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12 Days of Inside Executive Search | S2:E13

December 17, 2019

Episode 13

Versique

'Inside Executive Search' Podcast

Hosted by: Steve Yakesh & Scott Peterson

With the holiday right around the corner, we wanted to highlight the top 12 Inside Executive Search podcast episodes from 2019. We will give a high level recap of the episodes so if you want to go back and listen to the episodes mentioned today, we highly recommend.

About the Podcast

Attracting, selecting, and retaining top talent is a challenge for many businesses. Join long-time executive search professional Scott Peterson, alongside Steve Yakesh, President of Direct Hire & Executive Leadership Search at one of the leading executive search firms, to discuss insights and techniques to assist companies to achieve their best results. If you’re an executive leader looking for advice on hiring the best talent for your company, you’ll want to hear this advice from these industry experts.

About the Hosts

Steve Yakesh | President, Direct Hire & Executive Leadership Search

As President of Direct Hire & Executive Search, Steve Yakesh leads Versique’s award-winning permanent placement division with more than 20 years of experience. Additionally, he guides strategy for Versique’s twelve practice areas, including IT, HR, Finance & Accounting, Engineering & Operations, Sales, CPG, Digital Marketing, Executive Retained Search, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Family Owned and Demand Generation.

Scott Peterson | Vice President, Executive Leadership Search

Scott Peterson leads the Retained Executive Search division at Versique as the Senior Practice Director. In his role, Scott fills critically-important senior level positions such as CEO, CFO, CIO, COO. Scott has over 20 years of experience in executive recruiting. Additionally, Scott has also served on the Board of Directors the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation, Medina Golf and Country Club, as well as several youth sports organizations.

Episode Transcript

Podcast Transcription

[00:00:02]	ANNOUNCER	Get ready for your weekly dose of talent, strategies, and tactics from industry leaders to help you attract, select, and retain your top talent. You’re listening to Versique’s Inside Executive Search with Steve Yakesh and Scott Peterson.
[00:00:30]	SY	Hello and welcome to the Inside Executive Search Podcast. My name is Steve Yakesh and this podcast is for business owners, executives and board members seeking strategies and tactics to attract, select and retain the very best. If you don’t have a plan to attract the very best, keep listening, this podcast will help you get there. That said, It’s my privilege to introduce Scott Peterson from Versique Search.
[00:00:48]	SP	Privilege is all mine, Steve, thank you for the intro.
[00:00:52]	SY	Well since it is the holiday seasons and our executive producer Taylor was talking the other day about the 12 days of Christmas.
[00:01:01]	SP	Yes.
[00:01:02]	SY	We came up with the idea to spin that into the 12 executive search podcasts of the year. Right? Kind of at the end of the year.
[00:01:11]	SP	Kind of our most listened to the most interaction we received from you the listening audience so we thought we would list those of and kind of recap them.
[00:01:20]	SY	Yeah. All right, well why don’t you start us off with the first one?
[00:01:24]	SP	Yeah, one of our episodes and I guess I’ll set the stage — these are worthy of going back a listen to so if you haven’t listened to these, go back into the archives of our podcast and listen to these because we’re going to hit really the high points of this, we’re not going to get into the full podcast. First one that I want to talk about is when we had a guest, George Murray who is a serial networker talking about really how to grow and leverage your executive network and really, what to do with that and how you should be doing that well you’re in your job not when you need a job. All the components of that and why that’s important and he gave a lot of great insight into how many people do you need to see, you know, on a weekly basis when you’re in a job and how many did you see while you were in transition into a new job and the numbers are crazy in terms of what he’s been able to do but again, I’ll encourage you to listen back at that and keep that network really fresh and strong as you head into the new year.
[00:02:19]	SY	Yeah, that I think too, is what I got out of it was you know, it was really wrong when he was in a job transition but once he did land at Rudolf technologies as a chief operating officer, this network that he has available to just help solve business issues or challenges or just ask questions. I mean, it’s a powerful tool, once you’re in your job, absolutely. The other one we want to highlight here, the second one was, the two key elements to an effective talent attraction process. You know, really, it’s about sitting down and taking time and really crafting your compelling story and we’ve referenced that on a variety of podcasts but how are you going to share your story first and foremost — and then two of the other pieces is really the executive position profile that comes out of the exercise to build that compelling story. Slow down, take your time, understand what success in the world looks like and really build a powerful position spec. Those two things will at least get you off to a good start, it’s not easy but those are the two key ones.
[00:03:30]	SP	I would add in here, most companies, when they lose a key position like instantly panic and post a job add on a LinkedIn or Indeed, and really, is slowing down, stopping and getting these two things really well thought out, well done, will help you in your recruiting process going forward.
[00:03:48]	SY	Yup, absolutely. What’s next?
[00:03:51]	SP	Yeah, some hiring trends. We quoted a Forbes article and really, I’m going to bring it down to a few nuggets of what really that was and — what companies are really trying to be listeners to their employees, not only the ones that are there but the ones that they are trying to attract. Building that brand of their company. Understanding what’s important to new hires from a work life balance standpoint, they’re all in personal development in the company, not that the company doesn’t provide development opportunities but how as an individual at that company do I develop my own self-development of the things that I want to get better at and companies are doing much better at that. So, we’re starting to see some of those trends really getting back to the employee versus the company providing everything, the employees are asking and the companies are delivering.
[00:04:34]	SY	Yup. Yeah, we’ll obviously hear, come the calendar flip, we’ll have another podcast and kind of the 2020 outlook trends in the market place as well. I think one of the most highly listened to podcast was one around, how do you build an executive comp package and what are the main components of it, again, at a high level, obviously of your W2 type of compensation, you’re base and your bonuses but there’s also what we recommend if you’re bringing in an executive, make sure there’s a long term incentive package that works. Not only to allow that executive to participate in that value creation or that growth of the organization but on the flip side, it’s the handcuff that’s what keeps and it’s one of the tools that you can use for retention, assuming we have everything else in line.
[00:05:24]	SP	Yeah, I think we learned at doing some of our own searches here in the past, six to nine months — is we’re starting to see more companies, think about doing long term incentive but then, we really, in order to attract that talent and get them to leave an opportunity, you need to have these long term incentive plans in place in order to attract the right people for you. It’s really going to be a key component going into the 2020 and beyond.
[00:05:47]	SY	Yeah, to that point, you know, if you don’t have a long term incentive and you are going after that passive candidate pool to try to get the very best like we’ve been talking about now for – I don’t know how many episodes but – where are we at Taylor? 25, 26?
[00:06:02]	SP	The producer knows.
[00:06:04]	SY	Let’s say high 20s.
[00:06:05]	TC	High 20s for sure.
[00:06:08]	SY	But if you’re going at it and their current employer does have a long term and you don’t, there’s no shot of getting that person. I mean, they’re not going to leave that a good job with a long term incentive package to go somewhere that doesn’t, so, as more and more companies are heeding our advice and putting these things in place, if you don’t, you’re putting yourself behind the eight ball.
[00:06:30]	SP	You’re going to be at a competitive disadvantage for sure.
[00:06:32]	SY	Yup, 100%.
[00:06:34]	SP	One other thing that we talked about early on was as companies and we work with a lot of companies that are privately held, family owned and maybe they’ve not used a search firm before, how do they select one that they should use, right? And so, our recommendation is, obviously, selfishly, you should use Versique here in Minneapolis but the reality is, you should go through a due diligent process when you’re vetting out who is going to help you find your top talent. This is a critical process for your company to find that next hire. You know, spend time, interview them, have them meet with you, understand their process, understand their company and their vision and the things that they do and they do well and what other reference-able job searches that they have done that are relevant for you? So again, listen back to that podcast. I think it’s important that you spend time not just focusing on, can I get this search done for the cheapest dollars but how am I going to ensure that I get it done with the right person hired. I think dollars will take care of themselves if you get the right hire.
[00:07:39]	SY	Absolutely. Another podcast was the In’s and out’s of evaluating a job opportunity so we kind of took aa little bit of a sidestep and really focused more of the candidate’s perspective, if they are evaluating a new opportunity and really, how do you do that and you know, we don’t have time today to go through exactly how to do that but I thought it was a good podcast to really articulate what are all the different aspects, you know, whether it’s the company fit, whether it’s the job fit, whether it’s the right career fit for you. Those are the three big main buckets but there’s a lot of nuances and things in there so if there’s people out there that are looking to potentially make a job change in 2020, that probably be a great tone to go back and listen to, there’s a lot of good stuff in there.
[00:08:25]	SP	It’s certainly more complicated than just hey, I’m getting more money to go to a company and the company be it’s a lot, there’s more in depth to that. Kind of dovetailing on George Murray’s podcast that we did, we did one even before that, that talked about really building out your professional network and that’s you know, again, if you see yourself at a company and you’re not doing networking events, you’re not getting out in front of your peer groups. You’re doing yourself a disservice in terms of just having people in your network that you can call upon. I think you touched on it earlier so if you run into a problem at your office and you don’t have anybody at your office that you can just bounce something off of, having that network of peers that you really can dive deep into — you know, what did they do that was successful in a certain situation. So continue to build that professional network and that is on purpose every week, every month and every year, you know don’t let that slide by. We meet candidates every day that they start networking when they lose their job and that is the worst time. It is not the only time to do it. It is just a lot tougher to at least extend your process out longer so do that while you are in your job too.
[00:09:30]	SY	So the other one I want to highlight is back on the client side of things are the fundamentals to driving the best talent attraction. So we eluded to some of the two keys that compelling story but then also putting a positions spec. Now this podcast is really around how do you put a good recruiting strategy together and proactively go out and attract? You put a good position spec together, you got a good story and if you are expecting people — At the very best just to see that and come to you, you are kidding yourself. You have to go out and compliment a good job posting, good networking but how do you go out and attract the very best and that podcast really highlight that process, how do you do it and who should be doing it and how do you show up when you do isolate a potential viable candidate.
[00:10:21]	SP	Yeah, the old days of posting a job and hoping is probably the best you are going to get in today’s labor market.
[00:10:27]	SY	Yeah especially even last month we had a surprise surge in job creation in November right? And I think that surprised everybody and the market is getting tighter and tighter and it’s not going to end anytime soon so —
[00:10:40]	SP	One of the things that we also had a guest in one of our episodes not too long ago, Wayne Seri from Vistage Minneapolis. Wayne runs a Vistage peer group and that is typically business owners and CEO’s, small to middle size companies they get together on a monthly basis and really work together in a team of anywhere from 15 to 18 people and just work on issues at their companies, the new training, the new advocacy, education. It is just a wonderful example of getting into a peer group that can help you and your business. Help you drive more revenue and help you do an acquisition, help you divest a business, whatever it might be being part of a peer group — when you are the leader of the company, think about how many people you get to talk to about your issues, right?
[00:11:27]	SY	It could be kind of lonely.
[00:11:28]	SP	You start talking to walls after a while asking for a response and really a peer group has become a wonderful edition to everyone’s network that you should be in.
[00:11:37]	SY	Absolutely, so I highlighted the fundamentals for driving talent attraction. We also had a podcast around key aspects to selecting the right talent and then again, there is a lot in this podcast as well. We won’t have time here to recap everything but really it is about understanding who is evaluating for what and make sure that it is consistent. There is elements of interview bias that we hit on as far as the order of interviews, kind of that celebrity component of it. There is a lot of these different biases. So if you are doing some high earning in 2020 I really encourage everybody to come back and listen to this one because it is a really good fundamentals on what are those key aspects when you are selecting and evaluating around the talent.
[00:12:23]	SP	Yeah, keeping that laser focus on the process of selecting. Like you said, who does what and when and where, very key to make your selection process go smoother.
[00:12:32]	SY	Absolutely.
[00:12:33]	SP	We also had a guest from Versique join us, Chris Dardis who heads up our HR consulting and search business and we have Chris and he’s talking a little bit about what do companies do and what the value is of an interim leader coming in when there turnover in a leadership position. What he has found and what we have found at Versique is that is a great transition opportunity to bring in someone with a fresh set of eyes on an interim basis while you are conducting your search. Again, it allows you to take the right amount of time to find the right talent but at the same time holding everything together and getting the things done that you need to get done in that leadership position. It could be a HR leader, it could be a CFO, whatever it might be but all of those things can be covered in today’s market with interim leadership and again, it allows you to slow down to speed up that hiring process and I think that is another key as we have talked about through this podcast.
[00:13:26]	SY	Yeah and on that topic I think Chris also highlighted is you get that interim person in there for 30 days. He or she gets to see the organization that this executive is going to lead. They can help cut shape that position spec and really give you a good third party look into what are the challenges, what is the department and then you can go out and find that right person.
[00:13:50]	SP	Yeah that is a great idea, yep.
[00:13:52]	SY	All right, well our last one, number 12 so we are on our 12th day here but it was a really a podcast dedicated to how a company brand can impact the attraction and retention — you know, of the very best in the market place and you know a lot of companies are doing some great things around their talent or employer brand and there is also some things in there, if you don’t have necessarily the best employment brand out on the Glassdoor’s. And some of the other websites out there, how can you have resurrect those and fix those? But really, it is around how can you have a brand out there that attracts and people want to go to and that was a great podcast and in that, we are not the experts but we have an expert coming in next week. Another guest coming in, Collette from JMP Software. She is their talent brand manager. So JMP Software who’s experienced tremendous growth in the last two to three years. They have put a focus on employment brand so much that they have hired somebody solely to be dedicated to it. So I am really excited to hear not only her story because she is a marketer, she is not an HR representative or an HR executive. She is a marketer helping HR on employment brand. So I am really excited to hear her story and more importantly how it is impacted their growth because I think JMP, Collette can tell us but I think they’ve gone from 300 employees to a thousand employees in a short amount of time and without a good talent brand to attract people — that is tough job.
[00:15:33]	SP	Right, she’ll highlight this as well. Their turnover is really low too so it gets back to your retention piece to the talent brand. They are doing great things on both sides. So it will be great to hear from that company and what they do and then maybe you can take some of those nuggets of information and then bring it back to your own organization. So we encourage to hear that podcast down the road maybe right before Christmas.
[00:15:56]	SY	Absolutely. Well very good, well that wraps up this podcast. As always, thanks to listeners for tuning in every week. We appreciate you doing that and if you want to get a hold of Scott, you can find him on LinkedIn or hop over to versique.com and as always, if you like what you hear feel free to go out and subscribe to Inside Executive Search Podcast on all of your favorite podcast channels.
[00:16:21]	SP	Sounds great, this was our second to last podcast of the year. We are going to end it on talent brand, which I think is a great way to put a cherry on top of the inside executive search Sunday if you will so.
[00:16:33]	SY	So we technically Taylor — going to season three come the first of the year, all right.
[00:16:39]	SP	Excellent.
[00:16:40]	SY	We’re wrapping up season two. All right, thanks everybody for listening.
[00:09:04]	SY	Absolutely. Well Scott, I appreciate all that and it all makes a ton of sense for companies and candidates out there that might be looking and/or hiring, so all good stuff. With that, we’ll wrap up this podcast. Excited for our next couple podcasts.
[00:09:21]	SP	Yeah. Next week is going to be a fun one.
[00:09:24]	SY	Yes.
[00:09:24]	SP	Would you like to preview it?
[00:09:25]	SY	We’ll keep it as a teaser for next week.
[00:09:28]	SP	It’s got a holiday theme to it.
[00:09:31]	SY	There you go.
[00:09:31]	SP	We encourage you to tune in, because as much as we like to think you have a lot of laughter during our Inside Executive Search Podcast, my guess is next week’s going to be off the charts funny.
[00:09:43]	SY	All right. I love it. Nice little teaser.
[00:09:46]	SP	Perfect.
[00:09:46]	SY	Well, if you want to get a hold of Wayne, I mean, Scott Peterson, feel free to look him up on Versique and/or on linkedin.com. He’s available on either one of those. As always, if you enjoy listening to Scott and myself and the topics we discuss, feel free to subscribe to our podcast channel on all of the podcasts. What do we call them that?
[00:10:10]	SP	Outlet channels.
[00:10:11]	SY	Podcast channels; Google Play, Apple Podcast, Spotify.
[00:10:14]	SP	You know what we’re talking about.
[00:10:16]	SY	iHeart Media. All those good things. All right, well happy holidays.
[00:10:20]	SP	Talk to you next week.
[00:10:21]	SY	Happy Thanksgiving, I should say.
[00:10:23]	SP	Thank you.
[00:10:23]	SY	All right. Take care. Thanks for listening. Bye.

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