Jim Gilreath, Gilreath Consultantcy, Skin-in-the-Game-Hiring

MEET AND COME TO TERMS WITH HIRING AUTHORITY.
For an Investor CEO position, Diane & I meet members of the private equity firm’s key team members including the hiring authority either in person or by videoconference. Otherwise, for VP level positions, we would meet the CEO of the portfolio company & a few of her or his direct reports unless it is a confidential replacement situation. We then gain significant information about why this business was acquired, the current overview of the portfolio company in general financial and operating terms. This includes receiving a copy of the actual Confidential Acquisition Financing Memorandum produced by the investors & a current business plan or statement of business conditions.

We next go over the duties & must have qualifications versus preferred requirements of the function to be filled and discuss the management and operating style of the hiring authority and the makeup & expectations of the board.

Our "due diligence" search model is then spelled out including the client’s role and ours during the search, especially the degree of search and candidate confidentiality required, estimated search event timetables, our search fee and out of pocket expenses, payment terms and our “warranty”. Next, any remaining questions related to the search assignment are answered, and hopefully a verbal agreement is reached for us to conduct the search.

It is important that there is good chemistry between us and the investor/clients including the hiring authority for a successful executive search completion. Once in a great while the mutual chemistry is not good or our due diligence hiring or the potential client doesn’t agree with our search model and we mutually agree not to go forward on the search. Areas of such disagreement are usually due to one or more of the following: the hiring authority wants us to commit to completing the search in less than our typical 3 months time;the total position compensation range and/or relo package are not market competitive; position specs are unrealistic;portfolio company is in an improbable turnaround mode; hiring authority wants us to send them resumes of prospects before we put them through our due diligence process;hiring authority wants to renegotiate our fee and payment terms;

Once we have mutually agreed to conduct the search, we follow up with a written confirming search agreement sent to the hiring authority signed by us accompanied by our first retainer invoice. We will then sign any required non-disclosure agreement as soon as possible. Diane and I find it is more important to meet with the hiring authority and investment firm team members than visiting the portfolio company job site unless the client requests that we do so.

FINE TUNE POSITION SPECS.
We urge our clients to take the necessary time to co-produce a solid, well-focused & clear position description To help the client accomplish this, we employ a spec taking model utilizing proven Master Position Descriptions for all the senior functions which we have successfully recruited. We work closely with the hiring authority utilizing our specific format & list of questions about the position to be filled, both during our spec taking session and after digesting the info exchange, to firm up the desired final position specifications. The position description includes qualifications, duties, responsibilities, goals and objectives, salary range and equity investment plan and bonus plan, company benefits and relocation policy.

We will then incorporate what we learn from these meetings and send the hiring authority a rough position description draft to review with the board and the interview team and return to us with any final position changes. It is critical to the success of the search that all the hiring decision-makers receive a copy of the final position description before the search gets underway. Any differences among them should be resolved at this time. This insures the hiring team will be on the same page and sends the right message to our referred candidates being interviewed. Lastly, we prepare both an edited final job spec for general public dispersion for confidentiality reasons and also provide a password-accessed fully disclosed final position description posted on our website for screened candidates being referred for interview.

"DUE-DILIGENCE" SEARCH AND RECRUITMENT PROCEDURES:
Our typical search & recruiting model incorporates the following:

Based on client input, we assemble a "do not call list" comprised of individuals and companies that might include your vendors, certain competitors, customers and business prospects.
We recommend a national search effort even when local candidates to a given area of the US are preferred, because many highly qualified candidates including those normally out of your compensation range for this search want to return to an area for family reasons and will accept less compensation to do so. Some will offer to pay their own relo or have already sold their residence.
If your search is industry specific, we will compile a list of related target companies and also use our contract researchers to “stealth” contact executives from such companies for potential candidates and sources of candidates.
We email your job spec to our appropriate functional database which is a great source of potential candidates & qualified referrals depending on where the position is located.
We post an edited position description listing a very general job location on our website and typically on several appropriate job posting boards including some that are function specific, both for free and for a fee including Monster.com, The Ladders.com, Career Builder, Execunet and Netshare, without reference to your company by name.
We usually post edited job descriptions of our searches on the alumni career section of some of the top universities’ websites in the US including Amos Tuck, Wharton, Harvard, U of Chicago, Northwestern, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon etc.

Gilreath Consultantcy will consider all candidates, regardless of sex, age, race, creed or place of origin, solely on the basis of their respective qualifications.

During each search assignment we screen virtually hundreds of resumes from many sources against the job specs and weed out prospects to a dozen and reduce those down to 6 candidates who undergo our complete “due diligence” fact gathering process. Once 3-4 qualified finalist candidates have been through our exhaustive screening including checking as many their important references as possible, we will interview them in person or through videoconference. Historically a successful hire typically occurs after we present our best 3 candidates for the client’s hiring team to interview.
Any search applicant who should contact any member of the client hiring team directly about the client search we are conducting, should be referred to Jim Gilreath’s email or office phone 978-287-4432 or cell phone 978-767-0441 for screening inclusion and courteous consideration and disposition.
We provide comprehensive organized “due diligence” information binders to our clients about each recommended candidate. These include a résumé, a candidate bio (called the Indiana Jones), a candidate self-rating quiz, a completed candidate written interview, photocopies of degree(s) and certifications, and written professional references checked by us with the candidate's permission, and other helpful candidate background material and exhibits furnished by each individual. (E.g. copies of employer annual reports, brochures, organization charts, product literature, operating metrics, past performance appraisals, technical product information, letters of commendation from former superiors, their current job description, etc.).
Before any of our referred candidates interview with the client hiring authority and interview team, they will have signed the client’s required non-disclosure agreement. Each recommended candidate will have seen detailed employer information on their website plus any and/or all of the following: the Investors Memorandum and/or business overview and 3-5 year strategic plans, past and current financial and operating performance data, backgrounds of shareholders, officers, direct reports and a detailed position description with compensation, benefits and relocation details.
Each candidate binder contains all of our confidential reference checks submitted in narrative form almost verbatim, and include for client convenience, the phone numbers of each referred candidate's professional references.
Most of the time, we are able to secure the cooperation of any reference we contact regarding their receiving a possible future phone call from the hiring authority, in complete confidence, to answer any questions about any candidate referred by us.

To protect candidate confidentiality (and our client from a possible costly invasion of privacy lawsuit), Gilreath Consultantcy guarantees each candidate that neither we nor our client nor any client representative will conduct any reference checks on our candidate with any person or persons without the candidate’s express written permission. As clients well know, candidate confidentiality must be maintained even after a candidate has been eliminated from consideration.

Before the client’s hiring team meets and interviews any Gilreath Consultantcy candidates, we ask that each interviewer review our candidate’s information binder that we have provided in advance of each candidate’s interviews. Such preparation makes for a more productive interview, while conveying a positive impression on each candidate and saves the prepared interviewer valuable time. None of our candidates are out looking for a "job" but rather are seeking the right equity investment position and want to be sold on this stock purchase job opportunity. Many have other equity investment job opportunities to consider or are trying to acquire a company.
We can provide candidate feedback after the hiring team interviews our referred candidates, usually within 24-48 hours afterwards.
Specific candidate interview feedback from the client’s interview team is appreciated as soon as conveniently possible. This helps us do a better job of clearing up any candidate/client concerns that might exist and improve our screening of any future candidate referrals. (For added client convenience, Jim’s cell phone number 978-767-0441).
We will notify each rejected candidate of their having been eliminated from further consideration, in a professional and considerate manner.
Any candidate job offer should be reviewed with us before you verbally extend it to the candidate. We typically provide the client with a rough-draft offer letter, which we feel our candidate will accept, for fine-tuning by the hiring authority. We pride ourselves in helping to construct offers with “no surprises for either client or candidate”. A verbal offer from the hiring authority should be promptly followed up with a written offer, which should be sent to the candidate's home address by an overnight courier service like Federal Express. There is a place for the candidate to agree to and sign the offer letter terms and return it to the client. To avoid any possible problems, the candidate should be cautioned not give notice to his or her current employer after acceptance of the client’s offer, until he or she has taken a routine pre-employment physical including drug testing.
It is a standard rule of thumb to allow about 30 days from the assignment starting date for us to identify and pre-screen qualified candidates presuming we have received the approved, final, written position description from the hiring authority. We are usually in a position to refer qualified candidates over the second 30–45 day period. A good–faith, estimated assignment completion date is approximately 12 weeks from the date the search contract has been signed, if not sooner. This presumes that the client interview team is available to interview candidates within a reasonable amount of time after reviewing our submitted candidate binders.
Gilreath Consultantcy agrees to continue working on any assignment, in the unlikely event that it becomes necessary, for up to 6 months starting from the date we are retained, provided our search fees and out-of-pocket expenses have been paid according to our mutually–agreed upon payment schedule. If the search assignment remains unfilled after 60 days from our start date, due to any drastic change in the client’s job specs or location that causes our having to virtually restart the search, Gilreath Consultantcy reserves the right to negotiate an additional mutually acceptable fee amount in good faith.

As with all of our search assignments, Gilreath Consultantcy makes no guarantee of filling any assignment; we do promise to use our best efforts, however, to complete it to the client’s satisfaction, on or before our estimated completion date.

RETAINER FEES, EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENTS AND PAYMENT TERMS
Standard Search Fees. Gilreath Consultantcy never works on a contingent–fee basis. Our standard search fee for conducting each search assignment is a flat fee based on one-third of a mutually–agreeable, attainable estimated total annual compensation figure consisting of an estimated salary number and a projected annual bonus number. We do not charge any percentage of the hired candidate’s equity investment in the company.

In addition, we are reimbursed for our out-of-pocket expenses incurred while conducting this search including long distance telephone calls, candidate/JMG videoconference interviews, candidate/JMG travel, lodging and meals, contract research up to 30 hours, source letters, reference audit word processing, postage, related UPS/FedEx charges and any necessary outsourced candidate binder photocopying. We do not markup our out-of-pocket expense invoices 10%, which are meticulously detailed provided they are paid within 30 days of receipt.

Standard Terms of Payment. Our total retained–search fee for conducting each search assignment is payable in three (3) retainer installments of 1/3 each; The first retainer fee accompanies the search agreement and would be due and payable at the start of this assignment; The second retainer fee is typically billed 30 days later, and be due and payable within 30 days of receipt; the final retainer fee is usually billed 60 days later, be due and payable within 3c0 days of receipt. All payments are non-refundable.

FALL-OUT HIRES
In the event that a client hires more than one of Gilreath Consultantcy’s candidates, referred for one of their search assignments, for any position at any company owned by the client, within one year of our hired candidate’s initial interview referral date, there will be a client charge of 10% of said individual’s first year estimated total compensation.

WARRANTY AND CANCELLATION POLICY
Gilreath Consutltantcy will guarantee its hired candidate for a period of 6 months from starting date. If for any reason, our candidate resigns or is terminated during this period, Gilreath Consutltantcy promises its best efforts for up to 6 consecutive months, if needed, to replace our candidate at no additional search fee to our client. The only charges would be for additional out-of-pocket expenses in connection with this search.

If any search becomes canceled through no fault of ours, after this agreement has been signed by the client’s authorized representative and Jim Gilreath, any Gilreath Consultantcy invoices already billed for such a search would be due and payable, in addition to any of our outstanding out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with our conducting such an assignment.