If you’re on the hunt for an insurance executive recruitment firm to lead your search for a new senior insurance leader or to find a critical hire, there are lots of questions you’ll want to ask to ensure you secure the right talent partner.
Understanding an insurance executive recruitment firm’s approach and methodology, industry knowledge and geographical reach are all key. However, there are certain questions you’ll want to think carefully about rather than just launching in to a long list of general screening questions.
Here are three key questions (and answers) to carefully consider when carrying out due diligence on an insurance executive recruitment firm’s capability and suitability for finding you the best insurance leaders.
1. How many matching search assignments have you carried out?
You would think the more assignments an insurance executive recruitment firm has carried out on a specific role the better.
It’s not necessarily a good thing.
“Much of the prospective talent pool will be off-limits”
Whether it’s geographical or for a specific job function, the more identical searches an insurance executive recruitment firm has conducted, the more likely it is that they’ve done business with the very companies you’d want to attract insurance talent from.
And the key result? Doing business with those target companies, will mean that much of the prospective talent pool will be off-limits to the insurance executive recruitment firm.
Retained search firms cannot recruit insurance leaders for you out of insurance businesses, who are also their clients. Not being able to approach talent from those businesses, will only mean that you will have a restricted number of candidates to choose from.
If an insurance executive firm sets out their stall on having carried out dozens of identical search assignments, you need to consider whether that’s a good thing for you.
2. Who will actually be carrying out the work?
It’s important to establish who at the insurance executive recruitment firm will actually be doing the bulk of the work.
On the surface, an insurance executive recruitment firm will normally intimate that the senior search partner will be working on all aspects of the search day in, day out.
It’s worth noting that especially in larger executive search firms, much of the work will be passed down to more junior team members.
Have a read of our insight: Comparing Executive Search Firms – SHREK vs Boutique
As in all insurance executive recruitment businesses, teamwork is essential.
However, it’s crucial that those actively working on the search have the credibility, industry expertise and networks to attract the very best insurance leadership talent.
3. How long will it take to fill the position?
The required time to complete an insurance executive search assignment is often one of the key questions asked by clients.
Time is of the essence when it comes to Identifying, assessing, interviewing and onboarding the best insurance talent.
After all, vacant executive positions or poor executive hires can be extremely costly.
They can have a significant impact on the wider organization if left unfilled in terms of decreased productivity, morale and reputational damage.
It is a difficult question to answer as the length of time is dependent on both parties – the insurance executive recruitment firm and the client.
An insurance executive recruitment firm will only have control over the time from the assignment start date to the submission of the shortlist.
The scheduling and number of client interviews as well as the time taken to make a decision on the preferred candidate are all dependent on the client.
At Insurance Search, we commit to guaranteeing a shortlist of 3 candidates you will want to interview within 4 weeks of the search assignment start date.
How quickly the successful candidate starts in the role is very much down to the client’s internal assessment and decision-making processes.
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Insurance Executive Search Specialists USA
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