Highlighting effective and innovative strategies for acquiring top executive talent in the Indian market by discussing emerging approaches, such as leveraging digital platforms, unconventional sourcing channels, and creative ways to attract and retain the best leaders in India’s competitive business landscape.
As per the Economic Times report, leading search firms including Korn Ferry, EMA Partners, Stanton Chase, and Odgers Berndtson state that despite a downturn in the overall job market, senior leadership hiring in India remains active at the top end.
With evolving technology enabling the global talent acquisition ecosystem, India is a centre of opportunities. Hiring executive leaders from India has gradually transitioned from what it used to be maybe a decade back. Below I am making an attempt to talk about my observations on how some of the strategies could be leveraged better from the first step itself.
Innovative Strategies: Identifying by humanizing
One key aspect being mapping the executive talent position with two aspects of job description. In India, people look at culture – for example an Open Door Policy, 360 degree feedback system, Voice Of Customer , matrices and process that are being followed, then the values of the organization – for example Integrity, Empathy, Grit, then examples of how the values are being followed, are there protocols such as POSH in place, how is Inclusion & Diversity understood there, what is the span of control, what are the key strategic business goals of the organization and for that particular P&L. When I say these, it implies that potential candidates want to be more understood and have conversations on the human aspect of business and how important are people. They want to know how the performance matrix is measured or people get fired on whims & fancies just because they don’t agree with their boss on something. I remember during one of my interviews, the investor spent close to 90 mins with me just to understand how I am as a person and how would I ‘feel’ and ‘react’ to certain situations. I also had to appear for an online detailed psychometric test (which I love any day) because the first thing I feel is that the organization cares about who they want to hire as a human being because that’s the base on which someone’s leadership style rests.
Unlearning Vs Skills mindset
When we talk about executive leadership positions in India, here there are primarily two kinds of talent. Ones who are skilled in their core domain but not a people person and ones who may not be that skilled in a subject matter but great people’s person and potentially great leaders. Hence mapping aspiration of that talent becomes even more important than skill. For example, if someone has a top B-School degree, does that automatically mean that he/she will be a great leader? No right? Hence ‘psychometric tests’ must be an inclusion in senior level hiring. My perspective is it is better to onboard someone who is say 9 on 10 in leading people & business rather than someone who is 7 on 10 in core domain skill. The reason why I am saying detailed psychometric test is because it may not be able to be evident in just a conversation if someone has the ability to unlearn the pace of execution in a new environment which may entail a different business model. The fact is it is extremely challenging to get a person in India who will tick all the boxes on all three quotients – functional, people and cultural. At least that is my observation.
Also, in a survey conducted by Stanton Chase India, it was asked whether the business would consider hiring leadership talent from other sectors and industries, to which more than two- thirds (64%) said yes.
This insight also tells us how important unlearning is for moving into a different industry.
Employer Branding & Thought Leadership
It is imperative to look at the potential candidate’s social accounts. This is important to know three things –
- Flow of thoughts as how he/she projects on LinkedIn
- Nature of the posts – is it linked to a purpose, is it educational, how is may be contributing the community
- Do the posts also have his present organization in the voice in some places, basically to see if he/she is also doing employer branding in some way as it is not only the job of an HR today.
Looking at this will definitely help employers get a deeper view for interview conversations. A deep understanding of the business landscape with ability to network well is extremely important as essentially it is the role of a Brand custodian in essence.
Preparing for candidates’ questions
Once I was hiring for a senior role and in the last but one round of discussions the candidate asked our HR department if we have facilities for his growth and if yes, then he would want to hear some examples. We carried forward the conversation and got to know that he was looking at things such as do we have tie-ups with reputed executive education Business schools, did we offer sponsored facility for leadership coach (this is not at all surprising because even the best of leaders looks for an organization that has people first facilities ad that starts from the top itself. Think of it this way- if it is C-Suite position and the company says that we also have the facility of hiring a professional leadership coach (not a trainer) after you complete first 6 months, it is like saying- we know you are a great leader and that is why we are hiring you, however, we want you to be even better as a coach can also be a sponge for these demanding positions. Very few companies go that far for people. In India, today is not only about the CTC but also how the organization values you. So, preparing for such questions are important for potential employers and recruiters.
Conclusion
Using innovative strategies is crucial and agility is the key factor today for recruiting executive talent in India. To find the best executive leaders that are out there today, recruiters need to be more flexible in their strategy and scope of search. This translates into a keenness to look beyond the set parameters of a given role and drive conversations with deeper empathy. When we look at senior leadership it is more about not will that person be able to build his second line but how soon.