How Wisnio changed the way an executive search company helps its clients hire the right people

Ott Niggulis

The Client

The client is an established executive search firm in London, with smaller offices in New York and Tel Aviv. The company is led by its two founders (Managing Partners) with another five equity partners (Managing Directors). The overall staff is 70+, including 22 senior consultants with direct client service and business development responsibility. The companies main focus is on growth-stage technology companies, mainly PE- or VC-backed.

The Challenges

When pitching their services, the same story is told – years of experience in business and executive search, working with several companies in the same field (i.e. the competitors of the potential clients), well-defined search process, being responsible and knowledgeable.

Telling this old story, the partners felt a little uneasy, knowing well that their competitors tell the same story. Talking about well-defined processes with the tech-savvy co-founders of the would-be unicorn, left the Partners feeling a little tech-envy.

Using Linkedin and Filefinder does not change the fact that the essence of the executive search industry has not changed much over the past 50 years. Managing files better and using Linkedin to make lists of potential candidates has made life easier, but the screening, interviewing, shortlisting, and final selection is as intuitive as it has always been. The well-read partners were well aware of the research showing that intuition alone is a bad advisor.

The Solution

To find solutions to the outlined challenges (differentiation, adding value, innovation), the company was introduced to Wisnio by one of the advisors of the company. As a new and exciting talent analytics platform, it ticked the boxes for all three challenges.

After a free trial and a quick debrief, the members of the leadership team were impressed by the platform’s cost-effectiveness, capabilities, and results. After only 20 minutes of each members’ time, the Wisnio platform presented an interactive dashboard showcasing the competencies, personality traits and values of each team member individually as well as on a team level. With actionable insights and recommendations that could be used for team development and hiring.

The business case

To test the solution on real hiring projects, a limited trial was agreed with Wisnio used for candidate evaluation. For this, a set of reusable licenses along with a training workshop for the core team of partners and senior consultants as well as pre-agreed support time was bought.

Winning first business with Wisnio

The first potential client company with whom the Client offered to use Wisnio was talking to several search companies to find a suitable search partner for a C-level position (COO). In the final decision, the decisive factor was the Wisnio platform.

“What we saw during the first meeting already helped us understand the vacancy better. We were looking forward to working with an innovative company who brings real value and innovation to the hiring process.”

Client Company CEO, Elizabeth K

The Wisnio process

As the first step, the vacant position was analysed using the platform with the participation of all executives who had a say in the hiring decision. The interactive tool facilitates defining KPI-s, threshold criteria for inclusion and differentiating competencies.

This process helps to get all the stakeholders on the same page and gives good input to researchers, who now know exactly what to look for when searching for potential candidates for the longlist.

Shortlist and assessment

All shortlisted candidates were invited to go through the Wisnio assessment after which a shortlist was presented. The interactive shortlist allows the client to see what each candidate would bring to the leadership team.

Additionally, candidate based behavioural interview questions are generated for executives to use when assessing the candidates along with space to enter their comments and remarks in the system.

Each candidate was assessed by each member of the interview panels (two interviews per candidate with two interviewees in both). As the last step, the assessment data were summarised and used as input for the final decision by the hiring manager.

Making the hiring decision

The hiring manager, Elizabeth K, the CEO, quickly moved from the five candidate shortlist to two finalists who were a cut above the rest – Shawn L. and Kevin G.

Her favourite, Shawn, was a young female manager with a diverse international background and a good track record for the role in question. Elizabeth felt at ease and had a comfortable contact with Shawn from the very first minutes they met.

The other candidate, Kevin, was an excellent professional with comparable experience and excellent social skills, but maybe not as comfortable a partner for discussions. During the interviews, he had on several occasions made it clear that his point of view was different from the one expressed by the CEO.

Following a nudge from the search consultant, Elizabeth turned to the Wisnio data for help. Both candidates qualified for the role and fitted in well in terms of their values.

The main difference was in their personality – Shawn’s profile was very similar to Elizabeth on most personality traits measured. Kevin, on the other hand, was different:

Teamscope personality analysis - Executive Search

This was an eye-opener for Elizabeth and explained why she had felt so comfortable with Shawn – their personalities were a perfect match! Likewise, it helped explain the apparent mismatch with Kevin.

After careful consideration, Elizabeth decided that although she might feel more comfortable with Shawn, her better choice for the COO role would be Kevin. With Kevin, she got someone who is not afraid to push back and bring up differing ideas and solutions – precisely what the team needed.

“I was greatly impressed by the input Wisnio brought to the hiring process. I made the right decision, but it was not the one I would have made without these data and support from Wisnio.

I hired someone who I feel will increase the team’s performance and add most to the team’s competencies and behavioural diversity. After all, I am not selecting a buddy to go out socially, but a professional team member.

In addition to helping with hiring, Wisnio also gave great input for onboarding the candidate. We were so impressed with Wisnio, that we want to use it for our own recruitments and team development in the future.”

Client Company CEO, Elizabeth K

Final Thoughts

After the limited trial ended, the management team concluded that based on their first-hand experience, Wisnio had helped them differentiate their offering and win new business.

In addition, they were pleased that the platform adds value by helping with:

Vacancy analysis and stakeholder buy-in
New and innovative candidate presentation
Individualised behavioural interview questions
Data-based candidate comparison and decision making
New hire onboarding

In the end, the client decided that Wisnio brings them enough value to justify being a part of their core hiring process.