Nearly half (46%) of organisations gather background information on potential candidates for senior management roles using methods including criminal record disclosures and the use of candidate-checking agencies.
This is according to XpertHR’s survey on recruiting senior managers, which found that, of those that carried out background checks for senior management positions, 38% obtained Criminal Record Bureau disclosures and 17% paid for candidate-checking agencies to confirm details on applications.
However, the majority of employers carrying out background checks did so through references, with nine in 10 (92%) gathering work-related references and seven in 10 (72%) collecting personal references from referees.
Personality questionnaires were also a popular selection method and were used by 50% of the 139 employers that took part in the survey.
The survey found that, on average, senior management vacancies took 10.5 weeks and cost £9,921 to fill. Those employers that used agencies faced fees of between 15% and 24% of the vacancy’s annual salary.
Rachel Suff, XpertHR author of the report, commented: “The main reason why senior management recruitment costs more than filling other kinds of vacancies is that many employers pay fees to external specialist agencies.
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“The most costly type of agency is one that employers in our survey make the heaviest use of – search and selection agencies, or headhunters as they are more commonly known.”
View the full XpertHR survey on recruiting senior managers.
