April 10, 2020
As COVID-19 continues to govern many aspects of our daily lives and fracture our sense of ‘business as usual’, at SPMB we’re seeing themes and best practices emerge in our search work—across company stages, industries and geographies—that are re-shaping the search landscape in real-time.
Here’s a snapshot of what we’re seeing:
Market Observations:
- Increased ability to recruit otherwise hard-to-get executives from more distressed industries, for instance: Travel, Entertainment, Retail & eCommerce.
- Searches are closing without face-to-face meetings—this theme increases weekly.
- Creative solutions: for some later stage local searches, clients and candidates are choosing to meet in open environments that adhere to social distancing requirements.
- Quality candidates remain just that and continue to move fast even in this environment.
From Clients:
- More extensive referencing, particularly for softer skills, in the absence of face-to-face meetings.
- Increased requests for formal candidate presentations (how they would approach the role, manage through future periods of crisis/uncertainty, etc.)
- Modified positions to fill open roles with less experienced, but high potential candidates to save cash.
- Org chart restructuring and expanded scope of certain roles to reduce the number of executive level positions.
From Candidates:
- More due diligence and requests for company financials.
- Not (yet) seeing candidates come down on comp expectations.
- Candidates are more receptive to a commuting opportunity, versus a relocation.
- Some executives have become more risk averse, while others are seizing the opportunity to explore new options—it’s a mixed bag.
During times of uncertainty, communication and connection are critical. In that spirit, we will continue to gather and share relevant insights and updates as we all learn to navigate and operate in this ever-evolving new normal. If SPMB can be a resource to your organization, please get in touch at https://spmb.com/contact/.
