All employees, executives included, are creatures of habit. HOW they do something at one organization, typically reflects HOW they will do it at the next. Whilst the resources at their disposal may differ in terms of scale and complexity in each environment, HOW they approach and deal with problems and opportunities is reliably predictable.
Our basic BEI service gets to the core of these predictable behaviours and enables us to help you hire the executives that are more likely to perform at their best within your organisation. We work
A BEI can be incorporated into any search exercise and enables us to provide a detailed behavioural profile of the candidates to compare against existing employees and the agreed job profile.
Most search processes are underpinned by interview techniques that are, at best, 25% effective at determining that the candidate is likely to be successful in the role. This outcome can be improved through the addition of structured interviewing (40%) and psychometric assessment (70%).
Hiring decision are often driven by type of experience and what the executive achieved last (IPO, exit, acquisition, sales growth, etc.). This results in only 1 in 4 executives that are appointed achieving the desired results in the first 12 months of their appointment. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel, this can cost employers up to 14x the base salary in opportunity cost and we think that this is too much of a risk for most clients to bear.
We provide comprehensive portfolio of assessment tools designed to help clients see beyond an individual’s track record, performance and experience and into their potential, underlying capability and leadership style. Typically this is achieved through the use of online assessment tools, coupled with a BEI, prior to the shortlisting stage. This approach provides a detailed profile based on a consistent set of data points that can be used to compare individual applicants and internal talent on a like for like basis.
We are able to validate internal talent by conducting the same assessment sessions with existing employees in order to highlight succession options and capability gaps. This gives us a far more accurate point of reference for external selection decisions and often provides a unique insight into existing team’s development needs.
Many executive teams are formed by necessity rather than strategy, with experienced executives taking on incompatible roles, driven by the relentless pressure to perform against a backdrop of high expectations and limited resource. In these situations, perfectly good people can often find themselves in less optimal roles, unable to perform at their best and overlooked for succession opportunities. This service enables clients to see exactly what talent exists within the team (also what succession pipeline there is to support it) and to optimize it effectively.
Working with your existing teams we design and conduct a series of internal assessments and individual or team exercises that highlight gaps between the desired outcomes and the existing capability. This data informs the nature of the interventions required and we work with you and your HR/L&D teams to deliver these consistently and successfully.
When change and transformation is the only constant it’s often difficult to describe the future state and what’s going to be required. More and more clients want to “future proof” their leadership teams with agile, high potential talent and we provide a robust and reliable methodology that enables them to achieve this.
The “What Great Looks Like” (or WGLL) profile is a combination of data points and a behavioural profile that specifies the characteristics of the perfect candidate. More than just a job description, this provides a definitive guide to hiring, performance management and development and can be used to support talent management, gap analysis and fast-track/high potential leadership selection.
In a recent survey conducted by The Institute of Executive Development and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University 39% of organisations did not have a succession plan in place for their CXO level executives. The cost of acquiring executive talent, particularly in international businesses is prohibitive and can add significant risk to organisations at critical stages of development.
More concerning was the fact that 40% of the companies surveyed had no formal development plan in place for their senior executive team.
We work with clients to uncover talent within the level 2 and 3 senior management layers and advise on talent acquisition and development strategies to facilitate short and long term interventions.
A large proportion of the search work we undertake globally is with leading VC and PE firms that invest in businesses at various stages of development. Over and above rigorous financial due diligence, relatively little is done to understand the underlying profiles of the executives in the teams that they are investing in.
We provide a service designed to give investors more detailed insight into the existing team and how to leverage their combined strengths and capabilities most effectively. The insight often highlights key strengths and talent gaps as well as providing a robust platform through which to drive cultural change and performance management.
Typically this involves working with the existing team to ensure that they all understand the strategic goals and how these translate into a RACI that the team sign up to and own.
A “leadership brand” is as important to your company it’s values and will be reflected in what your employees say about the business. Leaders play a significant role in the attraction and retention of the best talent and a consistent leadership brand will help to strengthen an organisation’s culture and inspire future leaders.
We work with functional and leadership teams to help them identify what their natural traits are and how these impact the “leadership brand”. We design specific interventions (employee workshops, storytelling, and inspirational communication sessions) that help to align them with the overall business values, provide inspiration and build confidence in employees and future leaders.