Our 6-Part Strategy

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Once we gain a clear picture, we dive quickly into a six-part strategy to find the perfect candidate in less than fifteen weeks. We evaluate relationships, assess the opportunities, and fit the particular offering through candidate identification, selection, and placement.

1. Relationship Quantification

All searches performed by Sager are open, meaning that we confidently share the names and outcomes of every contact we make with our clients. Additionally, we date stamp all recruitment activities to understand cycle times better as they relate to candidate processing and closing out on each search as quickly as possible.

2. Candidate Identification

Sager maintains and continually updates business leader profiles in our executive candidate database, and we augment our research using social media and standard internet and online database tools. At the beginning of each engagement, Sager builds a research plan based on our on-site interviews with executive management and board members, along any with private investment partners involved in the opportunity. We invest significant time up front to understand the intricacies of the company and the industry to ensure we align candidates with the objectives of the business.

3. Progress Reports

Once the initial research is complete and we have identified qualified candidates, we create a comprehensive, action-item-based report detailing specific experiences and how they relate to the search. These reports are used by the executive team to review with staff, among board members, and with equity partners as an overview of activities, candidates and their backgrounds, along with the pipeline.

4. Project Schedule

Once we establish an initial pool of 25 candidates, qualifications vetted, and degree of interest determined, we define an action plan and project schedule, targeting steps in the process, project updates, and actions items updated in real time, throughout the length of the engagement.

5. Production

As a firm, we do not advertise and do not share information with other offices or networks. All of our identification comes through industry sources and is shared only with our clients after the commencement of a search. Our source calls are aggressive and typically get us in front of “the better inactive candidates.” Through multiple phone screens, candidates are vetted and contrasted against the specification. We have adopted and documented the selection process used to qualify each candidate initially. The results from our numerous phone screens and Q&A serve as a backdrop shared with clients to build consensus and target our initial interviews.

Initial interviews with our consultants are typically two-plus hour face-to-face meetings. We validate whether each candidate is a fit in this step of the process. All candidate interviews are face-to-face, but with great distances, we may opt for a preliminary video conference before supporting additional costs for an in-person meeting. All candidates are updated continually throughout the process. We inform them of their status, the timeline to complete the search, and the staging of primary and subsequent interviews. Through this work, we seek to learn about their interest level, any competitive opportunities, and potential issues (compensation, location, family) that might preclude them from consideration.

6. Execution

Winning the assignment, gaining an understanding of the needs of the role, and conducting the search are important pieces leading to the introduction of candidates to the client. As important, is guiding the client interview process, thorough selection, supporting the activity, while maintaining a keen focus on the market, and late candidate entries, up and through final interviews and offer.

It is our goal to bring the best possible outcome, and this can only be achieved through an uncompromising selection process, settling for “best available” and an aggressive approach to compensation negotiants, including expectations and deliverables for the role.

Once closed and agreed upon, our firm extends itself into the candidates resignation from the current role, managing pre-employment requirements (background, health, contractual) and can assist when employed to do so, in establishing an onboarding program, as well as follow up dash-boards, to ensure early success for the candidate once they are employed and engaged.