L. Duksaitė: Are HR Managers Our Competitors?
“We can select a manager ourselves,” HR teams sometimes say. So, are they our competitors?
Yes and no.
Some in-house HR teams genuinely see us as competitors. Others see us as partners who save them time and resources.
Why the difference?
In my view, it comes down to a different understanding of the role.
Those who see us as competitors tend to think: “We know the market too. We can identify and select a leader ourselves, just as we do for other positions. The process is essentially the same.”
Those who see us as partners think differently: “We don’t know the executive talent market that well. After all, we only hire a senior leader once every few years. The last time we searched for a CFO was five years ago. There are things that external consultants simply cannot do—performance reviews, onboarding, offboarding. But executive search? That they can do.”
This is exactly what I emphasize when speaking with business owners.
First and foremost, HR teams should focus on the areas where no external consultant can replace them.
When a company’s attention is directed toward activities that can easily be purchased as a service in the market, truly critical internal responsibilities often suffer.
The second factor is experience.
If you conduct only one or two executive searches per year, you simply cannot have the same feel for the market as someone who works in it every day. Each year, we identify and place 60–70 executives. Even within specialized functions—finance, IT, operations, manufacturing—we still recruit several leaders in each field annually.
It is similar to mastery in medicine: you cannot become a great surgeon if you perform surgery only twice a year.
Another important aspect is candidate passivity.
These are not the talents standing around with signs saying, “Looking for a job.” Especially if we are seeking the very best. Around 70% of them are not actively looking for a career move. You need to know them, understand their careers, stay interested in their professional journey, and earn their trust.
When we say we know the market, what do we really mean?
To genuinely have your finger on the pulse, you need to maintain regular contact with leaders from top companies, understand what matters to them, know who may be considering a move and who has no intention of changing roles in the next few years.
That is a job in itself—one that requires constant interaction, time, and commitment. Most companies simply do not have the internal resources to sustain it.
And finally, cultural fit.
From the outside, it is often easier to see which organization is culturally suited to which leader. Internal hiring processes can introduce bias: sometimes an excellent candidate is overlooked, while in other cases a leader with the right competencies is hired but never truly feels at home in the company culture and therefore does not stay long.
A leader must fit an organization not only in terms of competencies. Company culture, the owners’ management style, the pace of decision-making, and even the organization’s stage of maturity all need to be considered.
The strongest organizations today do not win because they do everything themselves.
They win because they clearly understand where internal expertise is essential—and where specialized partners, who live and breathe this work every day, can create greater value.
