5 Vital Steps in the Recruitment of a Board Member

As a corporate recruiter your ability to recruit the top talent  is pivotal to your future career success. And the tasks don’t come much tougher than recruitment of a new Board member.  Do a good job and you have an ally in the Company, your boss loves you for a day or two, and the President finally knows your name. It’s not a traditional recruitment process, and the stakes are higher.

Get it wrong? Well the consequences of bringing in the wrong person can ultimately lead to plummeting share values or misdirection of the entire company.  No pressure though…

Whether it’s your first time recruiting for a senior post or you’re an old hand at it, let’s look at the key steps in the process of bringing on a new board member.  Some points state the obvious but they’re always worth recapping no matter how long you’ve been in the game.

Identify the Candidate

What do you want them to achieve, what are the parameters of the role? Is there an existing profile that you can emulate, since traditional job specs are not used?  What does their industry experience look like? What does their board experience look like and more specifically what key decisions did they make on the board?  Understand the business objectives and how each prospect’s experience maps to these goals. Are these expectations realistic? Do you need a revolutionary or a safe pair of hands to maintain the status quo? Make sure you have a frank assessment of the current board’s competency gaps.

Look Internally

Is there anyone who would be a natural successor for this role? (assuming it’s not a new post) Does the President want fresh blood?  A vibrant external candidate can invigorate a tired corporation from top to bottom.  Investigate both options. What’s to prevent you from including an internal candidate on your final shortlist? Don’t forget staff morale either.  Nothing motivates ambitious employees more than seeing the company they work for nurturing its own people. Internal company operational knowledge is invaluable for board activities, so be sure not to discount it in favor of industry expertise.

Network

Find out who’s doing a good job out there on existing boards, because your board role may not be a huge time commitment. Ask around – word of mouth is a great way of discovering who’s making the big decisions. The business press is usually a good source as well.  Attend industry events, watch presentations by industry leaders. Find out where they work and just as importantly, where they volunteer their services. What are your competitors doing that you’re not? Is it feasible to poach from them directly without damaging any tenuous relationship your CEO may have with theirs?

The Role of a Headhunter

It’s not unusual to use a headhunter for Board level appointments. They invest time and money keeping in touch with the movers and shakers in your sector. Chances are, they may already know that ideal candidate. Choose the right headhunter and the toughest part of the hiring process should be the culture fit. If you’re worried about confidentiality, have candidates and headhunters sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Take the heat off yourself and let a third party handle the negotiation of compensation if there is any. Be sure however, if equity or options are involved to develop a real understanding of what it means. Be sure to develop a financial model using a program like Excel which shows “what-if” scenarios.

The “Hiring” Process

Bringing a new board member on is not like the usual hiring process. There may be no compensation or equity/performance based compensation. Your normal hiring process will not suffice. Board level appointments are typically made through on-site meetings with both management and the rest of the board. You may not be able to sit in on regular board meetings, so in depth interviews with the decision makers are an absolute must. The “hiring” process may also be more focused on character than most. Psychometric tests and in depth financial background checks are common, as board members are considered executive level fiduciaries of the company. Although much of the recruitment process will be out of your hands after the initial networking and sourcing aspect, corporate recruitment can do a lot to instill a sense of order and hiring discipline to the process. Ensure that extensive references and background checks are done thoroughly, and that their reputation with every company that have been involved with is beyond reproach.

Executive and board level recruitment can be the most fulfilling part of a Corporate Recruiter’s role.  For the company it can be a major coup and for you, a career highlight on your resume.