It now often takes 9-12 months to fill a vacant CEO or CXO position, especially when the search is for seasoned professionals in specialised areas such as renewables, semiconductors, chemicals, hightech manufacturing, automotive and electric vehicles, pharmaceuticals and hardcore product engineering, they said. Usually, a senior executive search used to be closed in 3-4 months in times when the demand-supply mismatch was not so acute as it has been in the last one year.
There is an increasing trend among senior professionals to have exploratory chats. Some may also not accept the offer made at the very last minute. It is all a result of a leadership market where demand for talent — especially in some of the newer areas — far out surpasses supply,” said the head of HR at a large industrial company, who did not wish to be named. This is one of the reasons why companies are increasingly building a leadership pipeline nternally, the HR head said. The internal candidate in such cases is given preference over an external executive even if the former is only 60% ready to take charge. But in case of specialised roles, often there is no option but to look for professionals outside.
The acute demand-supply shortage is prompting companies to look at hiring Indians returning home and expats, which is further adding to the delay in filling the vacancies. About 35-50% of the searches include looking at the global candidate pool besides domestic candidates.
Searches in Malaysia, Taiwan
Searches are reaching out to professionals in countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, apart from the US and Europe. In about 20% of the searches, a global candidate is appointed. Those who are looking to return to India often do exploratory conversations, but many drop off after that, said Aditya Narayan Mishra, chief executive of recruitment agency Ciel HR.
“There are others who drop off during various stages of the engagement, leading to the search process (again) starting from scratch and hence delaying the fulfilment of the vacant position,” he said. There also seems to be reluctance among CXOs to join a company which has yet to prove its identity. A recent global joint venture of a large industrial company failed to attract a CEO in spite of several candidatures and is currently functioning without a CEO. Even top companies are sometimes faced with such last-minute drop offs by senior candidates, said a company official.
“There are some areas such as semiconductors, EVs, AI, chemicals, among others, where there is virtually no suitable (local) talent available to fit the role demand. In such cases, the searches have to be global which leads to the delay,” said Atul Vohra, managing partner of leadership search firm Transearch India. This is also leading to sky rocketing of pay, with a 40-50% increase seen in the last two years.
“There is also a mix of expats and Indians who are open to coming back. Companies too are willing to pay world-class salaries to attract such people with compensations matching and even crossing the global pay,” said Vohra. An evolving trend is CXOs backing off post accepting an offer.