The coronavirus pandemic is a crisis unlike any most executives have ever seen. With much of the country under shelter-in-place orders, companies have been forced to transform into remote businesses almost overnight. And most are completely unprepared. No business continuity plan accounts for an entire workforce shifting abruptly from working in a central office or manufacturing plant to working out of their homes.
Predictably, businesses have been upended, with CEOs and CHROs bearing the brunt. Both leaders have had to shift to crisis manager roles, balancing growth with survival as they improvise how to operate remotely, keep employees engaged, and maintain productivity. The examples of resilience, teamwork, creativity, humility, and innovation have been nothing short of inspiring.
In just a few weeks, we’ve seen how this new way of doing business has impacted retained executive search. Our clients are still hiring, but launch meetings, prospect screenings, and candidate interviews are now done entirely through video conferencing. “Because of the new demands placed on our clients’ CEOs and CHROs especially, individual bandwidth has been stretched to human limits,” said Carpe Diem Global Partners Founder and Managing Partner Jeff DeFazio.
Most significantly, the face-to-face candidate interview and office tour that typically occurs in the middle of the executive search process has now been pushed to the very end of the process in hopes shelter-in-place orders will be lifted by the time of offer. That can have serious ramifications if the candidate or client decides to pull out of the process.
The impact of the coronavirus on candidates has been significant. They are all in the executive suite, facing the same challenges as our clients, managing the conversion of their current company into a work-from-home business. Some of passive candidates are becoming more risk-averse. They were already “passive” and now even more reluctant to consider change, amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus situation. It appears those candidates already in a process remain committed but have varying comfort levels of how a process might conclude.
We have advised our clients not to abandon in-person meetings while maintaining social distancing, as it’s critical for both parties to receive a level of personal and local connection before transacting. That said, younger leaders have been more receptive to accepting offers without in-person on-site face-to-face meetings.
Innovation often occurs during a crisis and today is no exception. There is exciting innovation taking place in our talent acquisition process. For example, for senior-level and board roles, clients have deployed private planes to bring candidates, hiring managers and board members together. In other instances, candidates have taken the unusual step of driving longer than usual distances to meet face to face. We advise the following practices:
- Deploy a reliable and easy-to-use (for client and candidates) Video Conferencing application. Zoom is our favorite.
- Follow the interview process using VC for all interviews, without exception. Avoid the phone.
- Anticipate travel arrangements during final round conversations. An on-site visit is expected to be in unoccupied offices.
- Honor candidates desire to shelter in place.
- Present offers contingent on an in-person meeting prior to start if requested by either the hiring manager or candidate.
Keep in mind, the start of a new engagement today typically places candidates in roles about 90 days from start, which lands us into late June and early July, when the impact from COVID-19 will be further suppressed.
The firm is engaged daily in discussions with board directors, CEOs, and the direct reports to CEOs. In terms of leadership amid this uncertainty, it’s critical that executives demonstrate they understand the significance of the situation and the impact it has on their Executive Leadership Team and the broader organization. We advise leaders take the following steps to help guide your company through this crisis.
- In your next direct-report one-to-one sessions, allocate the entire session to actively listen-ing to the impact the coronavirus situation has on them professionally and personally.
- Skip a level and do the same with key organization influencers.
- Have a town hall VC, record a video, or write a company-wide email that describes the sit-uation, heroism, and the CEO’s deep appreciation for what has been accomplished in this crisis.
- Make it known to your team that your top priority is to identify the top 3-5 organizational hurdles and actively help them to reduce those hurdles.
- Set the business’ financial goals (publicly) aside for the next 2-3 weeks.
Eventually the coronavirus situation will resolve and business will gradually return to normal. In the meantime, this crisis is presenting an opportunity to see the best of leadership and to see how people react and adapt to enormous stress, which is one of the best markers for leadership perfor-mance.
These market insights from Carpe Diem Global Partners are gathered from the firm’s extensive cli-ent work leading Board, CEO, CXO, and CHRO executive search engagements for consumer and technology-oriented companies. For deeper, custom insights, contact the firm at con-tact@carpediempartners.com.