By evaluating the technology, processes, and people within the finance function of their portcos, private equity firms can make informed decisions that can lead to improved financial performance and increased profitability.
Here are a few ways they’re already doing so:
Technology: After an acquisition, portfolio companies incur debt that they need to measure against for the duration of the hold period. To effectively measure financial goals like these, companies need a robust, PE-grade reporting package
People: Firms want to ensure that the right talent is in place to effectively manage the unique demands of a PE-backed finance function. Assessing finance talent often includes bringing in search firms to fill skill gaps, or bringing in leadership coaches and training providers
If you or your portcos have a finance need, or any other third-party need, contact our research and operations team to set up a scoping call.
A strong organic search presence is a great way to attract new readers, users or clients. As you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), you can usually expect more traffic, conversions and revenue. But it’s important to have the right person in place to lead these efforts.
What is SEO? Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process or strategy behind improving a website’s content so that it organically ranks well on search engines like Google or Bing. This is different from paid search ads which fall under SEM, or search engine marketing.
A search engine optimization guru (though they probably don’t call themselves that) will know that more organic traffic to your website means more potential customers.
They will know how to improve your site’s user experience and position content in a way that boosts conversions. This is especially important if people can make purchases or book business directly on your site.
While SEM requires ongoing investments, the right organic search strategy can yield long-term results that require less maintenance. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though. A good search strategy could take months to bear fruit, depending on how competitive your market is.
That’s why SEO recruitment continues to be a hot topic for private equity firms, portfolio companies, and independent and public companies.
“SEO is an foundational component of any modern business’s digital marketing strategy,” BluWave’s Senior Content Marketing Manager Brad Gerick says. “With so much information available, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a true expert, which is why it can be helpful to work with a specialized recruiting firm to hire the right candidate.”
Let’s dive in to what you should look for in an SEO, and how to hire someone whose talent matches your needs.
What Skills and Tools Do You Need for SEO
On-Page Skills
On-page SEO skills include optimizing your website content and technical elements to improve your rankings in search engines. Some of the more important ones include:
Conducting keyword research to determine the best keywords and phrases to target for your site and content. Choose keywords that your audience is searching for and that you can rank for.
Optimizing your page titles, meta descriptions, header tags, image alt attributes and content for your target keywords. Include keywords prominently and naturally to signal their relevance to search engines.
Improving your internal linking structure by connecting related content and categories across your site. Link to high-quality, relevant content to guide users and search engines to your most important pages.
Optimizing your URL structure with descriptive, keyword-rich page names. Well-structured URLs make your pages easier to read, navigate and rank in search engines.
Providing valuable, high-quality content that matches for what your audience is searching. (The latter part is also known as keyword intent.) For more information about this, check out Google’s E-E-A-T documentation.
Off-Page Skills
Off-page SEO skills include building relationships with other websites and influencers to earn high-quality backlinks and increase your site’s authority. Key off-page SEO skills include:
Conducting outreach to other websites and influencers for backlink opportunities like guest posts, interviews, mentions and citations. Build relationships with other industry leaders to earn high-quality backlinks over time. Be careful, though. Buying backlinks or engaging in shady link-exchange tactics can get you in trouble with the algorithms. Avoid these schemes at all costs (no pun intended).
Leveraging social media platforms to increase exposure for your content and brand. Share your blog posts, news, events and other updates on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to reach new potential customers and backlink partners.
Engaging with your audience and influencers through email marketing campaigns. Send a regular newsletter, promote new content, share industry news and build rapport with subscribers to earn more links and social shares.
Participating in relevant online communities and forums to establish yourself as a thought leader. Answer questions on sites like Quora, Reddit and industry-specific forums. Provide value to others while linking back to your website. (Do this with caution, though. Reddit moderators don’t like it when users hijack their subreddits simply to get more traffic.)
Technical SEO skills refer to the technical knowledge and abilities required to optimize a website for search engines like Google. Some key technical SEO skills include:
Optimizing page-load speed. Some tactics for this include reducing file sizes, minimizing redirects, optimizing images, caching content and compressing code. Fast page load speeds improve the user experience and search engine rankings. A well-structured site with logical navigation and internal links helps search engines understand your content. Google’s Core Web Vitals are a great starting point to learn more about this topic.
Ensuring your content is mobile-friendly and responsive, with a clear focus and user experience for all device types. The majority of web traffic now comes from mobile devices, so a mobile-optimized site is essential. In fact, Google uses mobile-first indexing to crawl sites.
Troubleshooting any technical SEO issues like duplicate content, broken links, crawl errors or penalties to resolve problems and avoid negative impacts on search visibility.
Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant content to attract and retain customers. It is closely tied to SEO, as high-quality content helps to improve search rankings, increase traffic, build brand authority and boost lead generation. Key content marketing skills for SEO specialists include:
Conducting keyword research to identify topics and questions that your target audience is searching for. Then, create content that answers those questions and optimizes for relevant keywords.
Writing informative and engaging blog posts, articles, case studies, whitepapers and other content assets. Content should be valuable, well-researched, and optimized for both search engines and readers.
Promoting content on social media platforms to increase traffic and engagement. Share updates on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and LinkedIn to reach new readers and earn more links and social shares.
Analyzing the performance of your content using tools like Google Analytics, Search Console and Buzzsumo. Track traffic, rankings, engagement and conversions to determine what’s working and what needs improvement.
Strategy and Planning
SEO strategy and planning refer to the high-level thinking and goal setting required to optimize a website for search. Some key SEO strategy and planning skills include:
Conducting a comprehensive SEO audit to analyze your website and marketing performance. Review on-page and off-page factors like technical issues, content gaps, link profiles and keyword rankings to determine your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.
Developing a data-driven SEO plan that outlines your goals, key objectives, actions, timelines, resources and expected outcomes. Set specific, measurable goals for traffic, rankings, conversions and revenue that align with your business objectives. Determine the strategies and tactics you will use to achieve those goals.
Implementing and monitoring your SEO plan to ensure you stay on track. Use project management tools and best practices to organize workflows, assign responsibilities, track progress and make adjustments as needed. Regularly evaluate your results and key metrics to determine what’s working and what needs improvement.
Adjusting your plan based on feedback, insights and changes in the search landscape. Search engines frequently update their algorithms and best practices, and the needs of your audience may evolve over time as well. Review your plan regularly and make data-driven changes to optimize your efforts and results.
Commonly Used SEO Tools
Here are some of the higher level categories of search-related tools, as well as some specific recommendations within each one:
Technical SEO:Screaming Frog, Google Search Console and Ahrefs Site Audit help assess technical issues that could affect your search rankings. They crawl your site to identify errors like broken links, slow page load times, duplicate content and more. They also provide metrics on site speed, mobile-friendliness and XML sitemaps to help optimize technical SEO.
Content optimization: Content optimization tools like Yoast SEO, Grammarly and Hemingway Editor help create blog posts, articles and other content that ranks well in search engines. They analyze content for keyword usage, readability, grammar and plagiarism to ensure it is high-quality, informative and optimized for your target audience.
Link building: Tools such as Ahrefs Backlink Checker, Moz Link Explorer and BuzzSumo help build high-quality backlinks to improve your site’s authority and search rankings. They provide data on your existing link profile as well as opportunities for new links and influencers who may be interested in linking to or sharing your content.
Analytics: Analytics tools like Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio and Google Tag Manager help track the performance of your SEO and content marketing efforts. They provide insights into metrics such as traffic, rankings, engagements, conversions and revenue to determine what’s working and what needs improvement.
Artificial Intelligence: With the wide release of ChatGPT, as well as the creation of myriad other AI tools, this is quickly becoming an essential part of the content-creation process. Just make sure the SEO you hire uses these tools to complement their job, and not do all the work for them. AI can be great, but it shouldn’t be applied to an SEO strategy without thorough human refinement and vigilance.
If your SEO candidate can’t talk to you about Google Search Console in detail, don’t hire them.
Assess a Candidate’s Knowledge and Experience
This role requires a combination of both technical knowledge and strategic thinking to analyze data, identify opportunities and develop high-impact solutions.
Here are some ways to make sure they fit the bill:
Online tests: Services like Imocha, TestGorilla and Vervoe offer skills assessment tests tailored for SEO specialists. These measure a candidate’s knowledge of on-page and off-page optimization, content strategy, link building, analytics and more.
Portfolio reviews: Ask the candidate to share examples of previous SEO projects, case studies or their own website to evaluate their work. Look for clear goals, data-driven insights and measurable results and impact. They may have to anonymize some parts of the report for client confidentiality, and that’s OK. The main think you want to see is that they have experience executing successful projects.
Case studies and scenarios: Present the candidate with an SEO challenge or problem and ask them to walk through how they would approach and solve it. This helps assess their strategic thinking, decision making and problem-solving abilities. Don’t be afraid to do it live during the interview. If they don’t know some of these things off the top of their head, they’re probably too green to lead in this area.
References and testimonials: Speaking with a candidate’s past clients or employers is one of the best ways to evaluate their skills, work quality and professionalism. Look for references that can speak to their SEO experience, key accomplishments and strengths. This will also be a sign that they’re pleasant to work with if others are willing to help them.
When you use a resource from the BluWave-vetted network, they have already been vetted multiple times before we ever consider connecting you. They must also have multiple high-quality references from private equity firms and other top businesses.
Even then, we won’t just send you a list of all the candidates available. We will select from the best resources on standby to give you two or three best-fit options for your specific situation. Within one business day, you’ll have two or three SEO options that are tailored to your niche.
There are many key terms used in SEO that are important to understand. They describe concepts, strategies and metrics that specialists reference on a regular basis. Some of the top words and phrases to know include:
Basic terms:
Search engine: A website that allows users to search for information on the internet, such as Google, Bing or Baidu.
Crawler: A program that searches the web to build an index of websites and content for a search engine.. This could also be referred to as a “bot” or “spider.”
Index: A search engine’s database of websites, pages and content that have been crawled and indexed.
Query: The search terms entered by a user into a search engine. This is more commonly referred to as a “keyword” in many cases.
SERP: Search engine results page, or the page of results returned for a user’s search query. It’s pronounced just as it’s spelled.
Organic vs paid results: Organic results are earned, while paid results are advertising spots purchased by businesses. Make sure you’re not hiring an SEM expert to do SEO work. While related, these are completely different skills.
This is a search engine results page (SERP).
Technical terms:
URL: Uniform Resource Locator, or the full address of a page on the web. And a URL slug is everything that comes after .com or .net, for example. This page’s URL is https://bluwave.net/seo-recruitment/, but the slug is simply /seo-recruitment/.
Domain name: The main part of a URL, like “bluwave.net“.
HTTP status code: A number that indicates the status of a request to a web server, such as 200 for success or 404 for not found.
Robots.txt: A text file that tells search engine crawlers which parts of a website to index or avoid. If a candidate doesn’t know how to find your robots.txt file in 10 seconds or less, don’t hire them. (Hint: All they have to do is go to yoursite.com/robots.txt)
Sitemap: An XML file that lists the pages on a website to help search engines discover and crawl content.
On-page terms:
Keyword: A word or phrase that users may search for to find content on a specific topic.
Title tag: HTML element that contains the main headline for a page and is displayed in search results. In the code, this would be <title>Page Title Here</title>. This is one of the most important elements of ranking on SERPs.
Meta description: A concise summary of a page’s content that is displayed in search results. This is important, but it does not have an affect on a page’s ranking.
Heading tag: HTML elements like <h1> to <h6> that indicate the importance and structure of content on a page. A page’s headline is usually within an <h1> tag. It’s best to have only one <h1> tag per page.
Alt text: Description of an image that is displayed if the image cannot be seen by a user. This is especially important to making your site accessible for people with disabilities.
Why do you have more than one H1?
— johnmu is not a chatbot yet 🐀 (@JohnMu) June 15, 2017
Off-page terms:
Link: A hyperlink that connects one page to another.
Anchor text: The clickable text of a link.
Backlink: An incoming link to a page from another website. This is a significant factor in ranking well on Google.
Link building: The process of acquiring high-quality backlinks to improve a website’s authority and search rankings. This is best done naturally and not through paid schemes or shady exchanges.
Domain authority: A score that indicates the strength and influence of a website based on the quality and quantity of links pointing to it. Search engines like Google do not recognize domain authority. It’s a score used by platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush. Think of it as a barometer and not a thermostat.
Top KPIs in SEO
To track the success of your SEO efforts, you need to choose the right KPIs. Some of the top ones to consider are:
Business outcomes: Focus on conversions, customer lifetime value, cost per acquisition and return on investment. These show the direct impact of SEO on your business.
Traffic quality: Monitor organic visibility, organic sessions, branded vs non-branded traffic and bounce rate. This helps ensure you’re getting high-quality traffic. Google Analytics 4 is a great way to do so.
Keyword performance: Track your keyword rankings, keyword difficulty and keyword opportunity. See how you can improve your rankings and find new keywords to target.
Link profile: Evaluate your backlinks, referring domains, domain authority and link velocity. Build high-quality links to boost your rankings.
These KPIs provide actionable insights into your SEO progress and help guide your strategy. Track them regularly to maximize your search visibility and drive more traffic and conversions.
Interview Questions for an SEO Candidate
Interview questions help evaluate if a candidate has the necessary skills and experience for an SEO role. They reveal how well they understand SEO concepts, strategies and best practices.
Here are some sample questions you can use:
General questions:
What is your approach to SEO and how do you stay up-to-date with trends?
What are your top priorities for SEO and how do you determine key performance indicators (KPIs)?
How would you integrate SEO with our overall digital marketing strategy?
Technical questions:
How would you evaluate our website’s technical SEO health? What issues should we fix?
How can we improve site speed and mobile-friendliness? What tools would you use?
Here are some of the things you would want to see from a candidate’s past work. While no one will have expertise in all these areas, having at least some of them is essential.
SEO Projects:
Types of projects, such as technical audits, content optimization, link building.
Scope and complexity of projects, including the number of web pages, amount of content, types of keywords.
The candidate’s level of responsibility and involvement e.g. executing tasks, managing projects, leading SEO teams.
SEO Results:
Improvements in search rankings, organic traffic, conversions.
Growth in key metrics like impressions, clicks, dwell time.
Awards, case studies or other recognition of their results and impact
SEO Tools:
SEO software, analytics platforms, rank tracking tools, etc. that the candidate has expertise in using.
Technical skills with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript. Even if the candidate isn’t a “coder” or programmer, they should have knowledge of some of these languages.
SEO Skills:
Strong research, analysis, problem-solving and critical thinking.
The ability to optimize content for both search engines and users.
Proficiency in link building, outreach, content promotion and other SEO strategies.
Excellent communication skills for educating clients and coworkers about SEO.
Keep Up with SEO Trends and Best Practices
There are many great resources these days to keep up with the latest SEO trends and best practices. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to tell which are legitimate. Here are a few recommendations both for your benefit, as well as what you might like to hear from how a candidate stays informed:
Blogs: Follow reputable SEO blogs like Moz, Ahrefs, Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Journal. They frequently publish articles on the latest trends, updates from search engines and expert opinions.
Podcasts: Listen to SEO podcasts such as Search Off the Record (Google’s official show) and Search Engine Journal Show. Experts are often interviewed to discuss trending topics, share their insights and debate controversial issues.
Webinars: Attend webinars from platforms like Ahrefs, Clearscope and BrightEdge. They frequently host live sessions with SEO professionals talking about trending strategies, new opportunities and ways to overcome challenges. The Q&A portions of these webinars also provide useful discussions on recent changes in search rankings and algorithms.
Online courses: Take online courses on SEO and related topics from Udemy, Thinkific, Kajabi and LinkedIn Learning. These courses teach the latest techniques and best practices from industry experts. While some cover SEO fundamentals, many focus on trending areas like technical SEO, content optimization, link building and keyword research. Though often paid, the courses help gain a deeper understanding of current SEO methods.
Conferences: Join online or in-person SEO conferences to hear from industry leaders, learn from case studies and network with other professionals. Major conferences like SearchLove, Friends of Search Fest, Brighton SEO, MozCon and Mn Search Summit feature keynote speeches, panel discussions, and presentations on the newest trends, innovations, and issues in SEO. Attending these conferences is a great way to stay ahead of competitors and meet like-minded SEO practitioners.
MozCon is one of the more popular and well-known search-based conferences.
Do you need a digital content maven to give your website(s) a deep audit? Or perhaps this is something you never considered and don’t know where to start. A proven SEO expert is just what you want.
The BluWave network of highly vetted service providers has search engine optimization resources on standby, no matter your organization, website size or industry.
When you get on a scoping call with our research and operations team, they’ll perform a quick but detailed evaluation of your situation and provide two to three best-fit SEO resources within a single business day.
With so much opportunity in organic search, you don’t want to waste another day with a website that isn’t optimized for growing your business. Contact us today to get started.
A data warehouse is an essential tool for businesses that need to manage large amounts of data. With the advent of big data, data warehouses have become even more critical for making the right data-driven decisions.
But with so many different types of out there, it can be tough to figure out which one is the best fit. Having an expert service provider help with the process can save you a lot of time.
Let’s discuss the different types of data warehouses: enterprise data warehouses, data marts, virtual data warehouses, operational data stores and cloud-based data warehouses.
We’ll also explore the pros and cons of each type and give you some tips on how to choose the right one.
An enterprise data warehouse is a centralized repository that stores all the data for an entire organization. It’s designed to handle large volumes from multiple sources and provides a single source of “truth.”
One of the benefits of an enterprise data warehouse is that it can integrate data from multiple sources and provide a comprehensive view.
This makes it an excellent choice for companies that need to analyze large amounts of information from different sources.
Three examples of companies that might use an enterprise data warehouse are:
A large retailer that needs to analyze sales data from multiple locations and sales channels.
A healthcare provider that needs to consolidate patient data from different locations and systems.
A financial institution that needs to integrate data from different divisions, such as banking and investment services.
A data mart is a subset of an enterprise data warehouse that is designed to serve a specific department or business unit within an organization. Data marts are typically smaller than enterprise data warehouses and are used to address specific needs.
The upside of a data mart is that it can be designed to meet the needs of a particular business unit or department. Organizations that need to analyze data at a more granular level would be well-suited for this option.
Three examples of companies that might use a data mart are:
A sales team that needs to analyze data related to customer orders and purchase history.
A marketing department that needs to analyze data related to customer demographics and purchasing behavior.
An HR department that needs to analyze data related to employee performance and retention.
A virtual data warehouse is a logical view that is created by combining data from multiple sources. The idea is to provide a unified view without physically consolidating the data.
That’s one of the primary benefits of going this route – the ability to keep the data separate physically.
If you need to analyze various disparate sources of information in one place, consider a virtual data warehouse.
Three examples of companies that might use a virtual data warehouse are:
A company that has multiple databases with different types of data and wants to create a unified view without physically consolidating the data.
A business that wants to create a data warehouse without investing in physical hardware.
A company that wants to test a data warehouse concept before investing in a physical data warehouse.
An operational data store provides real-time data for operational reporting and analysis. It’s optimized for write-intensive applications, such as transaction processing systems, inventory management systems and order management systems.
If you need a real-time look at your data, this is an apt choice.
An operational data store provides real-time data for operational reporting and analysis. It’s optimized for write-intensive applications, such as transaction processing systems, inventory management systems and order management systems.
Examples of companies that might use an operational data store include:
A retail company that needs to track inventory levels in real time and ensure that orders are processed efficiently.
A financial institution that needs to process transactions quickly and accurately.
A healthcare provider that needs to track patient data and ensure that medical records are up to date.
A cloud-based data warehouse is a type of data warehouse that is hosted in the cloud. This type of data warehouse is designed to be highly scalable and can be used to store and analyze large amounts of data.
They are great choices to accommodate growing businesses.
Three examples of companies that might use a cloud-based data warehouse include:
A startup that needs to store large amounts of data but doesn’t have the resources to build and maintain an on-premise data warehouse.
A global corporation that needs to store and analyze data from multiple locations around the world.
A company that experiences fluctuations in data storage needs and requires a flexible and scalable solution.
Choosing the right type of data warehouse depends on a number of factors, including your business needs, the size of your organization and your budget.
A small company might tend to use a cloud-based data warehouse, as it is a more cost-effective option for storing and analyzing data without investing in physical hardware.
A medium-sized company might use a data mart to analyze data at a more granular level, while a large company might use an enterprise data warehouse to analyze large amounts of data from different sources and provide a comprehensive view of all their data.
The cost of a data warehouse can vary greatly depending on the type of data warehouse, the size of the organization and the amount of data that needs to be stored.
An enterprise data warehouse can cost millions of dollars to set up and maintain, while a cloud-based data warehouse can cost a few thousand dollars per month.
A medium-sized company might expect to pay anywhere up to $500,000 per year for a data warehouse solution.
Choosing the right data warehouse is essential to ensuring that your business can make data-driven decisions. If you need help evaluating options for your organization, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our research and operations team can connect you with a PE-grade data warehouse resource to help you make the right decision for your business.
If you’re ready to take your data analysis to the next level, schedule a scoping call with the BluWave research and operations team today. We’ll work with you to understand your business needs and connect you with best-fit resources within one business day.
As businesses become more data-driven, the need for a robust business intelligence (BI) infrastructure becomes increasingly crucial. With the right infrastructure in place, organizations can unlock insights that inform their decision-making and give them a competitive edge.
Let’s explore the key components of a BI infrastructure and why they matter.
Data Storage and Management
Businesses must ensure they have the right data management systems in place to efficiently store, process and manage their data.
This means utilizing databases, data warehouses and data lakes, depending on the nature and volume of the data. Without a solid foundation for data storage and management, any BI initiative will fail.
With data stored in various systems and applications, data integration is crucial to ensure that data is collected from all relevant sources.
Data must be integrated from internal systems like CRMs and ERPs as well as external sources. These could include social media, market research or other third-party platforms that are central to your business.
Consolidating all this information means having access to a comprehensive view of operations and customers behavior and characteristics.
One of the key goals of a BI infrastructure is to help users make sense of data through visualizations and reports.
By using tools like dashboards and charts, leaders can present the numbers in a way that is easy for the entire team to understand and interpret.
This practice will also help users identify trends that might not be immediately apparent in raw data, or to the naked eye.
Real-time reports are particularly important in today’s fast-paced business environment. Without them, you can quickly fall behind your competition and lose touch of who your users are.
Data analysis and modeling are essential components of any BI infrastructure. Businesses need to be able to build models that can predict future outcomes.
Skilled analysts are key here, but they also need the right technology to support data modeling, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Leveraging these technologies will give organizational leaders a deeper understanding into their operations and customer base.
Whether you’re a PE firm, a portco, or an independent or public company, investing in a robust BI infrastructure should be a top priority.
BluWave has top BI, analytics and AI resources on standby to address your specific needs, whatever sector your company serves.
Set up a scoping call with our research and operations team to get connected with two or three best-fit service providers that are experienced with your exact business intelligence infrastructure need.
Once you have the answers to those questions, and whatever else you come up with, it’s time to match them with your portco’s immediate needs.
Since this role is typically filled for 3–9 months, you want to make sure you hire someone who can have a maximum impact in a short amount of time. Here are five key areas to evaluate:
1. Experience and qualifications in human resources leadership
The interim CHRO should have experience in areas such as talent management, employee relations, and organizational development.
They should not only have private equity experience, but also within your particular industry.
Don’t hire someone who’s worked in technology their whole career to run your manufacturing company. And don’t high a talent chief from the manufacturing industry to work in healthcare.
Setting and managing expectations is crucial for a successful partnership between the PE firm and the interim CHRO. The interview process is a great time to do that.
Have open and honest conversations from the start to ensure that both parties are on the same page. Here are some things you should discuss:
The Scope of the Role
What are the company’s specific needs that you hope this candidate will address?
In addition to the recommended questions above, you’ll want to talk about challenges specific to your situation.
Is there high turnover? A PR crisis? Lack of professional development? Discuss specific scenarios during the interview.
Specific Goals and Objectives
What specific things to you want them to accomplish?
Goals could be based on reducing turnover, increasing productivity or implementing a new company structure within a given timeline.
Available Resources
Will they want to make new hires? Implement a new software? Use consultants?
When evaluating the cost of hiring the candidate, make sure you’re taking more into account than their compensation.
It’s often well worth it, though, as there are many benefits to hiring a interim chief human resources officer.
The interview process plays a crucial role in identifying the right fit for a talent leader at a private equity-backed organization, or even private and public companies.
At BluWave, we make sure you get connected with two or three exact-fit solutions so you can skip the search process and get to know your candidates sooner.
Contact our team today to save time and tap into the BluWave-grade service providers in the PE-grade network.
Interim chief human resources officers are becoming a more and more popular request in the world of private equity.
That’s no surprise, considering how effective an effective interim CHRO can be with crisis management, navigating mergers and acquisitions, setting up a human resources department from scratch and more.
“It’s a functional area that’s been historically overlooked,” BluWave head of Research and Operations Keenan Kolinsky says. “Private equity hasn’t viewed it as a critical function to drive value historically. But like we’ve seen over the last two years private equity is increasingly viewing human capital and HR as a value-creation driver.”
We’ll walk you through the benefits of an interim CHRO, what to look for when hiring and how to go through the entire process so you select the right one for your portfolio or private company.
Benefits of Hiring an Interim CHRO
Quarter after quarter, human capital accounts for the lion’s share of private equity activity in the BluWave Insights Report.
With so many important projects tied to talent, most companies can’t afford to be without a head of people for weeks, let alone months on end. That’s why an interim chief human resources officer can be a great option to bridge the gap.
“An interim CHRO is a seasoned executive that can come in, bring best practices to a growing middle-market company and help build a best-in-class HR function,” BluWave Co-Head of Research and Operations Scott Bellinger says. “This can range from talent acquisition, employee retention, benefits, employee handbooks and more.”
Integrating two teams into a single, well-functioning organization can be a challenge. That’s when an experienced talent executive can make the transition much smoother.
“No other functional interim executive is going to be able to effectively advise on the org design and sizing components associated with integrating businesses,” Kolinsky says.
Crisis
An interim CHRO can also provide the leadership and guidance needed to handle a crisis. These may include:
An interim CHRO can provide an unbiased view of your company’s HR practices, identify areas for improvement and recommend changes. This can be particularly valuable if your HR department has been struggling to keep up with the demands of a rapidly growing company.
“A lot of CEOs or founders have never known what good looks like as it relates to CHROs,” Bellinger says. “It’s important to make sure you have a great talent pipeline, great employees and that you’re training them properly. This allows the CEO to focus on commercial and operational initiatives and leave the other stuff to the CEO.”
The right person will also help companies that don’t have an existing structure implement a proper HR infrastructure.
“Most traditionally founder-led businesses don’t have PE-grade infrastructure in place for the company to prepare for growth,” BluWave Strategic Account Executive Hannah Welsh says. “In many circumstances, interim CHROs can be brought in to lay the groundwork for the right people processes.”
These are some of the main factors to consider when hiring an interim CHRO:
Industry Experience
You want someone who’s familiar with the nuances of your industry and the specific challenges and your company might face.
“For example, you wouldn’t want to bring a tech-based executive into a manufacturing company,” Welsh says. “They both have different processes that need to be implemented.”
We most commonly see companies in the manufacturing, business services and healthcare industry hiring interim CHROs. They can be an asset for any company that needs HR guidance, though.
An interim CHRO should have strong leadership skills and be able to manage and motivate your human resources team.
This means clearly communicating not only within their own group, but also across departments.
When working for a portfolio company, the PE firm may also expect regular reports from the talent lead, almost acting as a second manager along with the CEO.
“To work effectively, they should also be a part of the executive team. They should be a thought partner, because human capital helps the business grow,” Welsh says.
Human capital resources accounted for half of 2022 initiatives – up 2 percent from the previous year – within the Value Creation portion of the BluWave Activity Index.
They should also have a track record of quickly identifying and solving complex HR challenges.
“You’re used to integrating companies. You’re used to hiring quickly. You’re used to speed,” Bellinger says of the ideal candidate.
Some HR-related issues a company may face include:
High employee turnover
Lack of organizational structure
Lack of diversity
Employee health and well-being
Managing relationships
Cultural Fit
The ideal candidate should also fit in well with your company. Whether your team is laid back or more buttoned up, your head of HR needs to be able to relate to them.
“I would want to make sure I was very explicit in making sure I understand exactly what the roles and responsibilities are,” Bellinger says. “Make sure it’s something they can accomplish. If the interim CHRO is not very explicit in exactly what they want to get done, the PE firm is going to have a very short fuse.”
Flexibility
As you might have gathered from the other criteria, this position is anything but predictable. Select someone who can roll with the punches.
This includes the ability to quickly adapt to a company’s culture and management style, as well as handle unexpected situations such as a crisis or change in leadership. They must also be able to pivot their approach when necessary to remain aligned with the organization’s objectives.
Some examples may include leading a downsizing while minimizing negative impact on morale, or being able to shift focus to DEI initiatives in response to social and political changes.
Interim vs Full-Time CHROs
One of the main advantages of hiring an interim CHRO is flexibility. They can be brought in on a short-term basis to address specific needs, and then let go when they have been met.
This can be more cost-effective than hiring a permanent CHRO, or if your company is in flux and the future is uncertain.
You may end up hiring that same interim executive full-time, but by starting them on a temporary basis, you can “try before you buy.”
On the other hand, a permanent CHRO can provide continuity and stability for your company’s HR department. A long-term hire will also have more time to develop a deep understanding of your culture, processes and employees.
How to Find the Right Interim CHRO for Your Company
The “right” interim CHRO is going to be different for each company. It will depend on some of things mentioned above, such as culture, industry and other specific needs.
After identifying the criteria for the role you want to fill, cross-checking candidates with past work experience and references can narrow the field.
Fortunately, BluWave’s highly vetted network has already done that for you. We only admit experienced talent that has passed a rigorous pre-interview process and received positive references from the world’s leading PE firms.
When you contact us for a scoping call, we provide two or three PE-grade interim CHRO candidates, hand-picked for your exact situation, within a single business day. By jumping directly to the interview process, you’ll save weeks, if not months of searching.
“Our vetting process clearly surfaces whether a candidate will be a great resource for a company, and if not, we won’t waste their time with an introduction,” Welsh says.
Once you meet the candidate (or two or three) that’s best suited for your vacancy, it’s time for various members of your team to speak with them. This will give you a 360-degree perspective on their skillset.
You should also have a clear understanding of their availability and expected compensation. If everything lines up, it’s time to draft an engagement letter outlining expectations, pay and timeline. (When you work with BluWave, we take care of all this for you.)
Once you hire the right person, the next step is to onboard them effectively. Due to the selection process, they should already have a clear idea of expectations from day one, as well as the resources at their disposal.
“They’ve got to get up to speed very quickly,” Kolinsky says. “They need to explore what they have. What people, processes and technologies exist in this functional area, and how it can be improved and optimized.”
Hiring an interim CHRO can provide a range of benefits, but it is important to choose someone who fits within your company culture and has the right skills for your situation.
Interim leadership is consistently a top priority for private equity firms within human capital services. With such high demand, BluWave maintains a pool of experienced, vetted professionals – including interim CHROs – in the Business Builders’ Network.
Connect with our research and operations team to walk us through your specific project, and we’ll connect you in less than 24 hours with a short list of tailor-made candidates.
Whether going through an M&A, an internal crisis, a reorg or other situations that require a talent expert, here are some reasons private equity firms should consider temporary HR leaders.
Increase Efficiency and Effectiveness
A human capital leader has the opportunity to improve company operations for the short time they’ll be in their role. (Usually three to nine months.) Here are some ways they can do so.
Streamlining HR Processes
They can evaluate existing HR processes at a portfolio company, identify areas for improvement and implement changes to increase effectiveness. This may include automating repetitive tasks and standardizing processes across the organization.
For example: expediting a labor-intensive employee onboarding process with new software. They could also implement a standardized performance management system so that everyone understands how they’re evaluated.
Temporary CHROs can also collaborate with the tech team to improve data collection, storage and analysis. This makes it easier for management to make educated decisions.
One way they could do this is by creating dashboards accessible to managers. These, and other tools can streamline analysis relevant to growing the business.
Aligning HR with Business Goals
The human resources department’s objectives must also align with the portco’s goals.
Identifying and tracking KPIs – employee turnover rate, time to fill, employee engagement, DEI initiatives – is one way to do this.
The interim CHRO interview process is a great time to determine whether the person you want to hire works well across departments.
Exit interviews help managers understand why employees leave and identify what contributes to a high turnover rate. This information can be used to develop retention strategies and improve employee engagement.
Here are some of the questions an interim CHRO might ask a portco employee during an exit interview:
What made you decide to leave the company?
Is there anything you disliked about working here?
Do you have any suggestions for how we can improve?
How was your experience with your manager?
Creating Employee Retention Programs
Retention programs address the specific needs of employees, such as recognition programs, professional development and the ability to work from home, even in a hybrid situation.
Employees may also be more likely to stay if they have access to department-specific job training.
HR leaders can also use engagement surveys and focus groups to identify problems ahead of time.
Identifying Key Drivers of Employee Satisfaction
Speaking of surveys and focus groups, they not only tell HR leaders what’s going wrong but also tell them what employees like about a company. This information can help create targeted retention strategies and improve employee engagement.
Here are some of the top areas of employee satisfaction an interim chief human resources officer will want to pay attention to:
Clear communication and transparency
Opportunities for growth and development
Work-life balance
Recognition and rewards
Building a Positive Company Culture
Creating a positive company culture is no easy task, especially in the midst of a transition. That’s why it’s important to work with an interim CHRO experienced with tumultuous situations.
Besides paying attention to employee satisfaction, this person should be able to build consensus across teams.
“In a strong culture, employees feel valued,” according to Great Place To Work. “They enjoy at least some control over their jobs, instead of feeling powerless. Whether it’s by working from home, choosing their projects or trying out a new role, employees that feel valued and can make decisions achieve a higher level of performance.”
Providing Regular Feedback and Recognition
An interim CHRO can help managers to provide regular feedback and recognition to employees.
They can standardize feedback loops through surveys, one-on-one meetings, focus groups and other tactics. They should then be transparent about how they will use that information to improve the company.
It’s important to do this on a regular basis, and not as a one-off exercise.
Since this person will only be in their role for a few months, having monthly, bi-weekly or even weekly evaluations may make sense. Especially if they can develop a system that can be inherited by the person who will take on their role full-time.
An interim CHRO with experience in your industry can hit the ground running. Every business has a unique set of legal challenges, and you don’t want someone in the C-suite who has to learn on the job.
Here are some specific areas where a temporary CHRO can help with legal hurdles.
Reviewing and Updating Company Policies and Procedures
This ensures a company is compliant with all relevant laws and regulations, such as those related to labor, anti-discrimination and data privacy.
This should be done in collaboration with other executive team members as well as the legal team.
Conducting Compliance Audits
Compliance audits help identify areas of legal risk and recommend corrective actions.
The head of people can do this by developing an audit plan with a clear scope. They’ll then determine risks, gather evidence and analyze the information. In the end, they should prepare a report based on their findings.
They’ll also need to implement the plan quickly to minimize risks to the company.
Providing Training and Education
Another way to protect the company as well as equip employees is to educate them on compliance and labor laws.
Here are some resources an HR executive might use for this:
A comprehensive communication strategy informs employees about the transaction and its implications.
The head of HR may do this with a dedicated website, by holding town hall meetings or providing regular updates. They may also work with management to develop a Q&A document and establish an employee hotline.
Managing Cultural Integration
A seasoned executive will improve cross-company integration by addressing differences in culture, values and internal practices.
They do this with shared vision and values, aligning policies and procedures and promoting cross-functional collaboration.
Mary Anne Elliott, CHRO at Marsh, talked with HBR about the importance of working with other top executives on this.
“[These] meetings are a pragmatic activity. When you’re sitting with the CEO and CFO, there’s no place for academic HR,” she says. “It’s all about understanding what the organization needs to do to drive business performance and how to align those key variables.”
Assessing and Managing HR Risks
Some typical risks associated with a merger or acquisition are employee retention, legal compliance and benefits integration.
A capable temporary people leader will know how to do each of these things efficiently.
Coordinating Benefits and Compensation
Coordinating the integration of benefits and compensation packages for employees is also important.
Health insurance, retirement plans and stock options are just a few examples.
Reviewing existing benefits packages can help them identify gaps or redundancies.
Integrating HR Systems and Processes
Finally, an interim chief human resources officer can manage the integration of HR systems and processes such as payroll, performance management and employee data management.
The new, combined organization’s HR processes must be aligned with the needs of the business.
The IT department can help in this area by ensuring a smooth transition of data and systems.
Some roles are more crucial to a company’s success. The interim CHRO should identify these and devise a strategy to make sure the right talent is in place if someone leaves.
They can also identify potential leaders within the company who lack professional development.
Conducting Talent Assessments
Internal assessments help identify high performers. Since these are the people most likely to leave for another opportunity, it’s worth investing time in their development.
By aligning these evaluations with company goals and leadership needs, the employees will be better equipped for a new role.
This will open the door for them to be promoted sooner as they grow within the company.
Creating Development Programs
An interim CHRO can design development programs to help high-potential employees acquire the skills and experience needed to take on leadership roles.
These are some ways they might do that:
Rotational assignments
Mentorship programs
Professional development courses
Cross-functional team assignments
Building a Talent Pipeline
While it’s important to foster talent internally, an interim CHRO can also establish an external talent pool. Outside hires often help the company by bringing a fresh perspective to a challenging situation.
Having a group of qualified candidates on standby also saves time in the hiring process.
At BluWave, we have a highly vetted group of candidates for private equity, portco and privately owned company needs on standby. That way, we can provide you with two or three exact-fit resources within a single business day.
A comprehensive succession plan will not only focus on identifying, developing and retaining key talent, but also contingencies for unexpected departures.
Along with mentoring and coaching programs, regular performance reviews ensure that employees are ready to take on new roles when needed.
If your private equity firm or portco leader needs a human capital expert, BluWave has the world’s best temporary chief human resources officers on standby. And if you’re already in a talent role, we have tailor-made solutions to support you, too.
Everyone in our network has been rigorously evaluated while also receiving multiple recommendations from other leading PE firms.
Reach out to set up your initial scoping call with our research and operations team, and we’ll provide you with two or three exact-fit candidates, no matter how urgent your need, within one business day.
A financial crisis can be due to something within a company, external economic forces, or both.
Poorly responding to a distressing financial situation can destroy a business. A capable interim CFO, however, will know how to navigate the following scenarios.
Bankruptcy
The two most common bankruptcies a company will file for are chapter 7 and chapter 11.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, though, means a company is still viable but needs help relieving some of its debt.
While an interim CFO would seldom take on a chapter 7 bankruptcy, it’s common for them to step in and help a company try to avoid chapter 11 bankruptcy. If it’s not avoidable, a temporary chief financial officer can also help navigate the situation.
“A very good interim CFO can be a lot of help because they come in and they look at, ‘What are the things between gross profit and net earnings that are negatively impacting the business?’” BluWave controller Justin Scott says.
Cost-saving measures could include lowering headcount, cutting advertising costs or negotiating with creditors, which we’ll discuss more below.
Restructuring
While most restructuring situations are tied to bankruptcies, there are exceptions. Here are some of the more common ones.
Carveouts
An interim CFO who can adeptly perform carve-out tasks is key for organizations looking to sell off part of their company. That can mean getting their hands dirty setting up general ledger architecture or determining which employees to include in the sale.
“Let’s say 25 percent of the existing team is going with the carve-out, then I’ve got to decide ‘What’s the 25%? How are those processes going to work?’” Scott says. “Where you typically see the carve-out CFO come in is because they don’t want all of those activities to take away from the core business that the existing CFO is already managing.”
An acquisition, of course, is the opposite situation. The finance executive must determine how to integrate multiple teams in the same company.
“You likely have multiple sets of books. You have multiple systems. None of them talk to each other,” Scott says. “Essentially, you’re running parallel systems or parallel processes for everything. And then you have to manually consolidate everything and that’s just no fun.”
Ginessa Ross, who is often the first point of contact for interim CFOs BluWave works with, says lots of clients have been emphasizing M&A skills recently.
“All sides of it, whether it be due diligence, post-merger integration or prep for sale – having M&A experience, especially in private equity, is key,” she says.
Cost Savings
A turnaround CFO may be sought when accounts payable get out of control.
If the internal team has become bloated, they’re likely to partner with someone in human resources to reorganize the company more efficiently.
“It’s not typically just finance here. It’s typically that a new technology has been implemented that’s changed the field and headcount needs to be reduced,” Scott says. “How do we eliminate or mitigate the overhead expense of the SG&A of what’s happening today?”
They may also cut marketing costs or improve operations to find savings. This can be done by spending less on advertising, implementing automation tools or canceling automated subscriptions, for example.
Hostile Takeover
Although unusual, there are times when a temporary finance executive is brought in for a hostile takeover.
“It is possible to go to an interim CFO as a stopgap,” Scott says. “But it’s not a likely scenario.”
More often, the company executing the takeover will already have a CFO in place.
What skills does an interim CFO need in a time of crisis? Accounting and finance, of course, are fundamental.
“You have to know the full revenue cycle cradle to grave,” Scott says, adding that strong management is also a key trait.
There are other things, though, that are particularly important for a chief financial officer in financially distressed situations.
Internal Communication
When managing a company’s finance team, the interim CFO must be able to communicate their plan of action. Since they’re typically in the role for around six months, they don’t have as much time to win trust and build unity.
Focusing the early days on getting to know the team helps with buy-in for the duration of the project. One component of this is alleviating fears of the unknown.
“The first day, I think, is talking to as many people as possible in the company, on the finance team, and reassuring them that things are going to get better,” says one long-time interim CFO from our network of experts.
A temporary finance executive must also be able to communicate with his or her peers and superiors. Not only do they sit in the C-suite, but they may be a direct line to a private equity firm that has a lot at stake.
“They have to be able to build credibility going both directions quickly if they’re going to get anything done,” Scott says.
Beyond providing clarity for coworkers, a chief financial officer must also be skilled at working with clients, creditors, vendors and other outside entities.
If a company is in danger of filing for bankruptcy, the interim CFO will likely negotiate with creditors to lower their debts.
They may also ask clients to move up their timeline for accounts receivable so the organization can have more cash sooner.
In either case, being able to work well with others is paramount.
“The situations where financial executives most often fail to reach an agreement are when they don’t have any people skills, or they don’t truly want a result,” Scott says. “You have to be able to bend and give a little bit on some of these things just like in any negotiation.”
Before taking a company’s financial reins in the midst of a crisis, an interim CFO should understand if the firm is planning an exit, and if so, what the strategy is. That allows the company to get the maximum benefit out of its new executive resource.
“Bringing in somebody from the outside allows you to access a broader set of skills and brings a fresh perspective,” BluWave managing director Houston Slatton says.
Here are some differences between prepping to sell the entire company vs. just a few assets.
Sell the Entity
If someone is brought on to prep for the sale of an entire company, their job is to get it in the best shape possible for the buyer.
Not only will this make it a more attractive purchase, but the seller will extract more value, too. This process should be planned for months, if not years in advance, when possible.
The interim chief finance officer brought on in this situation should have experience improving operations, cutting costs, increasing accountability and more. They should also be well-versed in evaluating and working with potential buyers and closing the transaction.
Even when parts of a company are being sold, as opposed to the entire organization, many of the same skills apply.
In this scenario, though, the company remains intact, and employees are not typically part of the package.
The right executive will help an organization receive a large return for those assets, boosting cash flow.
Each interim CFO in the BluWave network has been vetted and reference-checked before we ever put them on our roster.
That way, when companies in financial distress reach out, we can provide two or three exact-fit solutions in less than one business day. Whether your company is in the nation’s capital, Atlanta, our hometown of Music City, or any other major city, we have the resources you need.
This attention to detail and our private-equity speed turnaround give organizations a greater chance of getting back on track financially.
