How automation will change the world of Executive Search. And how Executive Search Firms with automation will destroy the ones without. 

Nine out of ten owners of Executive Search Firms I talk to are convinced that they don’t need resume parsers, vacancy harvesters, and matching technology.

No Automation in Executive Search…

Excel, LinkedIn, perhaps a simple ATS and a drawer full of business cards…

The world of recruitment is changing rapidly, and it will not let the Executive Search businesses untouched. However, many owners of executive search agencies, don’t see automation as something they need to take action on immediately. They don’t see the dangers of not investing in recruitment automation software. They believe that their LinkedIn professional account, Excel sheets, and Applicant Tracking System will suffice…

But we have an ATS?

An ATS is not a tool that can make a difference for an agency and usually an ATS does not automate that many recruitment tasks. Next to that most recruitment agencies work with Applicant Tracking Systems already. Of course, the agency without one will be outperformed by the ones with an ATS. Surprisingly, lower-priced agencies doing mid- and low-level vacancies usually work with better and more advanced technology than their Executive Search colleagues. But an ATS is no longer the game-changer. If all your competitors work with an ATS, it becomes necessary to stay in the recruitment game. But to dominate the game, you will need more power to thrust your agency forward.

Challenging times for Executive Search without automation

Many staffing agencies feel the pain of not working with the most advanced recruitment technology when their competitors implement it. They lose market share and have no clue why. They think it is because of the present economic environment. Thus they complain and whine. And believe their successful and expanding competitor is plain lucky. The same is happening in the world of Executive Search Firms—those who embrace the newest technology challenge their competitors big time.

Executive Search firms with Automation outperform YOU.

The newest recruitment automation technology is breathtaking. It enables the search firm to identify long- and short-lists within seconds instead of hours, weeks, or even months. The present matching technology quality is impressive and better than any (even very experienced) recruiter could do. It is SO much better and faster. An Executive Search consultant works with his researchers, Excel, business cards, LinkedIn account, and (if lucky) his ATS. And it usually takes weeks to get a relevant long-list of qualifying candidates. And this list is never 100% complete. It means that the quality of the list is always inferior. Inferior to what parsing and matching technology can do.

The tech-savvy Executive Search consultant does not need to work with researchers and can produce a 100% complete long-list of candidates within seconds.

The difference is One Consultant, One Second & 100% Complete, or a team of people, one month, and an inferior longlist. Guess who will win the final battle?

THE time to gain market domination is NOW!

Most Executive Search firms are still not aware of the benefits of what recruitment automation can bring them. Therefore, I think it is NOW the time for the Firm who will take the lead in implementing extremely smart parsing, matching, and communication technology. If you are a small Executive Search Firm and you would like to challenge the Egon Zehnder’s and the Heidrick & Struggles’ than the time is now.

One of these brilliant applications is STAA.

The newest and most advanced, it is breathtaking. The recruitment industry benefits from thousands and thousands of high-tech HR and recruitment automation software. The New York-based Talenttechlabs.com provides you with an excellent overview of the HR application ecosystem. They show only those apps which are life and tested. Of course, there are hundreds and hundreds more. Just not like STAA.

STAA – a powerful blend of functionalities

STAA harvests all on-line posted vacancies in a country (not unique), matches all these vacancies with relevant CV’s (unique), finds the contact persons of the vacancies with their e-mail addresses (unique), can communicate automatically with the company and the job seeker (unique), does all of this in seconds (unique) and does this in numerous languages (unique) with unstructured data (unique).

Score: one not unique, six unique. Imagine you will work as one of the first (Executive) Search firms with this kind of application. How will this benefit your business?

This article is written by Gerard Koolen, Group Managing Partner from Lugera – The People Republic, gerard.koolen@lugera.com, +31622959248