When a business needs a Head of HR, the first move is often an advert: a post on LinkedIn, a listing on a job board, a page on the careers site. For many roles that works. For a senior HR hire it often brings a long list of applicants and a short list of people anyone wants to meet.
The board and the wording are rarely the problem. An advert can only reach people who are looking, and they are a small part of the people who could do the job. This guide covers who each channel reaches, when an advert is still worth running, and how to reach the people it misses.
Know who an advert reaches
An advert is read by people who are looking for a job when you post it. That group includes good candidates: people whose company has been sold, whose role has gone, or who decided to move before anyone asked them. It leaves out everyone who is busy doing a job well and not reading job adverts.
For a senior HR role, the people you most want are often in that second group. An HR leader who has just taken a business through a restructuring, or built a people function from scratch, is usually still in the middle of that work. They are unlikely to see your advert, and less likely to apply to a company they know little about on the strength of a job description.
Before you post, write down three or four people in the market you would most like to hire. If none of them would see the advert, it can’t be your only channel.
Expect volume, not a shortlist
One-click applications have made applying much easier. The effort behind each application has fallen with it: a candidate can apply to dozens of roles in an evening without reading the company’s website. That suits roles where the requirements are clear and many people meet them.
It works badly for a senior specialist hire. What you need to know about a Head of HR candidate is how their experience fits your situation, and a one-click application doesn’t tell you that. The result can be a large pile of applications, many from people who don’t meet the brief, and days of screening that end with two or three people worth a call.
If you do advertise, ask two or three questions in the application that only someone who has done the work can answer well, and screen on those answers first.
Use each channel for what it reaches
Each channel reaches a different group of people, and most senior searches use more than one.
Job advert
Reaches people who are looking for a job when you post it.
- Brings applications from people you would not have found
- Misses people who are doing well and not looking
- One-click applying raises volume, not fit
Referral
Reaches people someone in your business already knows.
- Comes with a recommendation from someone you trust
- Limited to who your people know
- Tends to bring people like the ones you have
Direct approach
Reaches people chosen for the problem, whether or not they are looking.
- Starts from who has done similar work
- Each person hears why the role suits them
- Slower per person, and needs judgment
Internal move
Reaches people already working in the business.
- Their record and working style are known
- Rarely possible for a first Head of HR
- Leaves a gap behind
Referrals bring people someone already trusts, but only from within your own network, and they tend to bring people like the ones you already have. Internal moves are quick and low-risk when there is a candidate, but a business hiring its first Head of HR rarely has one, and a promotion leaves a gap behind. Direct approach starts from the problem rather than from whoever applies: you decide who has done the work you need, then go and talk to them.
Write down which channels you will use, and what each one is for, before the search starts. That way nobody treats the number of applicants as a measure of progress.
Approach the people who have done the work
Direct approach means building a list of people who have handled a situation like yours, in a similar business, and contacting each of them with a reason the role should interest them. It is slower per person than an advert and can’t be done in bulk. Its strength is that the first conversation is about why this person suits this role, which is the conversation a senior candidate wants to have.
Build the list from what people have done. A business preparing for a sale needs someone who has run HR through due diligence. A business that has grown quickly needs someone who has built the policies and the team that growth requires. The job titles of the right people will vary. Some will be called Head of People, some HR Director, and some will be the second person in a larger function, ready to lead their own.
Describe the situation the new Head of HR will walk into in two or three sentences, and use it to decide who goes on the list.
Run the advert alongside the search
An advert still has uses in a senior search. It makes the role visible, so people you would have missed can put themselves forward, and some of them will be strong. People between roles for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability are often among them. Some employers’ own policies also require every role to be advertised.
The mistake is running the advert first, waiting to see who applies, and only then starting to look. By the time the advert closes, the search has lost the weeks it ran for, and the brief has been tested only on the people who happened to be looking.
If you advertise, start the direct search on the same day, and assess applicants and approached candidates against the same brief.
Decide who you need before you decide where to post
An advert is a reasonable first step for many hires. For a senior HR leader, it reaches only the people who happen to be looking, and leaves the rest of the market to whoever contacts them first. Working out who you need, and going to find them, is most of the work.
On our Head of HR searches, Matteo approaches HR leaders who have handled similar challenges and explains why each one is worth meeting. Our Head of HR search page explains how that works.