industry? If you’re a Fortune 500 then this is commonplace and often easier to attract that kind of talent.

But what if you’re a $250,000,000.00 manufacturing company that isn’t a big brand name on the PR scene? Then how do you attract that level of talent? That is often why companies choose to hire an executive headhunter to go strategically target and sell top talent on their company.

Because, if you haven’t learned this lesson yet, if your name doesn’t ring as Elon Musk’s does, those online job ads you keep wasting your money on never seem to bring in that top 5% of talent you need to survive in this world.

But wait a minute, here is that one pesky disadvantage. What happens if you put down the first or second payment but decide not to make a hire or you put the position on hold. Well, to be honest, the firm spent their money working on your search, and that money is gone. So you do risk losing out on those retainer payments. This is why retained executive search consultants take retained searches so seriously, they know you wouldn’t cut that check unless you were nearly certain a hire would be made.

But, things happen and no one can predict the future. The good news is, depending on how transparent you are with the search firm on why the search is on hold, often they may be willing to work out a credit of some sorts because the smart firms understand lifetime customer value and want to continue doing business with you.

Why a retained search versus a contingent search?

While they seem like the same service, at the end of the day they are not the same “level” of service. In the contingent search world, the recruiter only gets paid if a hire is made. Somehow that rhymes, but say it with me: the recruiter only gets paid if a hire is made. So step into a contingent recruiter’s shoes for just a moment. You spend months working on a search, then the company decides to put the search on hold.

What a minute. What?

What is a retained executive search firm?

Yes, it happens. It often happens more than 50% of the time actually. So knowing this, contingent recruiters are always going to put the most effort into the recruiting projects that they feel will result in a hire. And you can’t blame them. Who wants to spend months working on something and then not get paid? Sounds silly, but that’s the game and if you have enough contingent deals to work on, you can still make a good living.

You can also learn more about the Executive Search industry through the AESC.

Whereas a retained search, especially an executive search where you have the direct ear of the hiring managers is going to have a success rate far into the 90%+ range. So when you hire a retained executive search firm in 2021, you know you’re getting their full attention and sense of urgency because they know they have your full attention as well.

How does a white-glove approach differ from standard executive search firms?

Think about this: how many good customer service experiences have you had in the last 2 years? Not great, just good. Regardless of the product or service, when polled, most have had very poor experiences across the board.

In fact, there is a reason why they say customer service is dead. But when it comes to working with JMJ Phillip, that is not the case. We are a customer-centric brand that understands our customers are everything. We don’t wait days to return emails or phone calls. We send weekly status updates. We understand scope-creep is part of the process and work with you to understand that sometimes the goalposts move as the search develops.

And that’s what you’re coming to one of the top retained executive search firms in the business that is also widely known for their high levels of customer service.

Retained search services aren’t cheap, in fact, they are very expensive so why would you accept anything less than a high touch, white-glove type of search service? Our executive search consultants will never forget that you are always the highest priority on our list.

What are the benefits of having an in-house recruitment research team?

In 20 years we have built this company from the ground up to the powerhouse that it is now in 2021 with no signs of slowing down this decade. One thing we understand that is if the search consultants aren’t on the phone, things aren’t moving forward.

So we built a research company that is focused on recruitment research. Think of the ultra tech-savvy cybersleuths that comb the internet with great vigor to find the resumes, profiles, email addresses, and phone numbers of the worlds top talent. In a world where no one wants to pick up the phone anymore, our research teams relentless pursuit of data allows our retained executive search consultants to reach the unreachable while spending more time on the phones convincing the world’s top 5% of talent to come work for you.

Imagine how time-consuming it is to do all of your own research plus spend 3-4 hours a day on the phone speaking with clients and candidates. It makes for a very unproductive day that also leads to a lower satisfaction rate at your job.

Combining our in-house research team with our executive recruiters allows you to get the highest level of service in the business.

What is the retained executive search firm process for convincing passive and active candidates?

When you think of the recruiting process and attraction of top talent, it really comes down to the opportunity and contrasting that with the candidate’s current position and how it aligns with their future goals or vision. While many people will make a move just for the money, many others have far different intrinsic motivators.

Someone in the Midwest may want to move to California for the weather. Someone may want to move from Seattle to Boston to be closer to their children. Someone may be willing to commute 90 minutes a day if they get the chance to go work for a company they have always dreamed about working for. So the first step of going after top candidates is understanding what makes them tick and then helping them understand how your client’s opportunity can align with their life’s greater plan.

A retained executive search firms process

Again, when you think about the amount of time spent getting to know a candidate, building rapport with them on top of having to do that with multiple candidates you see how time-consuming this process is. So when you ask why should I use a retained firm over a standard contingent one, this is the answer.

Are the top 5% of talent passive candidates usually?

Not always, but often. One of the top things all hiring managers, human resources boards, and executive hiring committees look for is some kind of tenure. If the person can’t a job for more than a year it usually tells you something. That isn’t something people like to talk about anymore in 2021 so they brush it under the rug but like it now, the realist in all of us knows that tenure matters.

And knowing great talent often sticks around for 3-5 or more years, that means they are on the market a lot less often than those with lesser tenure. So you often find that people aren’t looking and they are very passive. Now, that doesn’t mean great talent can’t be active candidates. Sometimes it is just time to make a move for any reason and yes, great talent may not have such long tenure, it really comes to each person’s story and you have to figure it out from there.

Amongst non-founder \ family-owned businesses, some top executives’ tenure can explain a lot. Lee Iacocca spent most of his professional life working only for Ford and Chrysler. Indra Nooyi spent over 20 years at Pepsi Co. Alan Mulally spent over 30 years at Boeing. Sundar Pichai more than 15 years at Google. Mary Barra over 30 years at General Motors. Ursula Burns more than 35 years at Xerox. Jack Welch, GE over 40 years.

Now that we have you thinking about those names, imagine if your retained executive search firm consultant brought them to your organization at some point in their career. Top talent is hard to attract, and again, great names like these are not applying to ads online.

They must be headhunted. Executives also move up through various ways. 

What is the typical timeline to complete a retained executive search?

Typical Timeline for Retained Executive Search Services

This depends greatly on the type of company, the position, their compensation, and how fast or slow they want to move internally. This also becomes even more complex if the candidate has to relocate. If the company is in a reasonably desirable area and it’s not a one-off, niche position, we find that with our in-house research team we can see a good amount of candidate flow in 2-4 weeks.

From here on, it depends on the company. Pulling from over two decades of experience we can say that many companies struggle to get internal feedback in a timely matter especially when there are multiple people involved in the interviewing and decision-making process. Add in travel and covid to this conversation and it’s really hard to get everyone in one place at one time to make it happen quickly.

Between group interviews, individual interviews, onsite interviews, location scouting with the family if it’s a relocation search, things can stretch out for 6-8 months for some of the more complex recruiting projects.

But we also have had a retainer payment hit on Monday and the client had an offer out to a candidate in less than 30 days.

So to answer this question, we can move as fast or as slow as a client wants. This is the beauty of retained executive search services, we are here to take care of you.

To learn more about our retained executive search firms services, call 877-500-7762 today.

2020 Hiring Trends

Posted on January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 by JMJ Phillip

2020 is here. The 2019 year of hiring has come to an end, and recruiters and hiring managers are jumping headfirst in the 2020 job market. After a tough climate for hiring in 2019 and just 6 days into the new year, what trends can recruiting firms expect to see over the course of 2020?

 

Recruiters and Hiring Managers looking to increase and grow their business with top talent candidates in 2020

 

Before we get into that, let’s take a look back and rewind to 2018 with some stats.

  • In 2018, on average, 12% of candidates who applied for jobs were asked for an interview. Out of those interviewed, 28% received a job offer. (Jobvite 2019 Recruiting Benchmark Report)
  • Recruiters estimate they will pay entry-level employees an average of $56,532 in 2019 and 2020—a jump of over $10,000 compared to 2018
  • The average time to fill a position was 40 days in 2018 (Jobvite)
  • 91% of tech companies planned to invest in sourcing tools and technology in 2018 (Entelo 2018 Recruiting Trends Report)
  • Channels such as Facebook and Instagram, are gaining popularity in recruitment. Especially Instagram: 35% of millennial recruiters and 63% of recruiters working in the tech industry used Instagram to source candidates in 2018—double the numbers from the previous year (Jobvite)

 

Now, before we get into 2020, let’s take a look at this article from Jobbatical on current 2019 hiring statistics, job market trends and data.

  • A total of 31% of recruiters list the quality of the hire as the measurement of their success, while 23% of recruiters consider the retention rate as their primary measurement. One- to three business days are dedicated to training prospective hires by 39% of recruiters in order to improve the retention rate.
  • It takes an average of 27 working days to acquire a new hire.
  • Of recruiters, 45% are having difficulty filling positions due to a shortage of talent.
  • At least 84% of organizations are currently using social media for recruitment and 9% of those who don’t use it yet are planning to.
  • Requirements for strong conversational skills and enthusiasm have declined by more than 20% among recruiters.
  • A four-year college degree makes an entry-level candidate competitive in the job market according to 87% of recruiters.
  • Video technology is being used by 60% of hiring managers and recruiters. A survey of 506 companies showed 47% use video interviewing to shorten the hiring timeframe, and 22% would consider it for interviewing candidates that aren’t local.
  • Through recruiter negotiations, 68% of businesses “have increased the average salary offer for candidates in the last year.”
    75% of recruiters have experienced a candidate “change their mind.” In 53% of the cases, it was because they received a better offer.
  • Reportedly, 77% of recruiters go back and hire someone who didn’t appear to be a fit initially.

 

Based on data gathered from JMJ, here are some key things we’ve seen over the course of the year, and how we can see them trending into the new year.

What we saw in 2019: An increased desire by hiring committees to see a diversity of candidates. Even if it meant delaying the extension of an offer to a stellar candidate who completed the interview process already and performed well. There was also a dynamic of not wanting to miss out on someone that didn’t surface in the initial search efforts.

2020 Trend: Clients will continue to wait to ensure that they have the perfect person for the role.

 

What we saw in 2019: More and more emphasis was placed on “culture fit” and personality traits that aligned well with the company’s current executive staff. These organizations wanted to hire someone that would play nicely with the rest of the team. Furthermore, they wanted to avoid hiring someone that would rock the boat too much. This played into turnover and retention improvement plans as well.

2020 Trend: Companies will continue to put a heavy emphasis on hiring a candidate with the personality traits to fit into their culture. In many cases, hiring an aggressive change agent can lead to a ruffled staff who decide to look for work elsewhere.

 

What we saw in 2019: We saw a slowdown of hiring around holidays such as the 4th of July and Christmas. With the economy being stronger, it seemed like more people were traveling for vacations, which can ultimately slow the interview process down a bit.

2020 Trend: Candidates will continue traveling around the holiday seasons, slowing down the interview and hiring process. Recruiters and hiring managers will need to adjust accordingly.

 

What we saw: We worked more on executive level (VP and above) searches, as we plan to continue doing this year. We saw that companies were extending the interview process (vetting process) with candidates. 4-9 interviews were typically conducted before an offer would go out, getting multiple people involved in the hiring process. They weren’t only involving the leadership team the individual will be reporting to, but also the future direct reports of the candidate to get full buy-in. This made it a bit more challenging to place someone as one bad review throughout the process from one out of the many interviewers could remove someone from the process. Like our Managing Director Dennis Theodorou had mentioned before, this was not favorable to get a placement – too many cooks in the kitchen.

2020 Trend: Interview processes will shorten over the course of 2020, as companies will look to avoid getting a bad review on sites such as Glassdoor.

 

What we saw: Mediums like Skype and Teams were still popular, but also the prerecorded video interviews that allowed candidates to complete them on their own schedule and submit them when finished had been used by a few companies with mixed reviews from candidates. Some really liked the flexibility, others felt it was awkward.

2020 Trend: Jobs will conduct interview processes in this manner, and video interviewing will continue to grow in popularity.

 

What we saw: Hiring with an emphasis on succession planning. More than ever, clients wanted to hire someone who could be successful in the positions we were recruiting for as well as the position above it. In many cases, this lead to identifying someone who was overqualified for the job we were recruiting for but was also interested in the long-term opportunity to grow with an exciting company.

2020 Trend: Companies will look to develop new leaders when hiring by implementing more leadership training programs

 

How do you have to plan to be successful in 2020?

In order to be successful in the 2020 job market, there will have to be a strong emphasis on continuing current practices while also finding new ways to attract the top talent in the market. The company that is open-minded in its hiring approach will be the company that will come out on top in acquiring top talent in the 2020 job market. Even in a time where there’s an evident shortage of talent, tackling the market with a hawk’s eye and changing your recruitment process by taking a more flexible approach to recruiting to cater to the candidate will have a positive impact on your recruitment team’s efforts.

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Retiring baby boomers have created an unprecedented brain drain resulting in a nationwide seismic shift when actively recruiting Top 5% Talent

Hiring the right executive search firm to consult on your recruiting project can bring a level of talent to the table that is far beyond your current expectations. 

Contact us to speak to an Executive Recruiter to discuss your recruiting project today.

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