What’s the secret when it comes to recruiting and retaining a strong leadership team? Be intentional about leadership planning so you can attract executives who best align with your vision and are passionate allies in helping your organization shine.
Building the Right Leadership Team
- Perhaps the best place to start identifying leadership candidates who are a good fit for your organization is to ask your current senior leaders and board members for help in leveraging their networks. Don’t underestimate how powerful a word-of-mouth recommendation from a peer or friend can be to spark interest in highly qualified candidates. Encourage your current leadership team to maintain strong connections and relationships with other senior leaders through their LinkedIn networks, industry events, continuing education opportunities, and social gatherings where high-level talent might be present. Establish a senior-level talent pool so you have a candidate list when openings arise.
- Tap into specialized recruiting and executive search firms who can find candidates with hard-to-find skill sets and experience, even if you are in a niche market. Partner with a high-touch dedicated recruiter like Employment Enterprises and let this partner act as an extension of your human resources team to specialize in sourcing, vetting and hiring talent at the level you require. They also will have ways to reach candidates who may not be actively seeking, but would consider, a new opportunity.
- Have a strong sense of identity so the opportunity resonates with the right candidates. By having a thoughtful employer value proposition and an intentional, transparent culture, the people who are the best fits will see themselves working for and thriving in your organization. Place this messaging front and center in the careers section of your website, as well as on your job postings.
- Make sure your compensation and benefits package is competitive for your industry. Consider items like executive wellness programs, compensation structuring, and continuing education opportunities that set your organization apart. Executives also often expect and are incentivized by longer-term benefits like stock options, profit sharing and performance bonuses. These perks can keep their motivation in line with the organization’s overall success.
- Senior leaders need onboarding, too! Set your executives up for success by facilitating high level meetings with company leadership and board members. Provide transparent insight into company vision, financials, and strategic priorities. Give them access to training, tools and resources, just as you would any other employee. In your onboarding, provide comprehensive downloads on aspects such as employee resource groups, mentoring programs, and coaches who can help them navigate the company culture and learn the best ways to quickly get answers and get things done.
Retention for Your Leadership Team
- Build personal and professional development into the culture of your leadership team by providing ample opportunities for growth through continuing education, membership in professional organizations, and conference attendance. Not only will this provide more job satisfaction to your senior team, but their modeling of this behavior will demonstrate to mid-level managers and individual contributors that these are important values in your organization.
- Provide work/life balance. For many senior level employees, aspects such as flexible working hours, hybrid settings, and work-life integration can be just as important as the position itself or the compensation package.
- Give your leadership team ample chances to have a hand in developing company culture as well as opportunities to give back. Many seek roles that are more value-driven at later stages in their careers, and want to use their work to make a broader impact.
- Enable your senior executives to have a hand in developing high level strategy and vision for the organization. Make sure they have a voice in crafting key performance indicators for their team that are meaningful to them and that are attainable.
- Be intentional in exposing your leaders to the highest levels of your organization, as well as your board and investors. By providing this access, you’ll help maintain a level of trust and transparency relative to company decisions and direction, which will foster a team that feels valued and critical to your mission and vision.
- Develop and maintain communication cascades that provide your senior leaders with first access to information on updates, organizational goals, and challenges. This transparency will help your executives feel engaged and trusted, and will enable them to prepare for questions and concerns from their staff.
- Of course, give your leaders regular feedback on their performance, but also encourage them to provide input on the organization’s processes and culture. This helps executives feel valued and part of a two-way conversation.
- Make retention of your senior leaders a financial priority, too. Structure retention bonuses or incentive plans that demonstrate the value of loyalty and strong contribution to your organization’s mission and vision.
Succession Planning
- Even as you’re focused on retaining senior talent, it’s important to have effective succession planning in place that will minimize the risks that arise with leadership vacancies. Develop a plan that would account for potential vacancies in key roles, factoring in retirements or expected career changes. Have open conversations with current leadership about their career plans and goals.
- Maintain a pipeline of potential candidates for future openings and vacancies. This ensures a smoother transition and helps you maintain a strong talent queue for future leadership roles.
- Identify your future leaders. Do a talent mapping exercise in which you can assess your current talent pool and identify employees with the highest potential to step into leadership roles. Once you complete the talent assessment, invest in development opportunities like leadership training, mentoring, and cross-functional job rotations. Stretch assignments provide an opportunity to give these potential leaders projects that help them expand their skills and leadership ability.
By focusing on how to get and keep strong leaders, you are investing in the long term success of your organization, fostering consistency, and mitigating the chance of disruption to your team’s output and productivity.