News

Recruiter News

Hiring Teams by Executive Insurance Recruiters

Hiring Teams: The New Norm

A vast majority of project search contracts required teams of 2 or more hires, rather than one single individual. In fact only two searches all year were for a single, individual.

The hiring of teams, whether multiple initial hires handled as a group, or spread out over a period of six to nine months, has become the prevalent trend among our clients.

We have successfully placed teams ranging from 2 key leaders (senior vp + vp) up to entire groups of five, or more initial simultaneous hires.

Usually our role is to position the key decision makers which then build out teams further upon hiring.

Almost all of our Director, VP and higher level hiring’s result in a domino effect of multiple consecutive hires pursing the key leaders. One company used IRES to position regional managers across the nation ranging from Denver, Texas, Atlanta and Florida. Those regional managers then hired further underwriting and/or support staff immediately after coming on board.

Recruiting of teams has been the upward trend and continues as of this writing with most companies having the capital resources to acquire groups as they seek to bolster annual revenue.

Your Insurance Recruiting Specialists can help you plan for your future hiring team needs.

Comparing Recruiting Firms

IRES Provides World Class Recruiting Services

Why should we use IRES versus (fill in with name of the highest cost retained firm that comes to mind)?

A few times every few years someone asks us questions that are the entirely wrong question to begin with.

For example, “Why should we use IRES instead of ________?” when the blank can be filled in with any of the costliest global retained firms.

Normally this is not the question most people ask as most came to IRES recommended by others in their former, current company, or professional trade colleagues.

This free PDF download provides a quick checklist of the types of Frequently Asked Questions we receive as well as a list of better questions we suggest you do ask.

Your Retained Executive Insurance Recruiters of Choice…IRES, Inc.

What Salary Should I Ask For?

IRES – Insurance Executive Recruiters

How to Estimate Compensation Requirements for a New Job

Question:

“How do I know I’m asking for the right salary or compensation package?”

Answer:

“It Depends”

For anyone who has made it to the final stages of an interview process the common question that surfaces is one surrounding how to determine what to ask for as a new salary. There is always second-guessing and Monday-night quarterbacking when it seems as if you got what you wanted too easily.

The fact is there is no one single answer as this changes for junior level positions and becomes more complex for senior roles involving specialty skills (lawyers, actuaries, executives, etc.)

First there are many components to an offer ranging from salary alone, salary + vacation, and up through salary plus stock options, multi-tiered performance bonus, relocation plans and more.

The usual components are:

Salary
Paid Vacation
401k/retirement/defined benefit

For mid level management jobs this list can stretch to include :

Auto allowance
Relocation
Stock options
Performance Bonus

Senior level positions can have all of the above plus:

Hiring bonus
Stock options
Additional Cash contributions
Multi-tiered bonuses

On average most new offers arrive within a range percentage-wise. That percentage can fall within a ten to twenty-five percent or more increase over your current base salary. That’s just comparing salary to salary. All other components must be evaluated linearly as well.

Some positions can command, in unique situations and for skills and knowledge/experience that is in very short supply … offer increases that exceed 25 percent and go up to 40% or more. But it all depends.

If you click on this salary bar chart you will notice in 2013 most offers were presented with values ranging from 15 to 35% above a professional job applicant’s current salary.

You will also notice the range has been creeping higher in recent years with the trend continuing 2014 (not included on this chart) and through 1st quarter of 2015.

Many variables effect your new salary expectations including:

The increased role, responsibility and toll of the new job you might be in consideration for
Relocation and other logistics such as changes in travel
Years of experience
Level and quality of education
The niche of the industry and how competitive it is
Specialized degrees or certifications (CPCU, Fellow of SOA, CPA, MBA, CRIS, CISR, CRM, etc.)
Current cycle of economic growth (are we in a plateau, recession, boom, etc.)

To read the full LinkedIn article CLICK HERE

Thinking about a career move? Don’t interview without calling IRES first your only choice for Insurance Executive Recruiters. With over 25 years in recruiting on both sides of the Atlantic we can provide invaluable advice during your search.

5 Reasons No One Wants Your Job!

IRES Retained Insurance Recruiter

As the talent pool tightens along with a strengthening economy the questions we receive each week during client consultation conferences all have a common underlying factor: Positions they have tried to fill internally and used to be routine are now going unfilled for months and even beyond a year.

They want to know Why?

Why would a challenging, professional, mid-management position that seems to compensate well (emphasis on seems) remain vacant a year or more?

First there’s the obvious: We are well out of the recession which is long behind us and all the easy pickings between Peter and Paul have been snatched up between 2010-2013 … the first years of relatively easy hiring post-recession.

There are other reasons but a few crop up consistently and during our 24 years of placing hundreds of millions in salaries through recruiting globally we find these are the most common of all. They tend to apply regardless of where we are in the economic growth curve.

Company Name/Brand & Ethics/Culture
Position Title, Role and Authority
Quantifying the Talent Pool
Competitive Salary & Compensation
Fulfillment of a Motivating Desire

Company Name, Brand & Ethics/Culture

Let’s start with the first: Is the company recognizable? If not does the product or service it provides hold a value proposition over its competitors? It’s not enough to boast that your company has been around “…fifty years…”. The new generation of professionals want to know “Fine but what does that do for me?”

Once you have addressed the first two of this four-part equation, the next items involve ethics and culture. These go hand-in-hand with the name and the brand it conveys.

To borrow a phrase from the late comedienne Joan Rivers, Can we talk? If we are really being honest with one another we all know that many companies talk the talk but return to status quo in their day in and day out routines. The “brand” they promote … whether it be during an interview at a conference table, via its sales reps or business development managers, is not often aligned with reality. And that’s a problem millennials and generation X’ers are especially keen to be focus on. Any crack in the mission, public relations statements, or recruiting pitch is likely to be viewed as bigger problems lurking behind the curtain.

One high-ranking company executive confided in me recently that at every corporate meeting they discuss “career development” of their junior executives and “succession planning” for their aging execs (most of which are in their early to mid-sixties). But he was disgusted with top leadership talking a great talk, but never following up, implementing, or ensuring anything gets done. While junior executives hired, trained and promoted for the purpose of succession planning were all quitting in droves nationally after they read the same hand-writing on the wall after 2-3 years with the company. They were bleeding at multiple wounds and doing nothing to place a tourniquet on the blood flow!

This Forbes article discusses how company culture must align with what is discussed and described during interviews or individuals are likely to develop mistrust.

To read the full LinkedIn article CLICK HERE

Complimentary Search Audit

If you would like a complimentary audit of your senior professional, managerial, or executive-tier recruiting project …whether your position is in Hong Kong, Zurich, Frankfurt, London or Chicago … call us for a complimentary, discreet, respectful analysis of your search and its prospects of being successfully fulfilled:

Chicago & Western U.S. – (312) 725-3391

Northeastern U.S. – (973) 300-1010

Southern – (704) 243-2110

Your Executive Recruiter audition: Are you Ready?

Each week our office receives calls from professional, career-aspiring individuals seeking another career opportunity. In many cases they came recommended to us in one way or another. Usually it was a former client or placed talent making the referral. About half of these individuals are polished and well prepared for their first discussion with executive search consultants. They are the ones that are relaxed, confident and are able to discuss business while remaining cordial.

But nearly half are woefully unprepared even for the most casual and informal initial telephone discussion. Let alone being prepared for an actual formal interview.

These individuals come from all types of educational backgrounds. Some have their PhDs while others have Masters degrees while the remaining received some type of 4 year baccalaureate degree.

There are many reasons why recruiters are unable to help a large segment of people that reach out to us. Even those who came recommended by friends of the firm or past clients. Most boil down to 5 underlying factors.

5 Reasons You Might be Unprepared for Your Recruiter Audition

Lack of a coherent goal or objective
Unrealistic Expectations
Exaggerated sense of market valuation
Self-denial
Communication Skills

From the above items you will notice that some can be overcome with practice and candid discussions with friends, family or peers. Your expectations can be clarified. Your communication skills improved upon with practice … just like a musician. Other items are not as malleable such as your job track record which is something more or less welded in place.

But even there, there are ways experts can improve how you present your job record in a manner that is most flattering to yourself. This can be done without changing factual dates, titles or roles, but by simply writing your resume in a manner where it features your skills in the most flattering context and format.

Click here to read the full article on LinkedIn

Stay tuned for more helpful advise from your Insurance Executive Recruiters at IRES.

How to Calculate Your Talent Pool

Frank Risalvato, Retained Insurance Executive Recruiter gives hiring managers insight on how to assess the actual talent pool for your open positions.

Have you ever wondered why so few people are being presented for your insurance executive positions? Read more on how to calculate your Realistic Talent Pool in this CPC, Executive Recruiter at IRES a Call at 704-243-2110.

Retained Search Counteroffers and the Risk of Accepting one…

It is that time again when qualified talent is limited and companies are trying to hold onto their current trained employees.

Retained Search Counter Offer

You present your manager with a resignation and he presents you with a counter offer. Read these articles, written by an expert Insurance Retained Search Professional, and look at these charts before proceeding…