Executive searches are conducted differently than other recruiting efforts. This is because executive searches are highly specialized, and do not typically generate the same amount or type of applicants that other positions would. There may only be a handful of people in the entire world who could fill some executive positions, and finding enough of them to interview is the job of an executive search firm. There’s no getting away from research as part of executive recruiting. Before contacting or interviewing a candidate for an executive position, recruiters need to know who they are, what they’ve done in the past, and what they might be able to do for the company looking to fill the position. Without this information, an interviewer will be flying blind, and a recruiter has not done their due diligence in preparing the hiring team for the interview. Companies rely on executive search firms to conduct the research that will lead to a successful hire because they don’t have the expertise to do this research themselves. Even if a company does have some contacts that can lead to a quality candidate for the position, executive search firms must still research the candidate to be sure that it’s a good match for the company and that the qualifications check out. Research is likely to be a major, time-consuming part of any recruiter’s day, or it may be something that an intern or assistant is tasked with doing in a larger executive search firm. Some larger firms even have a research team that handles this aspect of the process. However research is handled, it is highly important to the executive search process. Using Technology Tools for Research It used to be that the main tools for executive search research were a Rolodex and a telephone. Using your contacts to do research is still one way today’s executive recruiters function, but it is now only one tool in a rapidly widening arsenal that has made research easier to do than it has ever been before. Google (or your preferred search engine) is now the go-to for primary research into any candidate. Social media profiles, author sites, and posts on message boards can tell a company a lot about a candidate that would have been previously unknown, with the caveat that not everything found online is always true. Online research can be confirmed or augmented by talking to those who know the candidate. But here’s where using tools gets interesting. How will executive recruiters track and report the vast amounts of information they gather? That’s where ThriveTRM comes in. With Thrive, you can build detailed candidate profiles using your research to put all your information for each candidate at your fingertips. Some of this info can even be imported from the source to make it faster and easier. Once you have profiles created, you can use Thrive TRM to compare candidates’ qualifications easily and objectively, and instant reports can be created and shared with everyone who is involved in the process on any computer or device. No more making complicated calculations by hand or trying to weigh various candidates against each other in completely subjective ways. Now, your calculations can be exact, and your entire team will be able to see your reasons for your preferences as clearly as you do. Schedule a demoto see all Thrive TRM’s capabilities for your recruiting process.