A large part of the reason many companies bring executive search in-house is to avoid paying around 30 percent of the first year’s salary, which could be $70,000 or more, to an outside recruiting firm as a fee. There are other reasons, of course, but cost is usually a major factor in these decisions. One risk with this strategy, however, is that the costs of an in-house recruiting team could equal or even surpass the fees charged by an executive search firm. If there’s not a positive return on investment (ROI) associated with in-house executive search, there may not be too much reason to spend the amount of time it takes to do it in-house, which can divert other employees from important tasks as they conduct searches, interviews, and other recruiting and hiring tasks. Delivering Positive ROI With In-House Executive Search One effective step to take is to make sure your marketing department is working on employer branding, with a specific website or section of the website dedicated to defining your brand and corporate culture. Effective employer branding will lead to positive word-of-mouth for your company, and more candidates will be attracted to your company, including executive candidates. It is inadvisable to conduct an executive search without solid expertise on the exact position you want to hire, as well as on the executive search process itself and the best ways to conduct recruiting efforts. Your ROI will be zero if your search is unsuccessful, and will be quite low if your process is cumbersome and it takes an extraordinary amount of time to fill the position. Hiring HR staff or other leadership with experience in executive recruiting (like former search firm employees) is a good step to take, even if you don’t do executive search that often. You may be able to hire a recruiting team member with expertise specific to your executive search on a contract basis, which will increase your costs but could lead to a better search outcome. Building a strong network of contacts is another good focus area for an in-house team, since referrals can be an important source of candidates. Software like Thrive TRM can store and track profiles of contacts and referrals with database functionality that streamlines the work involved in maintaining large amounts of information and accessing it easily. In fact, Thrive TRM is an asset to just about every aspect of the search process, from handling data to communication among team members and creating instant reports to keep everyone up to date on progress. Thrive TRM goes far beyond spreadsheets and databases, encompassing data security, comparative data analysis, and other features specially designed to handle even the most difficult executive searches. Why handle executive search piecemeal, with spreadsheets and information in different places? A system that keeps everything integrated and together will improve the ROI on your search by saving tons of time spent in meetings trying to coordinate what Thrive TRM can do seamlessly and instantly. Contact us for more information about what Thrive TRM can do for your executive search process.