How Do I Find and Hire a Good CXO for a Startup?

C-level recruitment is difficult as the apt candidates are hard to find. A company, especially a startup, needs to strategically find the right steps to take to find an executive that leads them towards development. Interviews and background checks are a few of the many steps to be undertaken while hiring a Chief Experience Officer. One might take the help of a recruitment agency to save time and have someone with strong networks. Alliance International is a competent C-level recruiter that helps you with the best.

Having a senior leadership position in a company means hiring an individual with leadership skills. The C-suite or executive level managers include prime positions of CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CXO, and more of such positions. C-suite professionals possess immense experience and qualities that are needed to make decisions for business development.

In this blog, we are going to help you get great insights into CXO hiring. But, before we do that, we would like our readers to get a clear understanding of the different C-Suite roles.

It should be kept in mind that C-suite professions do not have the same role in all industries. Though the designations’ names are the same, the roles are not. For instance, the role of a CEO of a large business is different from a CEO of a healthcare company. This is why even C-suite recruitment differs from one industry to another.

Key C-Suite Positions

The C-Suite positions consist of important positions, especially in a startup. The following are the key C-Suite positions of a company.

Chief Executive Officer

A CEO is responsible for deciding the business model of the company. The strategies of expanding business and making the right calls are the work of the CEO. He/she acts as a bridge between the board of directors and the team of employees.

Chief Operating Officer

The everyday targets and operations are looked after by the Chief Operating Officer in the establishment. The COO is supposed to represent the daily insights and reports to the CEO. Therefore, the position of the COO is seen second to the CEO.

Chief Financial Officer

A CFO is responsible for dealing with all the financial matters of a company. He or she is also supposed to plan the future financial situations such as profit, expenditure, budget allocation on behalf of the company.

Chief Information Officer

The position of the CIO is a high executive one that involves looking after the information and computer technology in the company. The CIO’s work is inwards the company. They work hard to look for increasing efficiency in the workspace by improving the work processes.

Chief Information and Security Officer

To carry out work and operations in a risk-free manner, a Chief Information and Security Officer are needed in a workplace. Their work ensures the protection of the company’s assets and image.

Chief Technology Officer

A CTO looks after the technological infrastructure of a company. Unlike the role of the CIO, a CTO’s role is more outwards. They look after the long-term technological goals.

Chief Legal Officer

The legal issues and the legal aspects of the decision taken are looked after by a Chief Legal Officer in a company. They work hand-in-hand with the CEO. The corporate legal strategies are looked at by him/her.

Chief Administrative Officer

A CAO is responsible for looking after the daily operations and also the working of departments like HR, finance, sales, and others. The heads of other departments report to the CAO.

Chief Marketing Officer

The CMO mainly aims to increase the sales of a company through marketing recruitment agencies. The growth goals are set by the CMO, and people work under him/her to attain targets by promotional work.

Chief Experience Officer

The CXO is the top leader in charge of increasing outcomes for business growth through customer experience management. Their vision, strategies, planning, and activities monitoring leads to increased customer satisfaction leading to higher customer retention and acquisition.

Hiring the Right Candidates for CXO Position

If millions of dollars in revenue depend on repeat business from old and existing customers, you would definitely need to invest in customer experience management.

Your active and potential customers should be able to interact with you at any touchpoint or medium in a satisfactory manner that motivates them to keep coming back. For making this possible, you need a leader who understands your market segment, product lines and associated key customer segments and the kind of experience that can be provided – this is one of the key roles of a Chief Experience Officer (CXO).

The strategies of CXO hiring cannot be similar to a general hiring program. You need the expert services of a C-Level recruiter to carry out CXO hiring in the most efficient and optimized manner. Here are some steps that would enhance outcomes from VXO hiring.

1) Create a Top Management Committee to Oversee Recruitment

Because C-level recruitment takes time, there needs to be a top management committee to oversee the recruitment. The C-Suite executives should form a committee to supervise the CXO hiring process, right from the profile description phase to the final offer and negotiations.

The CVs and other information should be analyzed by every member of this committee, which should include 2-3 C-Suite members who have in-depth knowledge about customers, markets, and customer acquisition activities. You could also include an external expert to ensure a more objective recruitment process.

2) Hire Executive Search C-Level Recruiters

Hiring C-level recruiters is the most efficient way of finding an outstanding executive at your company. These recruiters assess your company and know what exactly you need to have in your executive.

They analyze the company history and also have a database of potential executives. Having such agencies helps you find the right CXO talent from a wide talent network, which is otherwise inaccessible to your company.

3) Use Market Mapping and People Analytics to Create Detailed Persona of Best-Match Candidates

Market mapping is observing and studying the market, especially in the same industry. It helps in knowing the current scenario of the market around you. There are analysts who carry out such market research and draw patterns and conclusions as to how the perfect CXO can be hired. As per the analysis, the detailed personas of the best-match CXO candidates are prepared.

4) Be Very Careful About Initial Candidate Outreach and Engagement

The initial candidate outreach should be a good one because it creates the first impression. Among all the official messages they receive, your company’s response should stand as a unique one.

An experienced executive is always preferred by a company. Hence, getting their attention is a challenge. Especially for a top position, bulky and very long e-mails should be avoided. Initial engagement of the candidate should also be done strategically.

5) Share Company Details and Position Descriptions in Impressive, Attractive Formats

To get the attention of the right candidate, the company should present the details in such a way that the candidate sees an advantage in being associated with your company. The perks of bagging a job in your company should be highlighted. How the candidate can benefit from accepting your job offer should be clear.

6) Conduct Virtual Interviews First

A virtual interview needs to be held in the beginning because it is not worth spending a lot of money on travel arrangements, business lunches, and the top executive time, all of which are needed for face-to-face interviews with all of the shortlisted future CXO candidates. It is a modern way of checking out the candidate’s competency. It also saves time for both the company as well as the candidates.

7) Go For Detailed Background And Professional Checks

In order to see if the person is really what they claim to be, a background check is mandatory. Such checks help in knowing the criminal history, employment history, general reputation in the society, etc.

A competent agency should carry it out because the employer may not have the right sources to conduct the background checks. Moreover, it saves time to have a third party carry out efficient checks.

8) Be Flexible With Framing the Terms of The Offer

The company should have an open mind and flexibility while coming to terms with the offer to be presented to their final candidate. The rigidity of the company might shoo away the candidate at the last moment. However, both the candidate and the company should come to a middle path by discussion. The offer should be finalized with the help of a contract.

Alliance International

Alliance International is a recruitment agency that has experience and expertise in CXO hiring and C-level recruitment. The agency has been a C-level recruiter for more than 11 years. We ensure that our clients find the perfect executive without delay. Being a global recruiting company, we can help you hire a CXO with regional, nationwide, or international experience.

Let us help you find an outstanding leader for your company! Connect with us for C-level recruitment assistance!