We all know what happens when you compromise on regulatory compliance…
iGaming is a high profile, brand-conscious industry that, as well as paying customers, attracts lots of envy, admiring glances, close attention and scrutiny from investors, shareholders, service providers and, inevitably, various regulatory bodies. It is an industry that invests heavily to ensure they get everything right. Except, it would seem when it comes to hiring their most senior talent.
As the iGaming sector has matured, the value of companies has soared. Mergers, merge, then re-emerge as listed companies, shaking out their manes like lions, hungry to use their newfound financial muscle to become an aggressive acquisition vehicle, determined to dominate their place in the sector. Investors love iGaming and in return, they expect world-class strategic leadership, regulatory, operational and financial compliance.
Yet it’s an industry that in many cases is recruiting as if it was the 1990’s. It’s enough to make Boo.comlook sane. Your brand as an employer has to be protected, nurtured and leveraged throughout.
How not to do it
A first glance at the iGaming industry gives the impression that for many companies a blunderbuss approach appears to be the preferred option when recruiting. The ultimate spray and pray. Shoot a sketchy “job description”, one that’s been written by committee in a coffee break, to the first half a dozen or so recruiters on your list of preferred suppliers (the ones who won’t charge you much, who can be trusted not to ask difficult questions), mumble something about “top end talent” and let them run around your base of potential candidates falling over each other like clowns running across minefields.
What you’ve just created is a monstrous pile of conflicting information over which you have no control.
Imagine being a potential candidate. Maybe you’re actively looking for a new role or perhaps just interested in hearing what’s going on. Two recruiters approach you within an hour of each other pitching what’s obviously the same job. Badly. An hour after that the company’s internal hiring team hit the market and explain that they’re doing a mapping exercise if you’re interested in throwing your hat into the ring.
Its rubbish isn’t it?
Now, I’m a 20-year international executive search and selection professional across multiple industries from Professional Services, Corporate Finance, Retail Technology and Banking. None of these sectors goes to market for a significant, critical, commercial or strategic hire in this way.
So why does iGaming? Where is the value, the logic? How does it help to have potential great hires being approached relentlessly about the same job from multiple recruiters, none of whom have any real clue about what they’re doing?
What chance does an ill-briefed, disinterested recruiter have of truly securing and engaging the interest of a passive candidate (probably the one you really want), when they obviously don’t have any real understanding of the role and your organization?
Time to change, time to lead by example
Getting hiring wrong will seriously damage your credibility. So, why would you want anything less than the very best you can get? Smart companies don’t compromise on talent…ever.
Unsurprisingly, competition for exceptional, game-changing talent at senior management and C-suite level in the iGaming sector is never less than ferocious. If you don’t want to compromise on the quality of your hires, you can’t compromise on the hiring process.
There are no shortcuts to hiring great people. Great hiring strategies require detailed planning, market analysis, a clearly defined methodology for selection and assessment and, ultimately, creativity and no little tenacity. Most importantly, it requires a professional to deliver all of this. A serious 360⁰ executive search professional who always keeps going has the experience and resources to improvise, adapt and overcome every obstacle.
You need a Hunter-Gatherer, that’s me.
Securing the right talent, the first time, every time, requires more than just basic professionalism. It needs to be undertaken with a keen eye for detail and a highly focused attention to success and risk mitigation coupled with robust timescales. Identifying, sourcing, engaging, assessing and securing those critical hires, the ones that an organization’s entire strategic vision and future financial success are/may be, reliant upon, is a serious business.
Coming Soon – The Solution
- So, how do you ensure that you can get it right the first time?
- How do you mitigate the risk of getting it wrong?
- How do you use this hiring opportunity to leverage your brand, your vision and your market perception?
- How do you maintain confidentiality and keep the hiring process discrete, especially if one of your previous errors is still in the job?
- How do you maintain integrity and credibility and create a compelling, engaging and well managed robust strategic search that that achieves consistent results?
- How do you keep your cost per hire under control?
Well, Part 2 of this series – “How to Select an Executive Search Firm” including “How to Tell a Headhunter from a Recruiter” will be in your hands if you come back here next week.