SearchWide Launches Express Recruiting Service
February 16, 2018 – After suffering a massive hit during the Great Recession, employment and hiring within the travel, hotel and hospitality industry has begun to rebound. In the last year, according to one set of survey metrics, the industry added 527,000 jobs (2.6 million since 2004). That number is likely to increase this year as global tourism and travel in general are expected to rise.
Overall, the travel and hospitality market is expected to generate an estimated economic impact of $6.5 trillion worldwide this year. In the U.S. alone the $1.5 trillion industry accounts for nearly eight million jobs – more than five percent of the total jobs nationwide. All of this has led to an increased demand to quickly find top talent in this sector
Stillwater, MN-based executive recruiting firm SearchWide has unveiled a new recruiting service specifically for customers looking to fill management roles quickly. The new service, SearchWide Connect, will bring speed of placement to the market, without sacrificing the quality of candidates, said the search firm.
“SearchWide has been placing leaders in the travel/tourism, hospitality, venue and events industry for almost 20 years,” said Mike Gamble, president and CEO of the firm. “In that time, we’ve recognized a growing need for many of our clients, especially in the hotel and resort sector to fill their management roles with exceptional candidates, but at a faster pace than our executive search service offers.”
“SearchWide Connect is intended to do just that,” Mr. Gamble said. “This division of SearchWide is led by a team of young and smart industry professionals who exhibit the ability to quickly find tomorrow’s industry leaders. With unemployment at an all-time low and the war on talent at an all-time high, speed to market is critically important to many of our clients, especially in the hotel and resort sector.”
The search firm has also named Elizabeth McHeffey to serve as leader of SearchWide Connect. She joined the firm in 2016 after working for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants and Metro Systems.
“Offering this solution has been in the works for a while, but we wanted to do it right,” said Ms. McHeffey. “It was important for us to have the right team on board to ensure a seamless, high-quality experience like our executive search, and I’m excited we are there.”
SearchWide is a full-service executive search firm focused on the travel, tourism & convention, hotel & lodging industries and sports & entertainment sectors. It specializes in C-level, director and management level searches for Fortune 500 corporations to mid-sized public and private companies.
Firms Expanding Into New Areas
Search firms continue to break into new areas, be it through acquisition, alliances or providing new services. It’s a trend being seen at both large recruiters and small boutiques as recruiters look to provide clients with services for finding, assessing, onboarding and retaining their senior-level talent. Here’s a look at a few examples taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Executive search firm Michael Kelly Associates (MKA) and Change, Development & Leadership Consulting (CDL) have formed a strategic partnership to focus on employee engagement to foster team building and a united corporate culture for maximum effectiveness. The alliance focuses not only on applying MKA’s knowledge of executive search, but also on …
Heidrick & Struggles recently formed its new business unit, Heidrick Consulting, bringing together a suite of offerings from its leadership consulting and culture shaping businesses. It offers leadership services in leadership assessment & development, organization & team effectiveness, and culture shaping, all as a full complement to its core executive search business.
ALSpective expanded with the addition of Juliane Nitsche and Michel Moutier as partners and advisors. The pair’s responsibilities include leadership consulting with a specialization in well-being & performance as well as strategy and board services with a new offering in change management. Ms. Nitsche and Mr. Moutier are the founders of MLC Advisory.
Major, Lindsey & Africa recently launched a new service known as Legal Talent Management Consulting. Led by Miriam Frank, a partner and vice president, the offering provides lawyers and legal teams with customized consulting services designed to increase performance, productivity and engagement.
Odgers Berndtson expanded its leadership practice to include executive and team leadership assessment, coaching and onboarding. Organizational psychologist Robert Satterwhite is spearheading the new effort. Dr. Satterwhite has extensive experience designing and delivering robust assessments for measuring executives’ potential, readiness and fit.
The Pi Group expanded its services to help candidates transition to new chapters in their lives. By delivering services through Perpetual Insights, Pi Executive and Perpetual Ambition, The Pi Group is positioning itself, quite methodically, to help client organizations manage their entire talent spectrum. It is a strategy that a number of small boutiques are pursuing.
Morgan Samuels acquired human capital consulting firm Delivery Point Advisors. The company offers a spectrum of solutions designed to help clients unlock potential from their people, including executive assessment and development, high performance team building, functional assessment and …
Greenwood / Asher & Associates and the Devine Group, a behavioral assessment and development organization, formed a strategic alliance to leverage and integrate the science of predictive talent analytics into the executive search and leadership development process. The partnership is designed to tailor an assessment to higher education position profiles.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
