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As an executive search professional, I am often asked: What is a realistic timeline to fill an executive-level role?
A friend of mine serves on the board of a small international nonprofit and just sent me a note saying that the CEO search for his organization took almost a year. He said it was a “crazy search”—and while I’m not sure if he was referring only to the many months it took, time definitely played a part in his assessment.
In my 20+ years of conducting executive searches in the nonprofit world, I can say confidently that, on average, a search takes about four months to complete—with a few caveats.
Here are three main factors that could hold up a search:
Caveat One: How many people are involved in the search.
The more people involved in the search, the more calendars you must attempt to synchronize when scheduling interviews. This also means more points of view to consider when making final decisions and an increased chance that differing or contradicting opinions from varied search committee members could affect your efficiency.
Caveat Two: The month in which you start the search.
On the search side, my busiest months are January and September: months when most people are returning from vacation or holiday celebrations and are ready to begin hiring or look for a new job. If you’re starting a search in January or September, a search is likely to move faster because everyone is back at work and ready to hire—and candidates are ready to look for new job.
Inversely, if you start a search in August, half the people involved in the search—including candidates—are on vacation and not thinking about hiring or looking for a new job. The same can be said for December, when many are celebrating holidays or taking time off.
Caveat Three: How clearly you convey the skills/experience needed for your open role.
If a hiring manager or search committee is uncertain about a role’s needed skills or experience, assessing candidates becomes much more challenging. Search committees will often interview candidates who they say “don’t quite have what we are looking for” after the interview—but in reality, the committees themselves don’t know what they want, or their perspectives change as they meet candidates.
Lessons learned:
- It is often not easy, but try to keep the number of people involved in the search as low as possible
- Start your search early in the year, or after the summer holidays and before the winter holidays
- Try to reach a firm agreement on the skills and experience necessary for a role before you embark on a search.
Searches are often unpredictable, and many things can extend the timeline for the search beyond your expectations. But if you keep these caveats in mind before you begin the search, you can plan your process to avoid some—if not all—of these delays, which will set up you and your team for a successful search.
Good luck—and call me if I can help you with a search.
