Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/138053
Recruitment The Bridge to Opportunity How the recession inspired a new model for executive search. By Adam Lloyd There are many motivators and circumstances that breed becomes a separation of wants and needs, roles expand, and work innovation. The HR space is one of many business functions that has days increase for those fortunate enough to have been retained. As innovated practices and solutions in the last five years out of a basic corporations take initial drastic, preventative measures, eventually a need to survive. Take talent acquisition and executive recruitment new agenda and revised set of business initiatives exist. for instance. Both have benefited from recent circumstance: the recession. Created in a down economy out of necessity, alternative Being in executive search, there was a major concern regarding the models to acquiring executive talent are becoming the norm today. need and the budget for our services in this new set of business initiatives. Besides, how and why would we have been preparing My first taste of the recession was the late summer 2008 when a for a recession? Search revenues and growth in our business were client from a Wall Street investment firm called in anticipation of at a high and competition for executive talent was fierce. The things to come. I did not realize it immediately at first, but our whole landscape had changed quickly and we began crafting our business model was about to transform drastically and result in plan for survival not knowing if organizations could financially what I like to call "innovation out of survival." justify retaining firms to hire talent, let alone even hiring at all. The business model had to change. The traditional fee structure From Wall Street to Main Street, the United States economy to was no longer possible but what clients really couldn't afford was the global economy, almost all organizations were forced to react not getting the talent they needed. The revised model allowed quickly and scale their businesses. Spending habits changed, waste organizations to control their budget and support in real time, with was cut, and people and organizations alike did without. There the capabilities of a retained executive search firm. [28] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2013