Undertaking any executive search is always challenging, especially when your applicant pool in slim on talent. A small talent pool slows down your hiring process, costing you valuable time.

There are steps that you can take to push through a challenging search, even if you’re facing a small pool of talent. Try adapting your methods with these tips to attract the limited talent you’ve found or even expand your search to find hidden talent.

Evaluate Your Search Process

A lot of success can come from the experience that candidates face when they engage with your company. Even if your compensation offers are competitive and your opportunity has promise, talent may look elsewhere if your process isn’t candidate-focused. Take the time to ensure your talent search isn’t simply serving your needs but also those of the candidates you wish to attract.

Streamlining your application and hiring process does a lot for candidate usability. With the digital changes that have spread across every facet of business, looking into technology to aid your search process can make or break a candidate’s experience.

Modern companies like Amazon move candidates through a process very quickly, and have found great success doing so. Candidates that are used to this type of accelerated experience are disappointed when they face a slower, more dated hiring process.

This experience coupled with your offerings beyond compensation can win over a lot of candidates. Think of things like office perks but also benefits packages. Good benefits and attractive perks can pull many candidates further toward signing on than compensation will.

Look Beyond Active Searchers

The scope of your talent search can also limit an already small pool of candidates. By limiting your search to candidates who are actively looking for work, you miss out on many passive candidates who may be the perfect fit for your organization. While there are many ways to attract active candidates, passive candidates are more challenging.

Just as you may have to look outside of compensation to attract candidates, you may have to change your offerings or strategy to not only reach passive candidates, but also to sway them towards leaving their current position. With unemployment as low as it is currently, many people are happy in their positions. Even so, those same people are willing to leave for the right opportunity, make sure you don’t rule them out and limit your pool.  Another good strategy is to look outside of your industry for candidates.

Look to Develop Internal Leaders

When you’ve exhausted your options externally, it may be time to look internally for your future leaders. Taking the time to develop leaders within your own team can lead to great success. The current connection employees have with your company, and their coworkers are not easily replaced.  Make sure that your organization is training your team on the modern skills that they have not developed internally.

According to some experts, developing an executive can take ten years total, not just at your organization. While you probably cannot leave a position open for that long, starting that process now can solve problems down the road. Keep an eye out for raw leadership talent in your organization. This talent can be easier to develop than simply searching for a new candidate, and now is the perfect time to start the process for the future of your leadership.

Partner with an Executive Search Firm

In the end, you may not have the time or the resources to maximize your talent search. That is the perfect reason to partner with an executive search firm. They have experience creating a candidate-focused environment for their searches. This makes it much easier for them to attract more talent than you could alone, but also to make the hiring process faster and simple for all parties.

Additionally, they have a network of passive candidates they are in contact with. Executive search firms have experience making attractive offers to passive candidates and convincing them to leave current positions. While you may encounter challenges finding passive candidates, executive search firms know where to look and what to say to bring passive candidates on board.

Matthew J. Schwartz is the Founder, President and CEO of MJS Executive Search with nearly two decades of experience in retained executive search. Matt’s expertise lies in bringing together key executives that exhibit passion and creativity with leading organizations in a wide range of functional areas such as Marketing, Sales, Digital, Interactive and more. From Digital and Social media to Machine Learning and AI, Matt is passionate about cutting-edge technologies and is dedicated using his knowledge to help his clients remain or become leaders in their realm.

Founded in 2003, MJS Executive Search has established itself as a top retained executive search firm that identifies and places unique, hard to find executives in highly specialized roles.

If you are interested in learning more about our Transformational Talent™ solutions, contact MJS Executive Search today to learn more about how we can help your organization.