Why the Researcher’s Call Is Worth Twenty Minutes of Your Time

Most weeks, I speak to senior leaders who tell me they are approached constantly and cannot take every call. A message arrives from a name they do not recognise, about a role they were not looking for, and it sits unanswered.

This is entirely reasonable, and a position I completely understand. But having run the research on a good number of Executive Director, Director and Head of Service searches, I have noticed something consistent: the people who take the call tend to be surprised at how much they get out of it - whether it’s market insight, a view into a peer organisation’s priorities and challenges, or a contact for roles in the future. This holds true whether or not they apply and is often most true for those who decide the role is not for them.

What a Researcher actually does
When an executive search firm is running a process, candidates usually have two points of contact before applications close: the Consultant and the Researcher. In most cases, the first conversation is with the Researcher.

My role runs from the start of a campaign through to the point a client sees a field. I am usually in the initial briefing, map the market, approach the people we want to speak to, build the longlist and report back on what the market is telling us.

The practical consequence for you is this: the Researcher is the person in the process who has spoken to most of your peers this month. That is what makes the call worth taking.

Four things that make the conversation worth having

1. Take the call, even when the timing is wrong
If the role is not right, the conversation still has value, because you get a read on the market that you will struggle to get anywhere else.

To cite a live example: on the 7th of September, the Government withdrew its local government reorganisation decisions in Essex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Norfolk and Suffolk, and opened a review covering those areas.

Those are the public headlines. What is not public is what it has actually felt like inside those organisations. Since the announcement, I have been speaking to senior leaders in affected councils every day. Some have restructures that may now not happen, appointments on hold, or decisions about whether to sit tight until there is clarity.

Our recent sentiment survey, From Anticipation to Opportunity, found that 75% of senior local government leaders said LGR had already influenced their career plans, up from 61% a year earlier. The survey sets out the wider picture, but the day-to-day texture comes from conversations. That is the kind of intelligence a Researcher is sitting on, and there is no reason you should not ask for it. 

2. Be candid about what would actually motivate you to move
Salary, location, on-site expectations, timing, what your current organisation would have to do to keep you: these are all things that belong in the first conversation. You can save an awful lot of time by getting a straight answer early.

Being straight about your constraints helps you avoid spending six weeks on a process that was never going to end in a package you would accept. I have had conversations where someone told me the salary was ten thousand short of where they needed to be. That let me advise them not to invest the time and take that evidence back to the client.

A good Researcher won’t come to you six months down the line with a role they already know doesn’t work for you.

3. Give us the context behind the CV
A CV tells me what you were responsible for. It rarely tells me the thing that would actually persuade a hiring manager: the programme that was failing when you inherited it, the reason you moved sideways in 2022, the context behind acting up as Director, or the political situation you steered a Local Plan through and the challenges you overcame.

That context is what turns a name on a longlist into a candidate a client wants to meet. Bring two or three examples you would want someone advocating for you to know.

4. Use us as a source of intelligence
Ask about the political make-up, the Chief Executive’s priorities, the financial position, why the post is vacant, and what the client is looking for that is not written down on the job description. Use the conversation as an opportunity to learn about the key personalities in the organisation – those whose leadership has driven recent programmes through to delivery, or Executive Directors brought in after a restructuring or transformation of service areas.

A well-briefed Researcher can answer most of that and should be able to tell you when they can’t. The value is that you are speaking to someone immersed in the market, rather than someone solely focused on trying to fill a vacancy.

What you should expect in return
Confidentiality. An honest read on the brief rather than a word-for-word recital of the job description. Clear timelines and clarity on when you will hear something. Feedback that is honest, useful and timely.

You should also expect a genuine view on fit. If there is a gap between your experience and what the role demands, you should be told what it is and how to address it. And if the role is not right for you, you should be told that too. I have had conversations that ended with me advising someone not to apply, and those have often been the start of a longer relationship.

Being straight about who we work for
There is a tension in all of this that is worth naming: the Researcher is paid by the client, not by you.

What goes back to the client is your relevant experience, how you sit against the brief, and your genuine level of interest. Anything you flag as said in confidence stays that way. If you are unsure, ask.

The reason candour still serves you is simple. A Researcher who does not know your real constraints cannot advocate for you accurately, push back where a brief is unrealistic, or tell you when to save yourself the effort.

In short
Next time a Researcher gets in touch about a role you were not looking for, give it twenty minutes. Come with a couple of questions about the organisation, be straight about what would and would not work for you and treat it as a conversation rather than a hurdle.

At Tile Hill, our relationships with candidates often begin well before we are retained to recruit. We stay in regular contact, listening to ambitions and offering advice as circumstances change. For me, that is what a good candidate experience looks like: keeping the person at the centre of the conversation, being honest about what we know, and giving useful advice even when the role itself is not right. I think it starts with that first call.