Executive Recruitment

In order to take a compelling and credible story to the marketplace, we must have as complete a picture as possible for the role we are recruiting. We work through a detailed client questionnaire in the kick-off meeting, in addition to a physical tour of the space, and, where possible, an opportunity to speak with people who had served in the role previously.

We would also try to ascertain other “ideal” candidates known to the client (specific people at other similar institutions whom we could “clone” for purposes of this search). In short, there is a direct correlation between the success of the search at the end of the process and the thoroughness of the launch at the beginning of it.

We approach executive recruitment in the same manner you would approach building a house and just as you would never put hammer to nail before finalizing a detailed set of drawings and architectural plans, so too would the team at Pekarsky & Co. never consider undertaking a search without first understanding every possible nuance and factor associated with a successful outcome.

In fact, finding the people, though time consuming and critical, is no longer the hardest part of the executive recruitment process. The “science” of executive search, if you will, is pretty similar at firms large and small, global and local. It is the “art” of the search where different firms can add different degrees of value.

Once engaged by you, we piggyback your credibility in the market and you are an extension of ours. The art of the search is our ability to articulately and compellingly tell your story with conviction and credibility.

A firm that simply “dials for dollars” and isn’t prepared to, or able to, respond to difficult questions, address recent events or capture the essence of the role and the people involved will lose the candidate within moments of finding them.

We do not believe that advertising is always an effective recruitment strategy. In our experience, traditional print advertising is an expensive way to attract a high volume of mediocre candidates.

However, in certain circumstances and at your request it is something we will undertake by working through our communications firm to develop the appropriate look and feel for any such advert.  

We do believe in utilizing social media and other online tools, however, it is our view that there is no substitute for picking up the phone and leveraging our network and candidate database, reputation and expertise to arrive at the best results for you.

Once we determine the geographical reach of the search, we would map the space by identifying—through our research team—all potential relevant candidate pools including a search of our proprietary candidate database.

In conjunction with this mapping process, we would create a detailed position description outlining your company as a place to work, the specifics of the role, the benefits of working at your company and the personal characteristics we seek in a successful candidate.  

An abbreviated version of this document would be uploaded to our website and posted on various industry websites, if relevant.

Our firm has the capability to source candidates at the local, provincial, national and international scope.

In addition to direct sourcing or “head-hunting” of prospective targets, we constantly meet passive job seekers; those gainfully though perhaps not happily employed who would not feel comfortable responding to a corporate posting but who we have license to contact if and when the ‘perfect job’ crossed our radar. We have met these types of candidates from all regions and retain all candidate information in our proprietary and leading-edge search database.

If an individual expressed interest in the role we would screen them in-person where possible, conducted in depth by one of our search professionals. If we deemed the person suitable to move forward in the process and the candidate wished to be put forward, we would provide you the resume and a detailed write-up of the candidate outlining their background, their motivation for seeking a change, their compensation expectations and any gaps they may possess that should form the basis for further inquiry by you in the interview process. 

While it would be our goal to work to a short-list of between four and six candidates, we will not let the search process prevent us from presenting you a great candidate without delay. 

We are a results-based firm and feel that you would receive greater value if we delivered one stellar candidate quickly than if we engineered a short list solely to show you how hard we’ve worked.

During this interviewing stage, we manage the candidates in terms of scheduling meetings, providing interview feedback to you as the client, and updating the candidates in either “keeping them warm” or “closing them off”.

Based on our team’s 50+ years of executive search experience, the team at Pekarsky & Co. has learned to expertly assess candidate motivation, fit and applicability to the role. It is important to note that our team is comprised of people who have worked at some of the leading national and global search firms (Korn/Ferry International, Robert Half International, Conroy Ross Partners and Davies Park) and our training on all matters related to the candidate screening and interview process exemplifies industry best practice.

Our firm is comprised of extremely well trained and highly educated executive search professionals. These are not young professionals working their first job. Rather, the average age of the members of our firm is approximately 40 meaning most of us have spent significant amounts of our professional lives in other vocations (law, accounting, finance, environmental consulting, higher education) as well as serving on various community Boards of Directors and belonging to relevant member associations.

As a consequence, we do not deploy an army of juniors who have little to no experience; rather, we all bring our previous life experience and professional training to bear on each search, in each interview and throughout every phase of the mandate. This is critical when working senior-level, C-Suite roles.

Your credibility is an extension of ours; and vice versa. That credibility is greatly diminished if not lost entirely the moment a prospective C-suite candidate sits down to be pre-screened by someone relatively junior or who clearly doesn’t possess the life experience or technical training to properly evaluate the individual.

No candidate will make the short list that is not, in our view, exceptionally well qualified to do the job. We do, however, strive to bring a range of suitable candidates to every short-list from the “up and comer” experience level to the “been there done that” profile.