Executive Recruitment: Navigating Leadership Hiring

Melissa Wheeler, Manager Leadership Recruitment  at Community Health Network and NAHCR President, breaks down how executive recruitment succeeds through trusted recruiter–leader relationships, authentic candidate engagement, and the recruiter’s role as a strategic advisor balancing organizational vision with market realities. 

Transcript

Angela Pointer 0:00

Hi, I'm Angela Pointer, and welcome to the Hiring Scope Podcast from the National Association for Healthcare Recruitment, where we explore the latest trends, insights, and strategies in the ever-changing world of healthcare hiring.

Patrick Kelly 0:13

Hi, I'm Patrick Kelly. Each episode we'll dive into the challenges and opportunities facing recruiters, hiring managers, and healthcare professionals alike. Whether you're looking to attract top talent, navigate industry challenges, or build a strong workforce, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Angela Pointer 0:31

So today we have with us Melissa Wheeler, who actually serves as president of NAHCR. And so, Melissa, before we get into our content today, tell us a little bit about you.

Melissa Wheeler 0:40

I'm Melissa Wheeler. I have been with NAHCR about 10 years now. So I hit my 10 years and became president. I got started through hearing about it through my local association, the Indiana Healthcare Association for Healthcare Recruitment, that I found out about when I started in healthcare recruitment about 12 years ago with my organization I work for in Indianapolis at Community Health Network.

Angela Pointer 1:04

And tell us a little bit about your role there, your title and your role.

Speaker 2 1:09

Yep. Currently I manage our executive recruitment team. We recruit for supervisor and above positions as well as professional level roles across our network.

Angela Pointer 1:18

And how did you get into the space of executive recruitment?

Melissa Wheeler 1:21

I have been in healthcare recruitment about 12 years. And I started in recruiting for one hospital location. And then we transitioned to more of a service line model, or we had specific areas that we recruited for. And an opportunity came up on our leadership recruitment team. And I kind of like the idea of one, the access to other network leaders across our organization versus just a specific location or product line. It gave me a lot of variety. So that's what got me into just into executive recruitment. And I've been here for about six years now.

Patrick Kelly 1:56

When you compare executive searches with frontline or middle recruiting, what feels the most different about that recruitment process?

Melissa Wheeler 2:04

You know, your topic on relationships that really hits home because it's the quality of relationships that I get with the candidates and the hiring managers. The search process is much longer. And so I get to spend more time with both more than I did with staff level, really screening candidates and speaking with them and then maintaining that relationship throughout the process. And then with that, I also have a lower volume of position. So I have more time to dedicate to allow the higher touch experience.

Angela Pointer 2:33

Yeah, and you kind of touched on something. I hear this, you know, in this space, I hear the phrase white glove, right? Would you say that that's probably accurate to describe it? Yeah, absolutely.

Melissa Wheeler 2:42

I try to say, you know, not hand holding, but more of a higher touch experience. Yeah, that white glove service for sure.

Angela Pointer 2:49

So um now talking into the power of recruiter executive relationships. So when you're partnering with a senior leader, how do you build credibility and trust early in the process?

Melissa Wheeler 3:01

Yeah, that was a learning curve because I previously worked with people who are hiring leaders who I knew. I worked with them search after search. And so they just we knew each other. And it you didn't have to build that relationship quickly to get the search started. So that that can be a challenging piece when I am working with someone I've never worked with before. They don't know me. And a lot of times we're not at the same location or sometimes remote. So I do schedule an intake with them and we can do it over video or we can I can come in and do face-to-face. Um, we are local. Um, so I just try to learn about their needs and discuss the recruitment process, explain what I can do to support them and just partner with them. And I'll share best practices, advice, or listen to their needs or preferences. And how do they like to communicate so that I can provide that to them? And then often when I start a search, I ask them to look at here are the resumes I'm seeing that I think meet the needs. Do you feel the same way? So before I just dive right in, I want to make sure that we're in line. I think that's really important to have that open communication.

Patrick Kelly 4:04

So you kind of actually started to touch on it a little bit, but executive hiring can be long, complex, and it sometimes uh needs you to have a lot of uh information that you don't always have. What are your go-to practices for keeping alignment and momentum with these hiring leaders through their executive search?

Melissa Wheeler 4:22

Yeah, I've learned that over the years too. Kind of the hard way is that just consistent touch bases. And so for some leaders, I know maybe I need to schedule a weekly meeting with them or a bi-weekly touch base so that we're both on track. We're both working towards the same goal still, and we're just really communicating throughout the process. Senior leaders are busy and so their calendars are always full. And so I think that helps both of us to keep that at the top of mind when we we know we're gonna meet. So where are we at with the search? We'll talk about different marketing efforts, different sourcing efforts, referrals, any suggestions. They might have for me another way to keep things moving is my team usually will schedule the interviews. So once we know we have an initial interview scheduled, we can proactively start placing holds on the panelist calendar so that we can quickly move on to that next step once the initial interviews have taken place. So it really helps us stay on top of things to be really involved in the process.

Angela Pointer 5:18

That's good. So, you know, everything in executive recruitment isn't a walk in the park, right? So, what happens when expectations don't line up with the talent market? How do you have those crucial or tough conversations?

Melissa Wheeler 5:34

Often when we're starting those intake meetings, we talk about what uh skills and experiences are required versus what is nice to have or what their preferences are. So if we're not finding that ideal candidate, can we back up and look at other industries or other related experiences? I'll just be transparent. I mean, that's the biggest thing, but share what I'm seeing in the market, what efforts that I've completed to date, and also ask for their feedback. It's just being open and communicating, offer and exhaust all of our options. Sometimes that might include partnering with a search firm. It just depends on you know what the organization feels like doing at the time, but it's that constant communication that prevents those tough conversations from being so tough.

Angela Pointer 6:17

Yeah, I'm gonna jump in here real quick, Patrick, because there was something you said, Melissa, that brings back memories. Because I know this happens sometimes when leaders, particularly executive leaders, may have unrealistic expectations, you have to kind of rein them in. What have you done in situations where the leader's like, I want to fill this position in 10 days? I have had that happen before. So have you had those situations where you had the leader up front, they're thinking not they're really not having realistic expectations on the process and what's gonna happen.

Melissa Wheeler 6:47

Yeah, and I have found that if if we do push and make those things happen, it's not always a good experience for the candidate or the hiring leader in the end. So really try to calmly and politely push back and share experiences or say, you know, I speak to the candidate experience or speak to what best practices are, what that looks like or what it could look like, and try to slow the process down a little bit to make sure that we are providing the best experience all around. So it's yeah, sometimes that's not easy.

Patrick Kelly 7:18

Well, you kind of actually started to talk about our next topic a little bit and the way you help your hiring managers out. So let's jump into candidate engagement and kind of market strategy. Executive candidates are often considered considering multiple opportunities. I know that they get pinged a lot by a lot of those search firms. How do you stand out to keep them engaged through a longer process?

Melissa Wheeler 7:38

That's tough too. Uh, I try to stay in contact with them. So if I tell them when I speak to them the first time that I'll contact them every week or two, regardless of if I have an update. And I've gotten great feedback from that. So, you know, I kept them updated throughout the process, whether I knew what the next step was or not. And I asked them to do the same. So they have an open line to me if they ever think of anything or if they're not hearing from me as often as they'd like, they can contact me too. And then just getting to know do they prefer that I text them or call them or email and staying with that schedule. It's um sometimes not easy when there's a lot going on to take the time to do that, and the candidates really appreciate that, the time and attention. So I've gotten good feedback even from candidates that I've declined, and that helps me keep with that process.

Angela Pointer 8:23

That's good, Melissa. So let's get to the million-dollar question, uh, maybe pun or pun not intended. So at this level, negotiations can be tricky. So, how do you act as an advisor both to your hiring leader in the organization and to the candidate to ensure that there's a good fit?

Melissa Wheeler 8:43

Yeah. For the hiring leader, we do have a process as an organization. So it's not just me making that decision. We include the hiring leader in that, but we're looking at market data, we're looking at internal equity. There's a lot of factors that go into making an offer. So we try to keep that, you know, our financial balance in line to being a good steward of the organization's finances. So just collaboration that helps with the hiring leader. As far as candidates, it's not just executives, but every candidate these days, every level is negotiating. And I want them to get the most that they can too. But we, you know, we look at equity, we look at things that make it fair in the market and the organization. So I also try to get their expectations up front and we'll be as transparent as I can with them. Here's our range. You may or may not fall with it in line with that range and help them to make a decision if they want to move forward to the interview process and also focus on total rewards. It's not just base compensation. There are other factors that might be important to that candidate. So I can use that as a tactic too to you know, point out here's our PTO, here's our retirement plan, here's the tuition reimbursement or other factors that may be specific to their needs. So it's a balance for sure.

Angela Pointer 9:57

Yeah. And I think it's something that you mentioned too, around total compensation. And especially at this level, those kind of conversations come a little bit more into play as people are looking at at you know their total package. So now we're going to go into lessons learned. So, Melissa, you've been doing this for a few years now. So you've learned a few things. So, can you share a success story where your relationship with a hiring leader was the deciding factor in landing the right hire or any other success story you'd like to share?

Melissa Wheeler 10:26

I I don't know if it I won't take full credit because it is a partnership and our senior leaders are very busy, but I've had a really great experience with one that just was kind of overwhelmed with the number of choices. We had some great candidates and they're busy. They have to think about stopping, taking time to interview, then hire and then they're gonna have to train this person, and it's a lot on top of your day-to-day work. So instead of waiting on the hiring leader to make a decision on who I should screen, I went ahead and proactively started screening candidates and ranking them and put together kind of a spreadsheet and a ranking system and said, here's here's what I think based on our conversations, our intake, and what I think your expectations are. And it really worked with that individual. So it's an individual basis, but they met with the candidates that I recommended. Then we got together afterwards to talk about who do we move forward. And that partnership plus my own kind of process management allowed us to continue with that process in a more timely manner versus being stuck in that whirlwind. So just thankful for the partnership and then the trust that my hiring leaders have in me and then the candidate relationship to be able to move that forward.

Patrick Kelly 11:34

So leadership searches can be a big step up for a recruiter in their career. What advice would you give to recruiters who are just starting to take on their first leadership role that they're recruiting for?

Melissa Wheeler 11:44

When I came into leadership, I didn't, I didn't know what I didn't know. So it has been a learning curve, but not being afraid to ask questions or just push back if something doesn't feel right or, you know, working with those senior leaders can be intimidating sometimes, whether they mean to be or not. So just taking that time, kind of what Angela asked about earlier, slowing down and ensuring that you're following best practices, that if we're pressured to hurry, that's when we can make mistakes. So it's important to research, use your professional network, talk to others, like within NAHCR or other professional networks that you partner with, or just ask the questions, partner internally, partner with our HR business partners and others. If if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. So it's good to use those connections.

Patrick Kelly 12:29

Yeah, I would say that all three of us have uh actually done leadership searches here at one point in our career, and that partnership is definitely something that really can make a difference, whether it's uh, you know, your HR team, the surrounding panel team that you're working with, the EAs who could be helping you schedule things. Uh that is great advice for our new recruiters who are looking to take on these searches.

Angela Pointer 12:51

And I'll just have to add, going back to you know, making it about the money, another partnership that's super helpful too is your total rewards team because I don't know all the answers to all those things, but it's good to have friends in all places, I say. Absolutely. Yeah, good point. So I'm enjoying this conversation, Melissa. We can probably talk all day. But one thing as we get ready to wrap up, what would be one leadership lesson you've personally taken away from working with executives up close?

Melissa Wheeler 13:21

The biggest thing, and it's simple, but I think about it a lot because like I just mentioned, they can be intimidating sometimes, but we're all human. And I found the best leaders that I work with, transparency goes a long way. So just being open with each other, being vulnerable, being honest, just keeping that in mind and having that mutual respect, regardless of what role you have in the organization, is what I how I try to lead.

Patrick Kelly 13:46

Thank you, Melissa. This wraps up our episode of the Hiring Scope podcast from the National Association of Healthcare Recruitment. Thank you for joining us as we tackle the evolving landscape of healthcare hiring and specifically executive and leadership recruitment.

Angela Pointer 14:02

Yes, thank you so much, Melissa. And if you enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. You can also check us out at NAHCR.com for more content. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare recruitment.