ENFIELD'S EXECUTIVE SEARCH
The Enfield
Company is a retained executive search
firm- a true Headhunter - based in Austin, Texas, but with worldwide reach
and clients. We are usually engaged by organizations for more difficult
or uncommon staffing needs, and we rarely work on more than a few projects
at one time. Our clients and presence is concentrated on the East and West
coasts of the United States, but when needed we have reached into Europe,
Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.
As a job-seeker, if your personal background seems to match our recruiting
profile feel free to send us your resume. We will keep your materials on
file, but we will not acknowledge receipt, or respond to them, unless we
have an active search for which you might be considered.
The following is intended to answer some of the initial questions a prospective
client (hiring-party) would have about us, as well as a few opinions about
how to best handle recruiting and recruiters. The full presentation takes
several pages, so it can make sense to print-out the complete document.
This page is intended to be comprehensive, but Contact Information is at
the bottom of the page and sections are noted to the left if you are inclined
to skip around.
Company Specialization & Perspective
Summary of The Enfield Company
The Enfield Company seeks-out and recruits key professionals, for large and small companies, usually in traditional or new-media publishing. Our contribution comes when there is a need to search quickly, thoroughly, and creatively in and across industry segments to produce those individuals who will make the most substantial addition to an evolving organization.
Business and industry segments we normally cover
The Enfield Company maintains an ongoing awareness of the people and organizations constituting educational publishing, including print and new-media. The three major areas we endeavor to keep abreast of are:
1) Curriculum-Oriented Educational Publishers, which can be divided between Higher Education (College & University), and the School (K-12) publishing segments.
2) Professional, Reference, STM (Scientific, Technical, Medical), and other Continuing Education segments. This includes proprietary and traditional Training and Correspondence Schools, as well as Vocational Education and Professional Certification Programs.
3) Multimedia Publishers & Associated Industries, includes Third-Party New-Media Developers and companies providing Distance & Distributed Learning Products, in addition to related Professional Services.
Our work is frequently aided by a knowledge of industries peripheral to these core segments, but where valuable transferable talent can be found. For example, from previous assignments we have become acquainted with the Toy Industry for product development and marketing expertise in a demographic of special concern to publishers of Kids' Books and Software. Similarly, we have found occasions to search within the Traditional & Electronic Game Industries.
There is an growing opportunity to capitalize on experience heretofore accumulated in well-differentiated industry segments. The lessons to be learned about how to capitalize on technology have often been learned before. In considering the needs of individual clients we have found the differences between the concerns of businesses in ostensibly diverse industry niches can sometimes turn-out to be relatively superficial.
The key to success with recruiters
Effective staffing is the foundation for an executive's success, so the time and effort taken to establish and maintain strong recruiting relationships is well spent.
The single key to efficient and effective use of recruiters is to cultivate relationships where well-qualified recruiters are confident of being fairly paid for excellent work. The less recruiters are distracted by monetary concerns (how they are personally compensated), the more wholeheartedly they can commit themselves to your own cause.
Staffing lower-level technical and engineering positions
Especially if you anticipate fast turnover, or changing staffing requirements as the technical side of your operations grow, consider using a dedicated technical recruiting firm. With an account manager in whom you have confidence, negotiate an exclusive arrangement to encourage the most professional ongoing collaboration.
KForce Staffing, is such a firm with offices nationwide providing technical staffing and outsourcing services. Develop a relationship with a manager committed to understanding and keeping pace with your needs. Companies like this have big staffs working with large databases, which makes them more like an Employment Agency and less like a Headhunter. Recruiting and hiring is always a highly personal affair where events rarely unfold predictably. Given this reality, a key consideration becomes how well you can work with your account manager to address the inevitable challenges.
Staffing entry-level, non-technical, and non-managerial positions
Negotiate an exclusive arrangement with an individual in whom you have confidence, to encourage the closest professional collaboration and the most discerning search for first-class candidates.
Compared with middle and upper management recruiting, staffing these positions has less to do with finding people possessing specific knowledge and experience. A recruiter's success is more apt to come from appreciating a client's corporate culture and the special needs of the supervising manager. To use a recruiter effectively it is often wiser to find one you are comfortable with and providing them with the in-depth orientation necessary to be of real value.
In lieu of a deeper understanding with which to insightfully screen potential candidates, recruiters regularly staffing such positions have every incentive to send every plausible resume in order to offset the wide range of managerial discretion. When payment is totally contingent on a recruiter's candidate being hired (which is customary at this level), recycling of marginal people will be unwittingly encouraged: Hence the importance of developing a solid relationship with a recruiter who more fully understands and respects your situation.
For the same reason, if you solicit recruiters for resumes to simply expand your pool of candidates you are inviting less selectivity and even lower quality people. The cream rarely rises in such a scenario; it is dedicated and focused searching which begets dedicated and focused candidates. Recruiters accustomed to seeking-out the best candidates will be wary of exposing their better contacts under ambiguous circumstances and are unlikely to spend time on a speculative basis to isolate or recruit other strong people for you.
Staffing executives and other senior-level positions
Negotiate an exclusive arrangement with an individual in whom you have confidence, so they can have the knowledge and credibility to advocate a future with your organization to the very best candidates who are probably not actively looking. Take the time to carefully screen potential recruiters for the individual best prepared to do the job, then cultivate a relationship that works for both of you.
This applies to recruiting any manager of professionals, as well as finding high-grade technical people who operate with little or no staff. The fully-employed and stable candidates you want have probably been recruited before or used recruiters in their own hiring. Because of this senior people are usually experienced enough not to let themselves be included in any non-select group of candidates, or otherwise showing open interest indiscreetly.
More sophisticated senior managers and executives will also be unlikely to show any overt interest unless the recruiter thoroughly understands and persuasively conveys the attractions of the proposed situation. The first time executives are approached about new positions they usually make a decision about the potential suitor, based largely on the first overture, which is difficult to correct if that initial approach is not handled properly. Your opportunity must be established as not merely intriguing but compelling. The more senior a position is, the more knowledgeable, credible, and convincing, your representative must be; to this end you must fully empower your recruiter.
Retained Search. Senior-level and executive searches are usually done on a pure retained basis and the recruiter's relationship to the client becomes more that of a Consultant. A retainer helps ensure the recruiter's objectivity, along with their active and ongoing involvement, in cases that may be more challenging and subtle.
Contingency Recruiting, meaning payment is contingent on a referral being hired, may be used for senior positions, but it is rarely a good idea since the fee for a senior person will inspire even less selectivity than for entry-level hires. Unprepared and uncommitted recruiters will also be calling highly sophisticated candidates who may understandably dismiss their amateurish advances, then refuse calls from other recruiters who might otherwise have gained their confidence.
We prefer a "Contained" Search, where advances are made against the anticipated recruiting fee. This approach is a blend of the con-tingency and re-tained search practices and incorporates the advantages of both. A down-payment demonstrates your support of the recruiter and encourages them to do what it takes to complete the project for full payment. On the other hand, if you are not satisfied with the way a search is shaping-up you may cut the relationship short: you are only paying for results or satisfaction the recruiter is on-track to delivering them.
Fee considerations and other administrative issues
The more you can assure recruiters they will be paid for excellent work, the easier it will be to gain the active participation of the most capable recruiter for a particular situation. Fee percentages are higher for senior positions despite higher salary levels. This reflects the fact that producing senior candidates is more challenging and something not everybody can do as well. The possible savings of 5% of an executive's salary is a false economy given the impact of these key people.
As with all well-founded agreements, those considerate of both parties yield the best results. For more sensitive searches the recruiter's professional commitment to you should naturally include confidentiality. Keep in mind, however, that your recruiter must be poised to field any of the qualifying questions a prudent candidate would have, even if it is agreed certain issues are to deferred to the client.
The most active recruiters in your industry niche will probably have found a reason to introduce themselves to you, and they may have a feel for your company from prior work. Within non-specialized recruiting organizations there are competent individuals committed to your industry; within organizations committed to your industry there will be individuals who are less than capable. Consider it a two-way interview whenever a recruiter calls; put a premium on true knowledge and professionalism versus the threadbare enthusiasm on which too many recruiters have learned to rely.
Human Resources, the recruiter, and hiring-management, each have an role to play when searching-out and recruiting first-rate people at any level. With a properly balanced relationship between these players the search itself can often go surprisingly quickly. The real challenge often becomes how to bring on-board (i.e. sell your opportunity to) the single best candidate. To be successful, close coordination is necessary between the active and creative advocacy of the recruiter and hiring-management, with the overall process facilitated by HR.
Potential candidates, particularly those in engineering or at an earlier
point in their careers, can brush up their resumes and file them on the
biggest of the job-hunting bulletin board services, The
Monsterboard. As mentioned earlier, KForce is a well-respected recruiting and employee outsourcing
company for companies and candidates whose concerns are more strictly technical.
The National Educational Computing Conference is an annual meeting drawing many of the major hardware companies, as well as Systems Integrators and software companies with significant markets in education and educational administration. The focus here is mainly on K-12 (School) applications and those candidates with an interest in this area may find attendance a good idea.
For candidates more interested in higher-education, The Chronicle of Higher Education is a weekly publication with current news, in addition to extensive employment classifieds for higher-education academics and academic administrators.
Anyone presuming to have a career in publishing will already be aware of the print edition, but Publishers Weekly is also available online. Every May, traditionally in New York City, but increasingly elsewhere, there is the BookExpo America meeting, which is a must-attend meeting for publishers and industry professionals focusing on North America. There are also annual publishing gatherings around the world that provide a nice excuse to get out of town and tour the industry. Most professionals agree the premier meeting for those operating worldwide is the Frankfurt Bookfair, held annually in October.
Naturally, there is an ever-changing assortment of trade magazines and eZines serving the various niches of new-media. Amongst these many voices, people interested in the cutting edge of new-media publishing should be acquainted with E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), which draws electronic game developers in addition to most of the major distributors and "content providers" (how the new-media industry defines publishers). Whether it is for the committed gamer, or those just looking for the leading players in edutainment and kid's software publishing, E3 is one of the world's great meetings.
Clients and candidates alike should be aware of the Directory of Recruiters (sometimes known as the "Red Book"), and the Directory of Consultants, both available from Kennedy Publications. In addition, these compendiums can be found in the business reference section of many public libraries. For corporations with diverse and ongoing recruiting needs the Red Book is available on disk and its purchase may be worthwhile.
Contact
Information
"There are only the pursued, the
pursuing, the busy and the tired"
........F. Scott Fitzgerald
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