Chief Executive Officer: What is the cost of hiring?

Why hire a CEO?

Bringing on a new CEO can drastically impact company morale, reputation and strategic direction. A great CEO hire can help your business by:

• Planning short- and long-term strategic direction
• Preparing and analyzing budgets
• Serving as a dedicated resource for reporting on financial status
• Improving current systems and financial procedures
• Overseeing taxes and ensuring your company abides by federal regulations
• Making major corporate and strategic decisions

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance CEO

While CEOs are traditionally a permanent, full-time position at most companies, there has been a rise in “on-demand CEOs” that work on a contract or freelance basis. These CEOs can help with certain aspects of your business, including financial plans, coming up with new solutions and/or improving operations.

Freelance or contract-basis CEOs could be a good solution for small businesses who don’t yet have the budget for a full-time CEO but still need help growing their business and developing critical business strategies. However, consider hiring a full-time CEO if you have the budget and long-term need for it.

Where to find CEOs

To find the right CEO for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Ask for referrals: Tap into your personal and professional networks and ask if they know or have worked with anyone who would be a good fit for your CEO role.
• Create a search committee: Bring together higher-level employees at your company to create a CEO recruiting committee, making sure to include diverse members. Have them network and ask for referrals within their own networks. 
• Work with an outside recruiting agency: Executive search firm exist to help businesses fill high-level roles, like CEO.
• Post your job online: Try posting your CEO job on Indeed to find and attract quality CEO candidates.

Skills to look for in a great CEO

A great CEO candidate will have the following skills, attributes and work experience that reflects:

• Strong leadership style
• Long-term thinking for developing company roadmap
• Master of business administration (MBA) or previous business management experience
• Excellent delegator
• Strong presentation style
• Excellent public persona
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to stay calm under pressure

Writing a CEO job description

While writing a job description for a CEO can seem challenging, taking the time to put thought into one can yield excellent CEO candidates. A CEO job description should include a compelling summary of the role, a great description of your company and its goals, and a detailed list of expected duties and responsibilities. Organizing an internal committee may also be beneficial to ensuring the right candidate is selected.

When writing your CEO job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on CEO jobs, according to Indeed data:

• ceo
• executive director
• chief executive officer
• hospital ceo
• executive assistant
• executive
• non profit
• healthcare administration
• president ceo
• president

Interviewing CEO candidates

After you’ve reviewed the resumes of your top CEO candidates, ask meaningful interview questions to gain insight into each candidate’s experience, character, personality traits and education in order to find the right CEO for your company. Strong candidates for CEO positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Previous experience in being an executive business leader
• Critical thinking skills in developing business plans
• Their leadership style and philosophy

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of CEO interview questions for examples (with sample answers).