PrimeGenesis has reduced onboarding failures from 40% to 10%. There is no excuse for others not to follow.
“We’ve found that 40 per cent of executives hired at the senior level are pushed out, fail or quit within 18 months. It’s expensive in terms of lost revenue. It’s expensive in terms of the individual’s hiring. It’s damaging to morale.”
So said Kevin Kelly, CEO of Executive Search Firm, Heidrick & Struggles, discussing the firm’s internal study of 20,000 searches in an interview with Brooke Masters in “Rise of a headhunter” Financial Times, March 30, 2009.
Matches generally accepted wisdom,
This matches the new hire failure rate cited in Manchester, Inc.’s 1998 study and the numbers we’ve been using.
…but it should not match
Think about it. Manchester’s study was for the general population, not senior level people recruited by one of the top executive search firms. And the Manchester study was over a decade ago.
We are not making the onboarding progress we need to make
People are still tripping over the same landmines: organization, role, personal, learning, relationships, delivery and adjustment. And the failure rates are the same.
…but we can make progress if we want to.
The basics of how to improve are known. There are ideas for onboarding new leaders in our book “The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan” and in Michael Watkins’ book “The First 90 Days”. And there are ideas for hiring managers in our new book “Onboarding – How to Get Your New Employees Up To Speed In Half The Time.” PrimeGenesis has reduced the failure rate from 40% to less than 10%. There is no excuse for living with the expense and damage associated with a 40% failure rate.
George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding
Heidrick & Struggles is a bit late to the game in measuring ‘stick rate’. A 60% stick rate is unacceptable, especially for an executive search firm that is supposed to be working for the betterment of their clients.
CTPartners began measuring stick rate for the first 18 months of each of our placements in 2006. In each of the 18 months measured, the stick rate was between 90% and 92%. To validate this, we have it audited by an independent accounting firm.
We have also suggested that all firms track and audit their stick rate, as a way to professionalize the recruitment industry. It has fallen on deaf ears.