According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 318,100 openings for top executives projected each year.
For businesses, that means a lot of hiring — and finding the perfect candidates for senior management can be a long, difficult, and exhausting search process. That’s why so many businesses turn to executive recruiters with the years of experience, industry knowledge, and connections needed to make talent acquisition easier.
Need to find an executive recruiter with the right recruiting experience to fulfill your hiring needs? Read below to learn what to look for in an executive recruiter — and to take advantage of our template to help you create a great job description.
Executive Recruiter Job Description Overview
Many companies struggle to hire quality talent, particularly when it involves executive and senior-level positions. The executive recruiter specializes in filling leadership positions and works closely with its clients to find the best possible candidates for hire.
It’s a difficult job that requires someone who is both resourceful and empathetic. Executive recruiters do a lot of advertising and networking to find the top candidates, and as such, they need to be able to streamline the headhunting process so that they can pull in top candidates in the right time frame.
Where empathy is concerned, executive recruiters need to be able to get in touch with an organization’s needs to find people who will be the right cultural fit.
They also need to be able to connect with prospective hires, not only to assess skills and experience, but also to gauge personality — and thus, whether or not each individual will fit within a particular company culture.
Main Executive Recruiter Responsibilities
For businesses of all kinds, it’s critical to land talented professionals to fill their open executive positions. As a result, the job of an executive recruiter or executive search firm is complex and includes many responsibilities, which we'll explore in detail below.
Finding Qualified Candidates
Executive recruiters must be able to find candidates for small and large companies across the industries they specialize in. Achieving this requires multiple solutions to source candidates, including job boards, social networks, referrals, and their own networks. The best executive search firms tap the networks of industry leaders to refer executive talent from top executives directly to the client.
Acting as an Intermediary Between Candidates and Team Members
Hiring managers are extremely limited in how much time they can spend with candidates — and that’s not to mention the fact that they often don’t possess the time or resources to make initial connections or form close relationships with prospects.
With an executive recruiter acting as an intermediary between both parties, more time can be dedicated to candidates and the client’s search for an executive hire.
Conducting Confidential Interviews
Executive recruiters also handle preliminary interviews for their clients — and those interviews should be confidential. Keeping confidentiality is essential to build trust between the candidate and the recruiter. An executive recruiter should be able to help candidates feel comfortable in providing personal information.
Making Recommendations on Hiring Decisions
Executive recruiters spend plenty of time with candidates, asking them the right questions, evaluating their skills, and determining whether or not they will be good matches for their clients. With this information, they’re highly qualified to make recommendations on hiring decisions.
Facilitating the Negotiation Process
Part of the recruitment process includes negotiating, especially if you want to attract top talent with competitive compensation packages. An executive recruiter will have the communication skills, industry knowledge, and the wherewithal to facilitate the negotiation process.
Executive Recruiting Skills and Requirements
In order to handle the many responsibilities that come with such a role, executive recruiters must possess a unique skill set to perform the job successfully. We’ll list some of the top skills below.
Advanced Knowledge of the Industry
Executive recruiters often specialize in a particular industry or niche — and that’s because it’s crucial that the recruiter have extensive knowledge in that specific area. They need to know the terminology, the current job landscape, employer needs, challenges, and more.
Proficiency in ATS and Other Recruiting Tools
Filling open positions, even positions for C-level executives, requires extensive knowledge of recruiting software like applicant tracking systems (ATS) and other recruiting tools. Today’s top executive recruiters will be well-versed in the kinds of advanced systems and tools that human resources departments use.
Strong Negotiation, Communication, and Influencing Skills
Once referred to as “people skills,” executive recruiters need the right blend of interpersonal skills to do the job effectively. They need to be in constant communication with candidates, clients, and their peers, and that means communication, listening, networking, and sales are all vital for the job. Negotiation and influencing skills should be part of the package, too.
Highly Organized and Thorough
The recruiting and hiring process can be long and complex, especially when you’re searching for staffing who can fill the unique needs that businesses have for C-level executives and upper management positions.
To keep track of all the contacts, open positions, company needs, applications, and interviews, executive recruiters must be incredibly organized. They should also be extremely thorough, taking the time to properly vet job seekers to find the best candidates for each job posting.
Committed To Expanding Business Reach
Executive recruiters also need solid marketing skills, not only to build their own brands and land new clients but also to build their clients’ brands, too. Good marketing will help executive recruiters attract better candidates for their clients and improve response rates from passive executive prospects.
Ultimately, an executive recruiter should be able to help businesses expand their reach to access the best pool of candidates possible.
Executive Recruiter Job Description Template
Need to build an executive recruiter job description? Here's a template to get you started (this template is meant to provide a starting point and we encourage you to take and modify the template to best fit your hiring needs):
Executive Recruiter Job Description
Hello and welcome! We are currently looking for an executive recruiter who is both passionate and resourceful. In this position, we’ll ask you to advertise job postings, collect applications, and source talent for our top-level positions. Qualified candidates will be able to issue job offers and direct the onboarding process for new hires.
We’re looking for someone efficient who can streamline the recruitment process so that we can hire the ideal candidates within appropriate time frames. Additionally, successful recruiters will be able to monitor our organization’s development to ensure that our staffing needs are met when needed with quality hires who fit our organizational culture.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Advertise vacancies on LinkedIn and other social media platforms as well as on major job posting sites.
- Collect and review applications, shortlist qualified candidates, and conduct interviews with shortlisted individuals.
- Conduct background checks and contact references to ensure that candidates are qualified for particular positions.
- Consult with applicable team members to get input on potential hires.
- Issue job offers to the most suitable candidates.
- Begin the onboarding process by scheduling training and orientation.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in organizational psychology, human resources management, or similar.
- At least five years of experience is preferred.
- Familiarity with applicant tracking systems, human resources software, and related tools.
- Must be highly organized, detail-oriented, and thorough.
- Must be discerning, with excellent research skills and decision-making skills.
- Candidates should have outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
- Candidates should have the right blend of qualities — empathetic, helpful, firm, and influential.
Ready To Connect With Top Executives? Partner With Hunt Club Today
Filling job openings at the executive level can be challenging. The expertise of a recruiting firm with an extensive network of contacts plus recruiting strategies will bring in the best possible candidates. When you need to hire top-level executives, turn to Hunt Club.
With a team of functional recruiters and a unique, results-driven approach to talent acquisition, Hunt Club leverages personalized referrals from real people and proprietary search software to bring companies the best candidates in the job market.
