You’ll often hear that a phone is a researcher’s best friend. It’s on the phone that the researcher can introduce an opportunity in more detail, develop candidates or ask for referrals. But let’s not forget that before picking up a phone, there is a whole load of work that must be done in order to identify who to call in the first place. This is why good executive search software is a better friend for researchers.
Research is the bedrock of the headhunting process. Today’s researchers create a search strategy and find a longlist of candidates that fits the client’s criteria. Typically, once the brief is agreed, a researcher will first focus on creating a list of target companies where the potential candidates can be found. By using a variety of tools, they will identify potential talent for their project. Online sources are a good source of information, but diligent researchers will also identify people who can provide intelligence on company culture, department dynamics, and which top talent to target. Former employees are perfect sources of such information but identifying them is not always straightforward.
This is where technology comes to play – here are five reasons why the right executive recruiting platform is a researcher’s true best friend.
1. Good executive search software helps you get off to a good start
Great executive search software will allow researchers to automate Boolean searches, X-ray searches, or any other advanced web searching techniques, on LinkedIn, Xing, or any other website. Search strings should be easy to share with other team members, and quick to edit for re-use in other projects.
Researchers must be able to quickly set up their own search criteria or use those created by others to get started quickly with target companies and longlist.
If the search shares similarities with a recent project, researchers should be able to quickly lookup past assignments and A-lists and move people en masse to new assignments to get started quickly.
2. Good executive search software cuts down on repetitive and mundane admin tasks
Once they’ve identified potential candidate, great executive search software will let researchers import their LinkedIn profiles in seconds, automatically creating candidate records in the database including work history, education etc. with full validation to avoid duplicates.
It should also tag candidates automatically with their LinkedIn profiles or any other web information to see up-to-the-minute details when looking up their record and let researchers see all candidate database details and their CVs on the same screen without having to open multiple windows.
3. Good executive search software takes care of “off-limits”
List of candidates and target companies should be easily be shared from great executive search software, with those “off-limits” clearly marked and excluded from any other project for the rest of the team.
4. Good executive search software helps with generating lists of potential sources and discovering relationships
Identification of past employees from target companies shouldn’t be time-consuming. Great executive search software will offer this functionality at a click of an appropriate link to populate the project’s sources list with relevant contacts. That way, researchers should be able to quickly dig deep to find past co-workers for informal chats on the qualities of your candidates or ask for referrals.
Whether it’s a source recommending a candidate, or a candidate referring another prospect, everything should be easily be preserved with relational links to help researchers on current and future searches, or to remember to send thanks for insights that led to a placement or new business.
5. Good executive search software streamlines candidate progress reports
Great executive search software should enable researchers to generate quick internal reports, and more importantly client and candidate progress reports in a few clicks. Better software will even go beyond providing report templates and let researchers create their own easily, saving time and efforts. No more typing, no more copy and pasting for hours on end on a Friday!
In conclusion, great executive search software will streamline processes and save hours of repetitive manual tasks – freeing time to hit targets and get the best talent ready to meet with their consultants. That’s why researchers from executive search firms around the world rely on FileFinder as their best friend every day, for doing all the above – and much more.
We’d love your researchers to meet their new best friend – contact us today to arrange an introduction!
