We’re Hirehoot the anonymous hiring platform for senior professionals.
Who are senior professionals?
What at first seems like an obvious question turns out to have a range of answers depending on your perspective. At Hirehoot, we support diversity and inclusivity across all that we do, so we go for broad definitions when we think about what a senior role is, or who might be a senior professional. And we consider more than mere “seniority” as defined by an org chart or reporting line.
We consider three dimensions in our definition:
Seniority from professional experience
Let’s start simple. We consider if the role in question is a leadership role (C-suite, department heads, team leaders and so on) and if the candidate has held this type of role before.
This is where many definitions of seniority stop… but it is just the tip of the iceberg for us.
Pure leadership roles represent key hiring challenges to trip up the busy startup co-founder and CEO. But the challenges—time, expense, culture fit and more—aren’t unique. You’ll also find them if you’re looking for a “rockstar” employee (also “superstar”, “A-team player” and various other comparable buzzwords). These people are specialists in their field, key subject matter experts, who may “only” be individual contributors but whose work and decisions keep systems, processes and other people working.
Seniority is impact
This leads us into our second criterion for senior professionals. They have an impact. They get things done. That might be managing teams, but it could equally well be managing projects and driving forward key organisational goals. Or it could be holding specialist knowledge, and making sure that knowledge gets applied so the business can succeed.
Seniority as development and recognition
Our final category is the hardest to define, but important to remember. Seniority is contextual, and it shouldn’t be static. It can start with relevant education, or certification, and should grow from there. Awards and honours are great indicators of leaders, or (especially in scientific and technical fields) publications or thought leadership. Other, quieter, indicators might be mentoring or educational updates colleagues: not just having insight, but growing and sharing it.
So, why does senior hiring have such an impact?
The impact of senior professionals on a business is proportionate to their influence, not their headcount. They have a domino effect on company culture, team success, and company direction. A bad hire can derail a company’s trajectory, a good one can ramp growth exponentially.
This is easy to remember at startups and smaller organisations. There, senior professionals are often co-founders. Or, if not, they are usually pivotal team members who coach and advise others. However, startups and smaller organisations are often moving so fast that other risks can creep in. Often, hiring decisions default to an over-reliance on founders’ networks which can lead to homogenous leadership teams. And that can unintentionally hinder future diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Some top tips for senior hiring
For the employer
Know yourself: take a good look at your company culture and leadership styles to identify the skills and style a new hire will need to not just match, but elevate what you already have.
Know what you're looking for, and articulate it in terms of scope of role and performance objectives rather than ideal candidate.
Check your biases. Pay attention to your instincts, and deliberately challenge them (good and bad). That way, when it is time to make a decision you’ll improve fairness and outcomes, foster trust, and open yourself to innovation..
For the employee:
Leadership takes many forms: highlight all the different areas where you’ve taken initiative and ownership, and inspired different teams and individuals to greater success.
Emphasise impact: leading is all well and good, but demonstrate the effectiveness of your leadership with metrics, contributions to business goals and alignment with overall objectives.
Stay resilient and patient: leadership roles are high impact, high risk and may not come along every day. You may need to weather change, uncertainty and setbacks while you keep your eyes on the path ahead.
If you’re a senior professional looking for a new role join Hirehoot today to get started, or if you’ve got senior roles to fill, get in touch!
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