Do you have any idea how much it costs to leave a vacancy unfilled in your business? There’s the additional workload borne by other colleagues, there’s the time spent by line managers advertising and sifting through CVs and most importantly, there’s the loss of profit from not having someone performing a role that would normally bring money into your business. Say you have a chain of retail stores and you have a vacancy for an Area Manager. While that position is vacant, there is no-one driving the managers forward and coming up with new ideas to make the stores profitable. Long-term vacancies cost your business money, as well as being stressful for everyone who’s trying to fill in the gaps. So, how to find the best candidates?

Talk to Industry Insiders

Great candidates don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t even necessarily click on the webpages that you’ve posted ads on. Great candidates come through connections, and an executive search firm can help you make those connections. When you hand the task of filling a vacancy over to recruitment experts, they will already have a good idea of who’s already working in a similar position and who is actively looking for opportunities. From that basis, they can create a bespoke search for you, and have the best candidates in the industry interviewing for you within days. Without experience of the industry as a whole, you risk wasting time interviewing candidates who are irrelevant and unsuitable for the role you need to fill.

Spare Yourself the Stress

With experts on the case, vacancies will be filled quickly and efficiently. Search firms will not only provide the candidates, they will also negotiate salaries and start dates with the candidates, so that line managers will only have to worry about which great candidate to select. It takes so much of the uncertainty out of the process, knowing that it’s all being taken care of.

Choose the Best Search Firm

There are many things to look for in an executive search firm, but a company that’s growing and expanding is most likely to be able to help you. Take executive recruitment consultants Caldwell Partners, who were recently named the fastest growing search firm in the Americas. With over 40 years experience of recruiting, they have a vast knowledge of a number of sectors and a team of specialist recruiters, each highly knowledgeable in their own area. They also have an international presence, so that they can fill vacancies not only in the US but abroad too.

The right search firm will have not only industry experience, but also a host of industry connections. Look for a firm with a solid reputation, who can provide testimonials from high-profile clients. Some firms will also be willing to advise on other aspects of people management as well as just recruitment, so choose a firm who can provide added value to you rather than just sending CVs. And then just start preparing desk space for your next hire!

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Kate Milner is a blogger, freelance writer, and mother of two. Before having children, she worked as a recruitment consultant, filling vacancies for some of Britain’s top retailers.