Closing Executive Searches Faster
Executive searches are moving more quickly. In 2023, the presentation of the executive who is ultimately hired usually occurs during the first month. In Q1, it was in 27 days. In Q2, it was 25. However, searches still take about 3 months to close as candidates are interviewed, references are checked, the offer is presented, and is ultimately accepted by the candidate.
Search Volume is Up as Economy Exits Bear Market
The number of executive searches is up according to Thrive’s Mid-Year Executive Search Report: Q2 2023. Opened search volume up 13% over the second half of 2022. Overall, the executive search market is flat to slightly up. For some, it appears executive hiring has been left behind as the stock market rallied.
Executive Search is Tethered to the Stock Market
However, executive search and equities are pretty closely tethered. Where the stock market goes, so goes executive hiring. For now, it appears to be moving sideways. U.S. Bank observes, “We’re out of the bear market environment, it appears. But it isn’t clear yet that a new bull market has emerged.” The bank describes the choppy stock market of 2023 as clawing back from a challenging year.
“2022 marked the second bear market for U.S. equities in three years. While challenging for investors, a notable consolation is that the 2022 bear market was less severe than the three previous bear markets. Four bear markets have occurred in the U.S. stock market in the 21st century. You’ll note that the level of decline in the most recent bear market cycle is not as dramatic as the previous three.”
— U.S. Bank
We have seen an uptick in clients turning to Intellerati for recruitment research and candidate sourcing support for executive search. Moreover, many companies are eager to streamline their executive hiring processes. They engage Intellerati to speed up the identification of top-performing candidates. On average, Intellerati presents the winning candidates within the first month — usually within the first couple of weeks. Still interviews, candidate selection, and ultimately pulling the trigger to make the hire usually take 3 months to complete.
Diversity is Up, But We Still Have Work to Do
In addition, increasing inclusion of diverse, under-represented candidates in candidate long lists and slates of finalists has yielded gains in corporate diversity. However, a new report from Gallup and Amazon finds that despite those gains, a diversity imbalance persists.
For BIPOC Workers, the Disparity is High
Top U.S. employers have yet to achieve proportional representation relative to the workforce by race and gender. Employees who are Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native remain highly underrepresented in the nation’s top jobs. By comparison, Asian and White workers remain overrepresented.
The Percentage of Women is Up
Women remain underrepresented overall — constituting 42.3% of workers in top-scoring jobs versus 44.0% of workers in all jobs. As a general rule, women achieve parity at 50%. Women do have higher representation than men in 46 out of 111 top-scoring careers and have increased their representation in the workplace. These findings are based on an analysis of the Gallup-Amazon Careers of the Future Index (CFI). Interestingly, the index did not examine the pay gap between men and women.
Closing Executive Searches Faster with Intellerati
Companies that prefer to have their talent acquisition teams conduct executive searches in-house often turn to Intellerati. Our investigative recruitment research gives them added reach, particularly on the front end. Moreover, Intellerati’s diversity recruiting research helps ensure the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives of our clients are successful.
