Executive Search with Depth — Part VII:
Transparency all the Way

The Valdivia concept of Exec­u­tive Search reach­es far beyond the search as such. We accom­pa­ny the assign­ing enter­prise as well as the candi­dates all the way from their first encounter to inten­si­fy­ing the contact and far beyond. As part of our Valdivia Inter­nal series, we are today present­ing this initial stage of making contact – start­ing with a first person­al inter­view and result­ing in both parties’ sign­ing the contract.

Present­ing the Shortlist

To start with, we present our client with previ­ous­ly select­ed candi­dates. Depend­ing on the number of appli­cants, we will select the most suit­ed ones with the best perspec­tives. Valdivia candi­date profiles do not only contain the orig­i­nal CVs but also any qual­i­fi­ca­tions and person­al infor­ma­tion rele­vant for the posi­tion in ques­tion. For further trans­paren­cy, we simul­ta­ne­ous­ly make these docu­ments acces­si­ble via our Valdivia customer portal. This way, our clients can view the status of our work as well as all the rele­vant docu­ments, such as profiles, constituent parts of the contract, and the final job descrip­tion at any time.

A second specif­ic of Valdivia’s Exec­u­tive Search Process is anoth­er part of this presen­ta­tion. We intro­duced it to you in Valdivia Inter­nal no. 5: the results of the Behav­iour­al Profile Analy­sis (BPA; German: Verhal­tenspro­fi­l­analyse = VDA) as well as a lead­er­ship skills alnal­y­sis based on a simi­lar approach. Both analy­ses will be done on customer request.

Meet­ing and Speak­ing Face-to-Face 

Now it is time for actu­al­ly getting to know each other. Our client will meet in person those candi­dates who made it through the pres­e­lec­tion process. It often takes three or even four rounds before both parties find they have a thor­ough under­stand­ing of each other, some­times also with the rele­vant depart­ments or deci­sion-makers present, as the second and third inter­view come around.

Valdivia takes full care of arrang­ing this peri­od, prepar­ing candi­dates for topics that may come up as well as accom­pa­ny­ing them to the inter­views, if they wish us to do so. Should the enter­prise decide against them and against further inter­views, Valdivia will inform the candi­date accord­ing­ly and provide them with mean­ing­ful and qual­i­fied feed­back. We make a point of explain­ing the reasons for such a deci­sion in a profes­sion­al and compre­hen­si­ble way.

Offer Manage­ment – The Freestyle Part

As soon as the enter­prise has made its final choice of the success­ful appli­cant, anoth­er very impor­tant part of our work starts. Valdivia’s Exec­u­tive Search process stands out in that we further accom­pa­ny our clients and candi­dates even during their contrac­tu­al nego­ti­a­tions. Our services include:

• On client’s request, we retrieve refer­ences for the candidate.
• We check the offer (salary and bene­fits) and assisst in work­ing out the contract if need­ed. More­over, we offer to obtain legal coun­selling on the employ­ment contract.
• In the inter­est of both parties, we support the candi­date in termi­nat­ing their exist­ing employment.

This way, Valdivia’s expe­ri­ence and method­ol­o­gy ensure that the process will be success­ful for every­body involved and run as smooth­ly as possi­ble. This proce­dure rests on our funda­men­tal values of dili­gence, far-sight­ed­ness and trust­wor­thi­ness. Clients and candi­dates alike bene­fit from the feel­ing of being on a good and safe way with us as their partner.