More and more institutions have been seeking the help of search consultants to fill administrative jobs. But when does a college need a search consultant?
As a college administrator, I worked on many searches, most of them without benefit of a consultant. But as a consultant who has worked on numerous searches, I believe my colleagues and I can significantly enhance the search process. Here are some observations about when it makes sense to call for help in your search.
The higher the position, the more important it is to get a consultant. Searches for high-level positions, particularly presidents and vice-presidents, are very likely to have different -- and better -- outcomes if you use a consultant. The process should go better as well.
By contrast, searches for staff positions (e.g., associate vice-president or assistant dean), or faculty positions rarely use consultants and can usually be done effectively without help. This is because higher-level appointments are associated with greater risk to the institution. A consultant may not always remove all risk (as we saw in the recent Chronicle report on a new president who may have included some misleading statements in his résumé), but can certainly provide a measure of assurance that the candidates with the best fit have been brought into the search, and ideally, that the finalists have been thoroughly checked out.
If you want candidates who aren't looking for a job, or who may not find your institution or respond to your ad on their own, you need a search consultant. Because consultants actively seek out candidates who are well-suited to your institutional needs, we can generate a better pool of candidates than you will generate based on advertisements alone. While search committees often try to send recruiting letters, they rarely have the time or the network to do enough.
If some of your institutional neighbors or competitors are simultaneously carrying out the same search (e.g., two Ivy League institutions seeking presidents simultaneously), you want to have a consultant on your side. The consultant can talk to candidates about the special merits of your position and institution and win those who might be considering both opportunities.
Searches are enormously time-consuming, especially for the committee chair; if you want to streamline the process, a consultant can help. We've done dozens or even hundreds of searches; we know what problems to anticipate and can propose a variety of solutions.
Campus critics often focus on the search process; consultants can help you shape a clean and appropriate process that will reduce campus uneasiness. Beginning with the appointment of the committee and the announcement of its charge, a consultant can help you to avoid problems and deal with concerns.
An institution whose name is not well-known, or whose location is remote or unpopular, may not attract many candidates through ads and may generate a better pool with the aid of a consultant. For example, a search at a large public university in California may not need help as much as a search in rural North Dakota at a small private college. An enthusiastic and well-informed search consultant can attract candidates who might not otherwise consider the North Dakota position.
Incidentally, there is another side to this coin: Institutions in unusually attractive locations (North Carolina, New England) may attract a large pool of candidates, some of whom may seem to be more interested in the lifestyle. The consultant can help ferret out these motives.
When the institution or the position has had recent problems that outsiders are aware of, a consultant can help to attract candidates who might otherwise be reluctant to get involved. If, for example, the previous incumbent left prematurely or under unhappy circumstances, if the governing board has had conflict, if there have been deficits, downsizing, or budget cuts, if there have been strikes, if there have been questions of accreditation or institutional integrity -- someone will have to talk with candidates about the facts of the situation, determine whether they have the skills to address continuing problems, and convince them that the situation is either fixed or fixable. Although a search-committee member can provide this information, a consultant may offer somewhat more credibility as an outsider.
Some institutions decide to go it alone but are unable to bring the search to a successful conclusion, so they seek a consultant to assist with a reopened search. I have seen this situation most often at the vice-presidential level. Although the reasons why the search didn't conclude successfully may be perfectly good (e.g., it was too late in the academic year for the most attractive candidates to accept the offer), a reopened search often carries a red flag for candidates, who wonder about more sinister factors (e.g., they may speculate that the appointing officer and the search committee couldn't reach agreement, reflecting deeper institutional division). The moral of this story is that it's better, faster, and ultimately cheaper to use a consultant the first time around.
Speaking of cost, the typical fee for searches is one-third of the first year's compensation, plus expenses like travel and advertising. There is a certain amount of variation in this, since some firms have a flat fee regardless of the salary to be paid, some have a minimum fee that often exceeds the third, and expenses can be handled differently by different firms.
In addition, each search firm has a certain culture, and each search consultant has a certain style and personality. If you do decide to use a consultant, you'll be working together intensively on a critically important project, so the fit is important.
