The landscape of corporate hires has been rapidly changing over the last few years. In terms of C-Suite hiring trends, it appears that many companies are beginning to look outside their ranks for leadership.
The competition for talent is a clear indicator that the economy is finally moving ahead after the 2008 housing debacle that severely hurt the American economy.
The executive search firm Crist/Kolder publishes an annual study of C-Suite hiring trends, and it has found that nearly 28% of all new hires have been brought in from the outside. This trend is expected to continue. One of the more recent prominent hires in this trend came when Yahoo brought aboard Google executive Marisa Mayer to take the reins in 2012.
The Crist/Kolder report also discovered one intriguing reason companies are not hiring from within. It appears that it’s due in part to the lack of any coherent succession plans being in place.
According to Fortune Magazine, another rapidly evolving C-Suite hiring trend is the hiring of “professional problem-solvers” as interim senior management. These fixers are considered highly experienced executives where there is no need for a learning curve to get a ship righted. They are not consultants that find a problem and “hand it off” but hired guns that will fix the problem.
This trend has been gaining traction over the last decade and is especially useful until the right executive can be brought in on a permanent basis. This was especially true during the recent economic downturn when some companies were facing an uncertain future.
Crist/Kolder also notes that the number of COO’s is down nearly 15% while the number of women in leadership roles as CEO’s have increased three-fold over the last several years. They also noted a doubled increase in non-white hires as well.
Many companies are taking note of these changes, and there does not appear to be any backing away anytime soon.
