The Situation

A leading financial services firm was experiencing growth, and needed to review recruiting efforts across their portfolio companies and determine if an internal executive search function would add value to the firm. The firm engaged inTalent Consulting due to our deep expertise in designing and developing internal executive search functions.

The Challenges

The firm needed to ensure that its portfolio companies recognized and understood the potential value proposition of the internal executive search function. The change management aspect of this assignment was critical to the executive sponsor. Delivering a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis was key to influencing stakeholders and driving user acceptance.

The inTalent Solution

Preliminary discussions with leadership revealed the need to build executive search capabilities to include: sourcing and assessment, process efficiencies, system utilization, and user satisfaction. Our needs assessment included interviewing key stakeholders and analyzing prior recruiting spend; gathering recruiting data from the critical portfolio companies with the highest need; consolidating firm costs and functional success/failure rates; and determining the overall structure of the function.

The final report included a roll-up of key themes from the interviews, a summary workforce plan and details around critical jobs projected for hiring over the next year, an analysis of gaps between current and future/desired state, and a recommended organizational design, as well as alternative cost models to enable implementation.

From this information, firm leadership was able to review the best options for their internal executive search function, including a variety of cost-modeling options to consider and take to the Board for approval; several visual aids to explain the process, roles and responsibilities; and finally, a road map for implementation and execution over the next year.

The result? While the quality of candidates and client satisfaction were the driving force for the engagement, other benefits such as cost savings, increased communication and continuity, and a new internal offering were seen as equally significant. Leadership was armed and ready to bring the executive search function in-house.