London is one of the busiest and most populous cities in the world. It is also, in a very specialised sense quite a small and insular place. This sense is in regard to high-level C-Suite recruitment, where the same names – sometimes referred to as an old boys’ club – come up time and time again. This can make it incredibly hard to both inject some fresh thinking and innovative business methods into a company, while also allowing a lot of highly talented managers to languish elsewhere, either still within the UK or further abroad across the world. How can you take your company to new heights by injecting a splash of fresh thought and novelty, in the best possible sense of the word? Let’s take a look.
Table of Contents
Find a Good Recruiter
In previous times, social and business circles were, of a necessity, small and enclosed. You did business with people you could trust, or, at a pinch, people who were trusted by others in your inner circle. While this was partly because lines of communication only went so far, it was also a form of protection against unknown quantities who might want to plunder your business for their own gains. In fact, recruitment agencies sprang up to aid with this system of known and trusted candidates, doing their own due diligence before recommending candidates for positions, and this is still true today; companies like Eagle Headhunters specialise in matching trustworthy, able candidates with reputable and profitable businesses. Having a reputable and up-to-date recruiter is the best possible way to find your perfect candidate.
Encourage DEI Policies
C-Suites are – as is often loudly lamented in the press – dominated by the demographic unkindly described as ‘stale, pale males’ – older men, usually white, who have benefited from all the advantages of their colour, gender, and – usually – social status. Actively working to even out the balance of the C-Suite to match the populations demographic (in the UK, this is 26% Black and other minority ethnic and 52% female, for example, to name just two) will automatically raise people into management who would have had different experiences and struggles as their career progressed, and this intimate inside knowledge has been proven to add value – both more ephemeral, such as happier workplaces, and practical, literally improving productivity and profitability. It is harder to wave DEI policies aside as ‘woke nonsense’ when the bottom line displays the clear benefits of this inclusivity.
Be Aware of Unconscious (and Conscious) Bia
But quite apart from legislating for inclusivity in business, it is also important to make sure that good candidates are not being knocked back because of biases, whether conscious or not. While many managers will insist that they have no problem working with, for example, women, those women will often find a small (but pernicious) percentage of the current management ignore their ideas, talk over them in meetings, sometimes taking credit for their ideas or, yes, still, even in 2023, assume that the woman will make and serve tea and coffee, set up and tidy the boardroom before and after meetings, and generally do the ‘feminine’ (for which you can read menial and unpaid) tasks around the office. This attitude is hard to fight against, and can set your diverse hires up for failure: if they are not seen and treated as having equal value, they will lose heart, perform badly, or simply resign, and move to a position where they receive the respect they are due…
Difference is a great innovator, so if you are looking to liven up the talent pool in your C-Suite, you could do much worse than instruct your recruiter to find the best and brightest in the industry – no matter where in the world they might be. Your profit margins (and shareholders) will thank you!