We’re Hirehoot the anonymous hiring platform for senior professionals.
What at first seems like an obvious question—what defines a senior role— turns out to have a range of answers depending on your perspective. At Hirehoot, we understand the challenges of hiring senior professionals, and we support diversity and inclusivity in senior hiring across all that we do, so we go for broad definitions when we think about what a senior role is, or who qualifies as a senior-level candidate. And we consider more than mere “seniority” as laid out by org charts or reporting lines, to address the full scope of senior talent acquisition challenges
We consider three dimensions in our definition:
Let’s start simple. We consider if the role in question is a leadership position—like as C-suite executives, department heads, or team leaders—and if the candidate has held this type of role before. This is where many definitions of seniority stop… but for us, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Hiring for senior leadership roles presents a set of unique challenges that can easily trip up a busy startup co-founder or CEO. But these senior hiring challenges—time, expense, recruitment costs, and cultural fit—aren’t unique to leadership positions. You’ll also find them if you’re looking for a “rockstar” employee (also “superstar”, “A-team player” and various other comparable buzzwords). These people are specialists in their field, key subject matter experts, who may “only” be individual contributors but whose work and decisions keep systems, processes and other people working.
This leads us into our second criterion for identifying senior professionals: they make an impact. They get things done. That might be managing teams, but it could equally well be managing projects and driving forward key organisational goals. Or it could be holding specialist knowledge, and making sure that knowledge gets applied so the business can succeed. That’s what true seniority in the workplace looks like—high-impact employees who move the needle, regardless of their job title.
Our final category is the hardest to define, but important to remember. Seniority is contextual, and it shouldn’t be static. It can start with relevant education, or certification, and should grow from there. Awards and honours are great indicators of leaders, or (especially in scientific and technical fields) publications or thought leadership. Other, quieter, indicators might be mentoring or educational updates colleagues: not just having insight, but growing and sharing it.
The impact of senior professionals on a business is proportionate to their influence, not their headcount. They have a domino effect on company culture, team success, and company direction. A bad hire can derail a company’s trajectory, a good one can ramp growth exponentially.
This is easy to remember at startups and smaller organisations. There, senior professionals are often co-founders. Or, if not, they are usually pivotal team members who coach and advise others. However, startups and smaller organisations are often moving so fast that other risks can creep in. Often, hiring decisions default to an over-reliance on founders’ networks which can lead to homogenous leadership teams. And that can unintentionally hinder future diversity and inclusion initiatives.
For the employer
For the employee:
If you’re a senior professional looking for a new role join Hirehoot today to get started, or if you’ve got senior roles to fill, get in touch!
