One of the most commonly asked questions we hear from prospective clients at OMNI Human Resource Management is some variation of, “Why does my company need an executive search firm? I can just have my HR person post the job opening on Indeed and gather resumes.”
The reality is that your organization is most likely spending a lot of unnecessary time – and money – by electing not to use an executive search firm. Chances are that your organization does not have the time, resources, or expertise to find the best fit for the open role or your company culture. And making a bad hire is costly when you consider the lost resources dedicated to hiring, onboarding, and training. An executive search firm like OMNI can ensure your investment pays off, taking the time-consuming burden off your overworked HR department – if your organization even has one.
Your Brand Ambassador
OMNI offers a full cycle executive search service. This means we’re with you every step of the way, from the very first interaction through to your new hire’s onboarding process. Above all else, OMNI’s expert Search Consultants serve as your brand ambassador in the search process. Whatever the role and its seniority, our job is to communicate your organization’s identity and strengths to potential candidates and to ensure they fully appreciate your organizational culture. This process starts even before the client engages us for a search, as we discuss specific needs for the role and develop a proposal.
Once the project scope has been finalized, the first step is the project launch meeting, which offers us the opportunity to help the client align expectations with the realities of the market. Search committee members, along with other appropriate stakeholders, share valuable information and perspectives about necessary attributes and experience to complement your organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Organizational Culture
We explore the elements of your organization’s culture that you view as most significant, such as leadership style, team dynamics, opportunities for long-term professional growth, flexible work options, and much more. The information we gain during this crucial early interaction grants us an understanding of what sets your organization apart from your competitors, and what differentiates your role from like roles in other industries or sectors. In short, this in-depth relationship-building grants us the ability to present your organization as an employer of choice in the hiring market.
A Holistic Approach
Our executive search practice is integrated within the entire HR function of our business, offering expertise in strategic planning, job alignment, performance management, compensation modeling and planning, and organizational development. Through proprietary access to Salary.com, supplemented by other compensation survey data, we can support the search process by helping to explore and analyze a vast data set that wouldn’t otherwise be available to our clients. This knowledge and access to vital data, combined with our senior search consultants’ extensive experience working with clients in multiple industries, has given us keen insight into what is realistic with respect to compensation and benefits. When a client’s targeted compensation doesn’t align with the market, OMNI can help make adjustments to the scope of the role and desired qualifications.
The Human Factor
Our process saves you time and money. In today’s ultra-competitive market, employers can’t afford to waste time searching for the right talent. And wading through hundreds of resumes, many of which may be from unqualified candidates, is a timewaster for small to medium sized organizations that may only have one dedicated HR role – or none at all – and whose staff often can’t afford to take time away from their normal duties. Without sacrificing quality, our team can expedite the hiring process. Our Talent Acquisition Team has a combined network, gained through decades of cumulative experience in Executive Search, that allows us to cast our nets beyond the local area and even the Midwest. These networks allow us to reach out to so-called “passive” candidates that aren’t currently searching for a new role and would be highly unlikely to even see or respond to a traditional job listing. OMNI has successfully identified candidates for numerous C-suite and other leadership roles using this approach, allowing us to meet our clients’ needs more quickly and often at a savings.
Top Technologies
As a client, you also benefit from OMNI’s paid access to top technologies that support the executive search process and allow us to perform complex searches using a variety of filters to develop a strong candidate pool for your organization. At any time in the process, our clients can elect to hire a candidate, incurring only the hourly costs that have been billed up to that point. With a five-year retention rate of 90% for our completed searches, OMNI’s Executive Search Team has a proven record. Given that the average cost of a new hire in the United States is up to 40% of an employee’s base salary, our clients consider this benefit to be well worth the initial investment in our services.
Diverse Candidate Pools
Today’s employers, now more than ever, place a great deal of importance on a diverse workforce, not only because they are under increasing scrutiny in this area, but also because they know that their organizations benefit. Diverse groups of employees, with their ability to draw from a broad range of perspectives, insights, and experiences, are more creative in their problem solving and make more informed decisions. The organizations they work for are more profitable and have better employee retention rates. OMNI excels at helping your organization deliver on its commitment to developing a diverse workforce, whatever that means in your organizational culture. Our consultants understand the complexities of this issue in today’s world, and in the past three years, our work has resulted in over 45% of completed searches being filled by women and people of color.
Communication
Historically, the job search process has had a balance of power that assumes the potential employer holds most of the cards. These days, candidates are also interviewing you for culture and fit. With our help, you can maximize the interview process to ensure that you communicate your mission and values effectively and authentically to your candidates. Chances are you’re competing with other organizations for the same high-quality talent, and it’s imperative to establish a strong connection from the outset. This is what distinguishes an employer of choice from all others.
Listening tends to be undervalued in the interview process. A skilled interviewer can identify undertones in a candidate’s responses that can lead to a more in-depth conversation about more complex issues. We ensure that the interview process goes well beyond rehashing the candidate’s resume, which helps us gather critically important information about the candidate’s ability to help your organization to achieve strategic goals. Technical expertise, degrees, and years of experience should not be prioritized over so-called “soft skills” such as collaboration, the ability to multitask, empathy, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and more.
Relationship Building
We believe that successful searches are built on strong relationships – with our clients and with the candidates we present. Your consultant is, first and foremost, your trusted advisor in the search for the ideal candidate, but we also have a commitment to developing a level of trust with each of the candidates we identify on your behalf. We become something of a liaison, seeking to ensure that each of the candidates we bring to the table has a full understanding of, and is a good match for, the specific needs of the role and your organization’s culture. We maintain continual contact with them throughout the search process, ensuring that they remain engaged and interested, and don’t fall through the cracks before you’re ready to make a final selection. Though our candidates know that we’re working for a client, they feel valued and supported by OMNI’s consultants.
When it comes time to make an offer, we also make sure that you’re in a position to craft the best possible offer, balancing your financial realities with the market and the candidate’s needs and preferences. And the process doesn’t end there. Many of our successful candidates result from national searches, and in those cases, we stand ready to assist with the relocation process. We are also involved in the onboarding process and are available to offer support during the initial 90 days of employment.
Conclusion
At OMNI, we believe that all organizations succeed when they have the right people doing the right things for the right reasons. Since we opened our doors in 1998, this philosophy has guided our interactions with each of our clients as we have helped them to acquire and develop their most valuable asset – their people. We are successful because we understand that each of our client organizations has a unique culture, identity, and needs. As a full-service human resource management and executive search firm, OMNI offers a holistic, personalized approach – unmatched by any other firm in the region – to serving our executive search clients, building trusted relationships that bring them back to us again and again.
Anna Robinson, Senior Search Consultant and Healthcare Practice Leader, came to OMNI with more than 17 years of executive search and recruitment experience, most recently including 10 years as the head of clinical recruitment with American Dental Partners and affiliated dental group practices throughout the U.S. Her extensive industry knowledge helps guide clients through the search and selection process to ensure the best fit is selected for organizational needs. Anna received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Kansas and acquired her SHRM-Senior Certified Professional in 2019.
Jennifer Gross-Statler, Marketing & Communications Manager, comes to us with over 20 years’ experience as a nonprofit professional. Her background includes four years as Executive Director of a Connecticut nonprofit with a state mandate to evaluate state-funded mental health programs, assess strengths and unmet needs, and make recommendations for improvements. She brings valuable expertise to OMNI in community and media relations, marketing and branding, project management, and strategic planning. Jennifer is a graduate of The College of William & Mary.
