How to Work Effectively with your Recruiting Firm

A strong talent partner can be your trusted ally as you grow your startup. An experienced headhunter or recruiting firm will have the networks and connects that many founders don’t have access to. Learn the ways you can maximize the benefits of working with an external executive search firm.

Early stage or Series B, there are many barriers for startups looking to speedily identify & attract top talent – the prime being too many unqualified resumes in your inbox to difficulty finding & mobilizing top passive talent for your executive searches. 

You want the RIGHT team member & you want them FAST. 

The good news is that so does your recruiting partner. The right executive recruiting firm works closely, and in partnership with Founders to help hire for their pertinent Leadership and Mid-management roles. They get to the heart of your business and respect your urgency. They pre-screen the candidates and research and share meaningful context about your business, culture, and team. So this way, you get relevant, qualified, and excited candidates.

Yet, this synchronicity is not always guaranteed. Even though the goals are so perfectly aligned, oftentimes companies neglect to align with their executive search firms. Lack of timely communication, reporting systems & transparency often leads to inordinate delays, which means that you either lose a strong candidate or it shows your company in poor light. The true cost of a vacancy adds up when you take into account productivity loss, project delays, declining employee morale, employee burnout due to increased workloads, and more.

Once you decide to work with an external executive head-hunting firm, we hope you will follow our 5 tips for an efficient, effective & winning experience with your recruiting firm!

Set mutual expectations on the recruitment process

Communicate your expectations in terms of the timeline and systems to follow, and understand their selection and recruitment process. The helps avoid miscommunication and inordinate delays. While some founding teams prefer to be connected immediately with a senior candidate, others require a process via a channel and a resume submission before things can proceed.

Work collaboratively with them as Talent Brand Partners

They are your voice for attracting high caliber candidates especially in leadership roles. Share relevant resources with them that can enable them to pitch persuasively and be the best representation of your company. Some things you can share are a pitch deck, overview presentation, current news coverage etc. Plus, info about upcoming partnerships or launches or a glimpse into the culture and founding team values is great too. 

Benefit from enriched job descriptions

In a conversation with your hiring partners you are not constrained by the standard job descriptions, but can add a richer amount of detail. E.g for hiring their first Head of US Sales, a UK based startup provided us with a list of Key things to watch out for which was especially helpful. Several of our clients tell us that they want someone who has ‘seen a 1-10 journey’, we can accordingly recommend someone who has experience in an early growth environment. 

Simplify candidate management

Choose a channel that works best for you in real-time to request and provide clear & timely communication regarding candidate updates. We work with our clients across Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messaging, Email etc and appreciate their responsiveness.

Plus, whether you have an ATS or not, an additional spreadsheet tracker shared by the recruiting agency works great to provide an at-a-glance overview to all stakeholders on active roles, candidates submitted and status. 

Set a cadence for periodic re-evaluation & feedback

The recruiting agency should be upfront about where they are in their search efforts. At the same time, for maximum efficiency and output, you should also provide them feedback on the candidates they have presented. Plus, updating them on the strength of your active pipeline on a particular role can help them refine their search or reallocate their resources.

The perfect executive recruiting partners are clear, communicative experts, but they need your help in succeeding. A collaborative relationship can help them build your team at scale. And speed.

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Maroon Oak is a Talent Partner of choice for multiple startups across sectors and geographies. If you’d like details on our hiring process and successful work, request our deck.