Tag: executive search

How blind recruitment can benefit executive search

Matt D'Cruz 7th June 2021

The new face of recruitment?

A couple of months ago, having taken a brief from a new client, we received a slightly unexpected request. They asked us if we would be able to incorporate blind recruitment into our process.

We’ve written about blind recruitment in the past. We’ve also had several clients who have made a diverse shortlist a core part of the brief, and have delivered impressive shortlists that were both gender-balanced and ethnically diverse. The team themselves have all received unconscious bias training. But the question of running a blind search process had us scratching our heads. After all, the process of executive search necessitates knowing who you are approaching before you talk to them.

In the end, we decided to make it a normal search for us, and blind for the client. We would of course be aware of who we were approaching, and we conducted thorough face-to-face first-round interviews as normal. But the client would have no idea who individual candidates were until after they had agreed to interview them.

This posed a few challenges in our weekly update calls: we learned to get used to

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Why we do what we do, and why it works

Martin Tripp 13th November 2019

I should first say that this is an unusual blog for us: it is about Martin Tripp Associates. Apologies. It is a quick story to illustrate how we do what we do. And perhaps why you should ask other recruiters how they do what they do.

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A few years ago, Matt and I left a client briefing, and I was gleeful.

“Honestly,” I said, “I can tell you the shortlist now.” I told him the names of the five candidates I would recommend.

All about us. Again.

“Let’s go through the process,” Matt said. “Then we’ll see.”

Matt went through the process. Alongside scores of others, he approached all five of my recommended candidates. Only one of my picks made the shortlist, and they did not get the job. The job went to someone our research team had discovered, who we had never talked to before.

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I tell this story often at client meetings. While it obviously exposes my hubris, it also illustrates why we place so much faith in the process the company has developed over the years.

I had some good reasons for my over-confidence, I still think. The client was looking for a global

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How to save money on recruitment

Martin Tripp 20th April 2017

MTA media headhuntersResearch from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation suggests 42% of employers have raised their levels of pay in order to secure difficult-to-attract staff.

What makes staff difficult-to-attract varies from company to company; but usually it is because the skill set needed is in high demand but low supply (HDLS); because of location issues; or because the company or its sector is simply ‘not sexy’.

These are all valid reasons why your company may struggle to attract the best people. But poor recruitment practices are a much bigger issue.

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Listen to your media headhunter, it might just change your life…

Martin Tripp 14th April 2016

MTA media headhunters“The opportunity of a lifetime only lasts as long as the lifetime of the opportunity.”

It was not a quotation I had heard before Anthony Joshua’s IBF world championship fight this week. But in the aftermath of that bout, a BBC commentator attributed it to a former Olympic athletics coach*. It struck me as a pretty significant thought.

Within 24 hours, the British golfer Danny Willett had become US Masters champion. Conventional wisdom would dictate that neither man should have achieved these amazing goals. Joshua became heavyweight world champion after only 16 professional fights: fewer than almost anyone else in boxing history. Willett had previously finished in the top ten of a major tournament only once in 11 attempts.

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The limits of recruiting executives through your personal network

Matt D'Cruz 15th June 2015

Every week I talk to dozens of media business leaders about how they recruit senior executives. I ask them what the changing nature of business means for their hiring policies, what their recruitment challenges and pain points tend to be, and I also ask about the measures they take when they’re recruiting executives – the advertising they use, the contingency agencies taken on, and the headhunters they engage.

When I ask these questions I frequently hear the same answer repeated back to me:

‘Oh,’ the business leader will say. ‘I just recruit through my own network’.

The remark is usually qualified with: ‘we know everyone in the market anyway’.

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Facebook At Work: will executive search firms use it like LinkedIn?

OliverLuft 13th February 2015

Media recruiting: Facebook logoWorkers rejoice! The days of firms barring employees from looking at social networking websites could be at an end. Why? ‘Cause Facebook is aiming to help everyone do their jobs just that little bit better…

In-house recruitment professionals should be especially excited by news that Facebook has launched a new social network specifically for office communications – it’s called Facebook At Work.

The speculative amongst you may care to think that sounds a bit like Facebook making inroads into LinkedIn’s territory, albeit in a different way – we’ll come to that…

So far just a handful of companies have be asked to join an extended trial of Facebook At Work, but the service is expected to be rolled out to the wider business community in the coming months of 2015.

Like its big sister site, Facebook At Work lets users create an account, post content, and interact. But instead of doing that with friends, it’s with co-workers.

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Glassdoor.co.uk: how increased transparency can affect executive recruitment?

Matt D'Cruz 7th November 2014

As headhunters, one of the questions we get asked most (other than ‘how much is it paying?’) is ‘how is our company perceived out in the wider market?’ It’s something of which busy company directors can easily lose sight. In fact, I’ve been asked that question twice this week.

The nature of my executive recruitment job means I talk to hundreds of people every week, and in doing so I pick up an enormous amount of chatter about how happy (or unhappy) people are in their roles. Sometimes the reasons are personal – say, a lack of opportunities for progression. At other times, they’re directly related to office culture. We get a lot of the latter. If you’re in senior management in the media, the chances are we have a better idea of how prospective employees perceive your company than you do.

Earlier this week, I spent a fascinating half-hour or so on Glassdoor.co.uk. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a bit like Tripadvisor for job seekers. It give people an opportunity to hear a number of views on what it’s like to work somewhere, before they sign on the dotted line. On my first visit, I immediately looked up 20 companies I’ve worked extensively for in the past. And on every single occasion, the feedback was pretty much as I’d expected.

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The costs of making bad executive appointments – and how to avoid them

Albert Ng 7th October 2014

MTA media headhuntersBad senior or executive appointments, most businesses have made them. An established firm would be hard-pressed not to have made a bad hire or two in their time; it’s almost unavoidable. The trick is to learn from that and to reduce the number you make in future. But how do you go about doing that?

The biggest error an organisation can make – especially when it comes to senior management – is choosing the wrong candidate for the role – trying to make a square peg fit a round hole. This may sound obvious but getting the candidate wrong is still a widespread problem.

According to a global survey of 6,000 HR and hiring managers carried out by Careerbuilder, 62% of UK firms admitted to having made poor appointments.

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How analysis and data skills can change the way executives make big decisions

OliverLuft 26th September 2014

One of the knock-on effects of digital technology is that like never before business leaders can draw on enriched information when making critical choices – but do they really let data rule, or are experience, intuition and gut feeling still the keys to successful management?

In recent weeks we’ve looked at several ways data gathered through digital sources is changing business. We’ve examined how supermarkets are using technology to revolutionise retail, how knowledge of data can help you get a job in both the editorial and commercial departments of a newspaper, we’ve even looked at growing data use in education and how the difficulties of understanding Big Data are, in some instances, restricting the development of personalised, one-on-one marketing.

In short, what we’ve seen is that analysis and data skills will be key to an array of future jobs.

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Looking for a great new job? First you need to establish and build a lasting relationship with an executive search firm

Albert Ng 25th August 2014

MTA media headhuntersHere at Martin Tripp Associates we’re often approached by people when they have made the decision to move roles and are actively looking for a new job opportunity. While our end goal is to place the best candidates in the best roles, our primary objective is to help clients find the best available talent for the post or business function they need to fill, rather than to help candidates source new jobs.

Unlike most recruitment agencies, retained executive search specialists aren’t looking for a ‘transactional’ relationship with candidates, it’s not the job to try and fit candidates into as many available vacancies as possible, it’s more a matter of establishing relationships with the right people in their specialist area, so when client vacancies come along, we know who to approach.

With this in mind, I thought it might be useful to set out some simple ways in which a senior executive can establish and nurture a relationship with an executive search firm.

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Media recruiting: hiring data experts

Martin Tripp 1st October 2010

This article first appeared in Press Gazette

Those few of you poor souls who have been reading my media recruiting column over the last year or so will have noticed one thing: I am an eternal optimist. While in these dark days of enforced austerity it is difficult to be upbeat, I have a small chink of light for you. Particularly for those of you who have spent the last several years toiling away in the geekier recesses of B2B media.

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Media recruiting: why your business needs media people

Martin Tripp 27th January 2010

We are all media companies now. And we need media skills to match.

The phenomenal pace of change in internet and mobile technology means that retailers, banks and other consumer-facing businesses are no longer just competing with their high street rivals; they are competing for consumer attention with anyone who has a presence in the digital space. To be effective, they are having to think like media businesses.

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Media headhunters: recruiting in a recession – but still recruiting

Martin Tripp 15th December 2008

There is so much gloom and pessimism in the market at the moment that it is difficult to see any silver lining.

But here’s one:

Since we launched our headhunting business in March, our clients in the media sector have been extremely busy. Over the past eight months, they have retained us to find editors for three newsstand consumer magazines; an MD for a conference business; a sales director for a growing B2B publisher; editorial directors for two publishing houses; a publishing director for an online information service; and the editor of a national newspaper. In addition, we are currently involved in building teams in London and New York for a major news business.

Good news for us, obviously. But why is it good news for the market?

Well, it shows that our clients at least are confident enough to invest in their businesses. They believe that

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