Here are the Key Takeaways from the Chief People Officers Dinner organized by Sonnar.This exclusive event brought together HR leaders from companies such as Pigment, Alan, Welcome To The Jungle, MyTraffic, SmartBox, Homa Games, OpenClassrooms, and Vestiaire Collective.
Hiring an executive is one of the most strategic decisions for any company, whether it's in a scale-up phase or already well-established. Yet, this process often proves to be complex and lengthy, requiring coordinated efforts between founders, recruitment teams, and business stakeholders.
How long does it take to hire an executive? How should they be evaluated, particularly in terms of cultural fit? And how can managers and COMEX members be better involved in the process?
Expert Panelists
- Matthieu Birach, Chief People Officer @Doctolib
- Grace McKelvey, Head of People @Dioxycle, ex-Botify & ENGIE
- Stella Walter, VP People @Alven, ex-Luko, Eutopia & Showroomprive
Key Takeaways
1. The Length of the Process: An Essential Investment
Hiring an executive can take between six months and a year, or even longer, depending on the complexity of the role and the market. While these timelines may seem lengthy, they are necessary to ensure the right candidate is selected. In niche sectors where skills are scarce, such as deep tech, it is often better to leave a position vacant than to hire someone unsuitable.
Lengthy processes also allow for better mutual evaluation. For strategic roles, it is essential to plan several structured steps, including a case study and a cultural fit interview, involving a number of stakeholders. This gives candidates the opportunity to truly understand the company and see if they can project themselves into it (or not), while allowing the organization to assess their suitability in terms of technical, managerial, and cultural competencies.
At the other end of the spectrum, some companies like Free favor short processes: "We did not share the idea we can predict an executive's performance through a recruitment process. We throw them in the deep water to test them, but internally, everyone is used to the idea that an executive might be replaced after 2-3 months or even a week of they do not perform. And that's fine."
2. Leadership Involvement: A Critical Prerequisite
One of the major challenges in executive recruitment is involving managers and COMEX members throughout this time-consuming process. Many underestimate the importance of the preparation phase and limit themselves to a succint brief. Spending time on this initial step is crucial to clarify needs and avoid costly mistakes later.
Providing a visualization of what the first weeks of collaboration will look like can also help align expectations among all parties involved. As one recruiter pointed out: "It's mostly during the preparation phase that it's hard to get time from hiring managers because they'll say, 'I sent you a Slack with four bullet points, go ahead.'" Yet, as experience shows: "The more time we spend at the beginning of the search, the better we'll be at the end."
Additionally, using scorecards to document each evaluation step ensures an objective and structured approach. However, recruiters may find it challenging to get interviewers to fill out these scorecards. A participant emphasized: "People think saying, 'She was great, good fit' is enough. But no, you have to cover all aspects of the scorecard." Solutions include pausing the process until evaluations are completed or incorporating recruitment into managers' personal objectives or variable compensation.
3. Assessing Cultural Fit: Balancing Objectivity and Subjectivity
Cultural fit is often a determining factor in the success or failure of an executive hire, sometimes even more so than technical skills. However, it is frequently misunderstood. One recruiter explained: "The problem is that we mix a lot of things with this nebulous idea of cultural fit: personality type, the relationship with the direct manager, whether the company is more performance- or kindness-oriented, expectations around remote work etc."
To objectify this notion, some companies structure the evaluation process by listing expected behaviors and core values: "You absolutely need to rationalize cultural fit; you can't just say, 'I wouldn't want to grab a beer with this person.'" Full transparency at the end of the process can also build trust and help assess the fit. At Doctolib, for instance: "At the end of the process, when everything has been validated, we have an honest and open conversation with the candidate. We explain: here are our weaknesses, here are our strengths, and here's what you need to know about us."
This "adult conversation" helps assess whether the candidate is truly aligned with the company's reality and challenges.
4. Balancing Structure and Flexibility
While structured processes are indispensable, leaving room for informal interactions can provide valuable insights. Natural exchanges, such as lunches or walking meetings, help evaluate a candidate's human qualities in a more relaxed setting. One participant noted: "An executive-level hiring process where everyone is aligned, and there's no challenge nor doubt, makes me nervous."
These informal moments complement formal stages by offering a nuanced perspective on how the candidate interacts with teams and stakeholders. Cyrille Lafont from Sonnar added: "It also depends on the maturity of the company. Younger entrepreneurs often seek reassurance through structured methods and don't leave much room for informal interactions. Fit is sometimes misunderstood-they think it has to be fully objective. But more experienced entrepreneurs tend to spend more time on fit because they've learned from past mistakes."
5. Clarifying Needs
Recruiters play a key role in deciphering what the manager thinks they want versus what they truly need. As one attendee explained: "There's what the manager thinks they want and what they really want. Often, there's a slight gap, and it's the recruiter's job to understand their working style and preferences."
This ability grows with experience, familiarity with the CEO, and mutual trust, which allows for addressing ambiguous areas: "As recruiters, our knowledge of the CEO is key for C-level hires." With this knowledge, recruiters can eliminate most blind spots, especially the objective aspects of fit for each candidate, and filter effectively. The problem is: "The more eager you are to close a candidate, the more mistakes you'll make."
6. The Importance of Onboarding
Onboarding is as critical as the recruitment process itself. Even after a long and rigorous process, it is often during this period that the executive's compatibility with the company is truly tested. One participant emphasized: "The best assessment is onboarding: will the executive be able to onboard themselves, especially in a company with a strong culture?"
In some environments, onboarding is even seen as a probationary period, with the flexibility to adjust if needed.
In Conclusion
Hiring an executive requires time, patience, and significant collaboration. Companies that succeed in these strategic recruitments are those that balance structure and flexibility, formal and informal interactions, and ensure cultural alignment-a crucial factor in executive-level hires. As one participant summarized: "An interview is just one perspective, one data point among many. A hire is co-construction."