Reasons employers often bypass traditional hiring include:

• Confidentiality
• Cost
• Time
• Risk
• Internal placement
• Drawing from the hidden market

• Confidentiality is often important in the process of making hiring decisions. Once a position is advertised, this is difficult to maintain, even if a recruitment consultant is used. It’s not possible to go very far with the hiring process without divulging the name of the employer. And the news tends to spread.

   

• Cost is often a major consideration. Even if an employer hires without using a recruitment consultant, advertising a position can be expensive. If a consultant is used, these costs can rise spectacularly. Typically, placement fees at management level are around 15-18% of the salary package-including the value of company car, superannuation etc. And advertising costs are added to this amount. If a head-hunter is used, the costs are far higher still.

   

• Time considerations deter many employers from advertising. Processing the flood of applications that can be expected in response to an advertisement is very time-consuming and the results of the exercise can be slow in emerging. Further, many smaller companies do not have a human resources department, putting the hiring process straight into the hands of managers and principals, who are typically busy people.

   

• Hiring an executive through advertising can be a risky exercise. Mistakes are enormously costly, and employers are eager to reduce their risks in any way possible. Many executives who are hired for positions that are not advertised are referred by others or known to the employer. When the candidate or the person providing the referral is well known to the employer, this can provide a high level of reassurance regarding the rightness of the hiring decision.

   

• Many positions are of course filled internally without consideration of outside candidates.

   

• Apart from the more limited scope provided by true executive search companies and organisations that actively market their databases, networking and the various forms of direct contact are the sole means of tapping the hidden market. It’s important to recognise the extraordinary magnitude of the opportunity available to those who are aware of the techniques of accessing this rich source of job opportunities. For very few people handle this area of career transition well. Those who do so enjoy a major advantage, especially limited or even no competition!