How an executive search firm slashed sourcing time by 59%

Scaling the executive search business

Executive search is one of the most critical talent acquisition challenges for a company. The right leadership means the difference between success and failure, growth or stagnation, good or great. That’s why finding the right candidate with the full confidence of the client or hiring decision maker  can be a game changer.

One firm is upending the business by applying AI to the fundamental challenges of the executive search process.

“If AI can re-route my drive-assisted car around a traffic accident, why are we still manually updating spreadsheets and disconnected systems to manage executive relationships? This isn’t a people problem. It’s a technology problem."

This firm has cracked the code with AI to deliver unmatched data and workflow automation built for the complexities of executive search. By reducing the time it takes to source the right talent by 59%, they can focus on where they add the most value to grow the business: guiding clients in their decision making.

The data problem and the “too many tools” challenge for executive search

“With executive search, the initial stage of research execution requires so much manual work and tracking. The truth is, we’re using talent acquisition systems that were not designed for executive search. And that’s a problem.”

Executive search teams simply spend too much time navigating disparate data sources and manually tracking their work. The research and validation stage takes weeks. Recruiters cross check public profiles against public company information to understand impact, manually updating contact information, experience, outcomes and more across disconnected internal systems. 

A client request for a board member might start with these requirements: “find candidates with IPO experience as a CEO in the US who have capacity to join a public company board in the next 18 months.”

The research begins using the S&P or Capital IQ to compile a list of all software companies that have had an IPO in the past 10 years, say 500 companies. Then cross-reference each company with LinkedIn to build a list of potential candidates. 

Next, the team determines board capacity for each person on the list using BoardEx, reducing the list by about 70%. That means most of the research time was spent reviewing candidates who are not a fit.

After external search and validation, the team finds that most of the candidates are already in their internal ATS. Outreach begins to determine interest, resulting in about 20 candidates to be shared with the hiring manager for consideration with a final market intelligence review.

That’s about 130 hours of work to get to the 20 most viable candidates, before the person-to-person work of nurturing relationships and persuading executives to consider opportunities can begin. All of it tracked manually across fragmented systems and Excel spreadsheets.

“One of the biggest challenges for executive search teams is being able to show their work. That’s what our clients need to see to feel confident that we’ve found every possible candidate that meets their criteria. We can more effectively guide our clients to make stronger leadership hiring decisions, using the most up-to-date market intelligence.”

The research team at this firm recognized that the right technology and data could help them solve for these massive inefficiencies and transform the company’s ability to grow and scale. 

They were ready to build their own system, expecting to spend months, even years in development and testing, without confidence that teams would transition to a new way of working. Plus building proprietary software without a data solution seemed risky.

That’s when they found Findem.

The transformation journey begins

Findem had already solved the data and workflow problem for talent acquisition teams with unmatched 3D data and one of the industry’s first implementations of AI for sourcing. 

“Findem breaks the paradigm of the data problem and the digital problem. People can do all their work in one place because all the information they need is continuously updated and made available through workflows that streamline their activities.”

But would it work for executive search? Partnering with Findem, they found robust data capabilities and workflow automations that transformed the research and validation phase. Here’s how:

Turn client requests into candidate shortlists

Findem analyzes data from 100,000+ sources to create unique, factual 3D data – people and company data over time. This 3D dataset is exponentially larger and more factual than other sources, making it a powerful tool for deep insights and automated workflows. 

Findem’s AI translates natural language questions into optimized search terms to return a comprehensive, organized talent pool that can be quickly reviewed, annotated, and shared. 

With a single search, in a single tool, the team can find everyone who has experience as a CEO, at a software company, during the time the company went through an IPO with past interactions. 

“Precision search is a game changer for us. When we search using our client’s language, we get closer to our target list that much faster. With Findem, we can find people by what they have done, who they are, and how they got there.”

Automatically track and organize information

Findem’s platform integrates with the firm’s applicant tracking system to automatically update and enrich candidate profiles with external data and internal interactions. This saves search committees hours of manual work for every candidate.

“There are so many capabilities outside the core Findem platform. Findem does so much more than help find people. It’s powering our ATS with unmatched 3D data and intelligence.”

Improve efficiency and effectiveness with insights

In addition to deeper, more enriched views of each candidate, the Findem platform includes market mapping and insights to guide conversations with clients and speed the review process. 

“With Findem we have access to all the people in the world who can do the job. We can advise top-down and guide clients through trade-offs with data and get to a prioritized candidate pool as quickly as possible using evidence of what the market actually looks like.”

Measurable time savings and ROI

Findem’s platform consolidates all necessary data into one place, enabling unified search across all data sources and workflows. The firm worked closely with Findem to benchmark hours per workflow before and after using Findem.

With a 59% time reduction in pipeline tasks, the firm gained an average of 2 work weeks during the executive search process. The greatest gain came from tasks related to research and list building, saving almost 60 hours per search. 

“This new era of AI is all about data. Findem completes the missing piece of the workflow puzzle for executive search, using 3D data to unlock the next generation of executive search capabilities for our business.“

Partners in transformation 

Everyone knows that change happens from the inside out, not from a miracle technology integration. Partnering with Findem, the firm was able to onboard 450 users, and roll out the technology to the whole firm in under 30 days.

By integrating Findem’s talent data platform and AI with their ATS, they now have all their information in one place with AI-powered access. But changing behavior takes time. 

“Findem was there every step of the way, working with our innovation team to support our roll out. Their approach to customer success, matching internal champions with a value consultant who is a past practitioner, is unmatched by other vendors. We could not have asked for a better partner to begin this transformation journey.”

Faster decision making with client confidence

Even more important than internal time savings, the firm cut decision making time with clients. A typical executive search can take anywhere from 4 to 6 months to complete successfully. By leading with a complete view of the available talent market, it's easier than ever to drive conviction with a client at the beginning of the search process.

Researchers spend time mapping the world of the search and showing the volume of research to be done in order to persuade their client. Findem’s business intelligence does the work and shows the work. Findem solves the confidence problem with live candidate data, showing the total addressable market of people who meet the client’s search criteria.

“We don’t have to spend 6 months convincing a client that there really isn’t someone better out there. We can guide them through trade-offs and get to the pipeline in one or two conversations using evidence of what the market actually looks like.”

The AI and data transformation of executive search 

What does time savings mean for this executive search firm? 

“Findem supercharges us. Our AI transformation gets us way ahead of our competitors. We can focus on activities that are just inherently more creative and human. We have time to evolve our practices. This is going to change what the work looks like. ”

When the innovation team began their transformation journey, they thought they would have to go it alone. In Findem, they found a partner who had already solved many of the data and digital problems that plagued the industry. They also found a willing partner in innovation. 

“Findem is going to unlock better ways for us to guide our clients, and enable them to make better hiring and leadership decisions for our client’s organizations.”