Filling C-Suite Jobs During a Pandemic

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- If you’re a small business in need of a new chief executive or chief financial officer and were looking before the coronavirus pandemic, you likely want to continue your search.

Although 1 in 4 small businesses in the U.S. has had to close temporarily, and many others have slashed staff, companies that began searches for top executives late last year or early in 2020 aren’t halting those searches now, even if management teams are working from home. Small businesses that suddenly lose a CEO or a CFO because they fall ill also are expected to seek replacements.

“Except for companies that got into immediate trouble because of Covid-19, those that needed a chief financial officer—or an executive for another critical job—before the virus spread really need him or her now,” says Pat Cook, founder and CEO of Cook & Co., a boutique executive search firm in Bronxville, N.Y.

Finding new C-suite talent will require directors and executives who make senior hiring decisions to change traditional interviewing procedures and adjust how they cast about for candidates.

Here are a few hiring tips:

1. Get comfortable interviewing job candidates on Skype, Zoom, or other videoconference apps, since most interviews that would typically take place in person now must be conducted virtually. That means directors and executives assessing candidates must quickly learn videoconferencing skills, including how to best present themselves, says Chris Schneider, a managing partner at Austin-based Strawn Arnold & Associates Ltd., which specializes in executive search for the life sciences and health-care industries.

“You want to encourage candidates to open up,” just as you would in person, when you can shake hands and engage in some small talk before asking questions, says Schneider, who’s currently handling CEO searches for two companies—a small manufacturer of medical equipment used in orthopedic surgeries and a biotech startup that’s developing antibodies potentially to be used to combat Covid-19. 

Interviewers should make sure there’s muted lighting behind them while they’re facing the camera, wear a solid-colored shirt that contrasts with the background, and remember to smile and perhaps wave to whomever they’re interviewing.

2. Make an extra effort to cast a wide net and attract an array of candidates. Those who work and live far from your headquarters may no longer be willing or even able to relocate their families or themselves given the pandemic. Still others who’d been on your shortlist and were eager for a change a month ago may now decline an offer, especially if they’ve suddenly gained more responsibility in a current job. That happened to one executive who was contacted by recruiter Schneider  for the CEO job at a medical equipment company. Although initially interested in being considered for that position, the executive decided to stick with her job at a medical testing company that is doing a significant amount of Covid-19-related work; she now has an important and broader role.

Look for ways to pinpoint and consider a variety of candidates—and certainly more than one or two—for top jobs.  If you aren't working with an executive recruiter, utilize LinkedIn both to post your opening and target potential candidates.  In addition, reach out by phone and email to business contacts who are well connected and may know potential candidates you haven't already considered. The medical equipment company  considered about 15  executives for the CEO job—directors and the top executive at the company met four of these candidates in person before the pandemic erupted and did phone interviews with the others. Then they culled the list to finalists and talked to these applicants again.  The company says it is close to making an offer. 

3. Be transparent with candidates about your company’s finances and projected viability over both the short and long term. “No one—and especially not in today’s environment—wants to leave a job they already have to take on a new job that may not last,” Schneider says.

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