Fishing for Talent: Luring employees from other firms

When it was time for Stephen Visio to change his Springfield business from strictly a family operation, he enlisted the services of Springfield-based executive search firm Haggerman & Associates and added nine of his Executive Data Control Inc.’s 20 employees in 2006. Of those, he said, five were employed with other companies at the time they took the job.

Luring employees from other firms is big business. Management and executives move from company to company as often as lower-level employees, according to a March 2006 survey by Los Angeles-based executive search firm Korn/ Ferry International.

Some companies pull out all the stops to sell a potential hire on the business and community where it is located.

When officials at Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson, for example, are considering a group of finalists for an executive position, the candidate’s family is part of the equation.

“We’ll invite the spouse and children to come to town,” said Mary Jo Fisk, communications coordinator for Skaggs. “We introduce them to local real estate agents, take them to the schools, show them the restaurants, the entertainment options, and show them what the various recreational opportunities are here.”

The community connection seems to serve Skaggs well; CEO Steve Erixon, who joined Skaggs in July, told SBJ in January that what attracted him to the job, in large part, was Skaggs’ ongoing commitment to the community, which he described as “vibrant.”

While Skaggs has lured physicians from Springfield in the past, Fisk said that the hospital usually tries to avoid it, primarily because many local physicians are bound by noncompete clauses that would make working in Branson difficult.

“Usually we draw more right out of school,” Fisk said. “We have physicians from all over the country and the world.”

Finding a candidate

When a company is looking to hire someone with experience, but isn’t targeting a specific person, the company often enlists the help of a headhunter.

Most members of upper management, in fact, are what Lynne Haggerman, president of executive search firm Haggerman & Associates, calls “passive job-seekers.”

“If there’s nobody in our database, we can call companies and try to find the passive job-seeker,” Haggerman said. “We don’t necessarily ask them directly if they’re looking – we ask them if they know someone who is. Sometimes they know of someone, and sometimes it’s them.”

One example of an executive who wasn’t actively looking for a new job – but one found him anyway – is Steve Vaught, who joined Trust Company of the Ozarks in January as the company’s senior vice president for trust and investment planning.

Vaught said he was approached by Trust Company CEO Dwight Rahmeyer while still on staff as a senior vice president with Springfield Trust Co. Rahmeyer and Vaught were both serving on the board of directors for Developmental Center of the Ozarks.

“Almost a year ago, Dwight and (TCO President) Rodger Gadd called me and asked me if I’d be interested in making a move, and then they called me again later in the year,” Vaught said. “It’s an ongoing process of people feeling you out when they see you, at networking events, asking if you’re interested in making a move.”

The right fit

The networking aspect of Vaught’s hire makes sense, according to Korn/Ferry survey results from January 2006. In a survey of executive recruiters, 42 percent said “cultural fit” gave candidates the biggest edge, while 32 percent pointed to “character and personality.” Only 17 percent pointed to work experience.

The importance of fitting in is part of the reason Haggerman said her company offers personality profiles and does extensive interviews – several hours each – with potential hires for her clients.

“Even if someone has the perfect experience and qualifications, they could be like oil and water,” Haggerman said.

Having a good fit is important to Mark McFatridge, area executive of Regions Bank’s Central/ Southern Missouri Group, when it comes to scouting out new employees. McFatridge, who joined the bank’s Springfield office Sept. 1, points to recruitment of several new executives as one of his accomplishments.

Among them is Paul Potthoff, the bank’s vice president of commercial real estate for the Springfield region, joined the bank in December. He said that he was approached by a recruiter – an occurrence that he said happens a lot in the banking industry – and followed up with an acquaintance who already worked at Regions.

After a few meetings with McFatridge, Potthoff was convinced, especially by the potential for growth at Regions.

McFatridge believes that employee involvement in the recruiting process – similar to what Potthoff experienced – makes for successful recruiting.

“I think you get a better candidate that way because the people who do the recruiting know the culture, the type of people that would fit in and do well and not only survive but thrive in your organization,” he said. “Plus, it’s always easier to share your passion with people face to face rather than interpreting it through a third party.”

Headhunting

Whether an executive is actively searching for a new job, passively searching or not looking at all, Haggerman said the headhunting process – both formally through a search firm and informally through networking – is effective, because most people hate the job-search process.

“Most people are unhappy with at least one aspect of their job,” Haggerman said. “When people job search, it’s a miserable experience from the individual’s standpoint, so they always take the path of least resistance. All I have to do is get into a company, find someone who’s unhappy with at least one thing, and then they don’t have to do any work to find this new job.”

Not all companies use headhunters; Skaggs’ Fisk said that networking, especially in the medical profession, works just as well. But for Executive Data Control owner Visio, using a headhunting firm worked well.

“The beauty of using a search firm is that they handle all of that mess,” he said. “They collect résumés and information, and present all of that to us.”