Senior hires carry more risk for businesses. There is a lot of scope to get it wrong, and getting it wrong can be much more damaging at a senior position than someone being the wrong fit for an entry-level position.

But can you remove the risk of a wrong hire, and what do you need to do to get it right?

This post is going to dive into some of the ways you can fill senior roles without getting it wrong.

Write a Brief That Reflects The Real Role

If you’re putting out a brief that is too vague for the role or is too focused on credentials, then you’ll automatically pull the wrong candidates. Before you write anything, you need to be clear on exactly what the role actually is and what candidates will be expected to do upon being hired.

You’re not focusing on the “ideal” CV; you’re looking at the real duties, the real problems the person will be expected to solve, the decisions they’ll be expected to make, and the environment they’ll be walking into.

A senior operations hire in a scaling business is a fundamentally different role than the same title in a stable process-heavy organisation. And if your brief doesn’t capture that distinction, then you’ll increase your chances of taking on the wrong person.

Go Outside of Your Existing Network

Sure, it’s good to know people around you who can fit the role, but you’re narrowing the field if this is the only place you’re looking.

For senior-level roles, you cannot just look for someone qualified. You’re looking for the best person available for the specific role at a specific moment in your business.

Relying on referrals and known contacts means you’re only ever seeing a fraction of the talent that is out there.

You need to include a broader search area and include passive candidates — people who aren’t actively looking but would move for the right opportunity. These people are often the strongest hires at the executive level, and for the most part, they won’t be visible within your network.

Work With An Executive Recruiting Firm

An executive recruiting firm will give you access to a wider pool of candidates, and they’ll have the knowledge to assess the pool properly.

Good firms aren’t just running searches. They’re providing intelligence on where strong candidates are, what they’re looking for, and how your opportunity compares to others in the market.

That context in particular can be difficult to replicate internally, especially if you’re not used to senior hiring practises.

Define Success

Here’s the thing: you need a senior hire who knows what your goals are and what their role is within the company, and to get this, you need to define exactly what success looks like prior to hiring or even putting your brief together.

Before the search begins, define what success looks like in the role at six and twelve months, for example. You need specific outcomes, not general expectations. The result of this means a sharper brief and gives you an objective framework for assessing candidates that doesn’t shift. This gives you the means to identify those who can meet exactly what you need them to know and what you think you need them to do.