Recruiting & Organizational Design Services

The right team and insightful organizational design are the key components of an effective and successful nonprofit, foundation, or firm.

With over 25 years of experience as consultants to leading organizations in the environmental sector, CEA is uniquely positioned to understand our clients’ immediate and long-term staffing challenges and organizational goals. We engage our network to attract the most innovative and transformative leaders from the business, political, nonprofit, and scientific communities to fill open positions in our clients’ organizations. In addition, we draw on our expertise in launching and supporting growing organizations to assist in office startup, compensation setting, organizational structure, and other critical functions.

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Recruiting Services

CEA Recruiting’s client-centered services are an extension of the program strategy and evaluation work that CEA Consulting provides to its clients. Using a consulting-based model that focuses on leveraging our networks and those of our clients, we have built a recruiting practice that consistently identifies top-tier talent to match our clients’ needs and culture. Our many years of experience working with an array of environmental organizations has afforded us a deep understanding of our clients’ work, as well as access to a broad network of professionals from across the environmental and nonprofit fields.

Why We Are Different: Experts in Content and People

CEA is well positioned to fill a range of environmental positions:

  • Identifying and Attracting Top-Notch Talent - CEA has a proven record of attracting high-level professionals to a diversity of environmental organizations, with an emphasis on finding the right experience, skills mix, personality, and cultural fit for the organization.

  • A Far-Reaching, Cross-Sector Network - CEA has deep contacts and extensive networks in a variety of environmental sectors, such as climate change, energy policy, land use, sustainable agriculture, oceans and fisheries, forestry, air quality, green business planning, and more. Our experience in the environmental space ensures continued access to key stakeholders from top nonprofits, multilateral organizations, governments, businesses, and foundations.

  • Content Leadership - The CEA recruiting team includes consultants who previously worked and currently work on strategic consulting engagements; we understand our clients’ programs because we have developed, evaluated, and implemented programs ourselves. In addition, we regularly draw on the expertise of CEA’s principals and program experts to target top candidates, build content-specific interview guides, and develop sector-specific outreach lists.

  • Experience with Growth and Transition - CEA Recruiting specializes in supporting organizations that are growing or going through a transition. We understand the challenges of new programs and teams and have a successful track record of identifying talent that thrives in flexible and changing work environments.

  • Success in the US and Abroad - CEA is as comfortable filling a position in San Francisco as in New Delhi. CEA Recruiting has served numerous organizations with a global scope and placed top candidates in key leadership positions. We have successfully completed a number of international searches by conducting outreach in India, China, the EU, and other target regions around the world.

  • Flexible Search Options - CEA’s recruiting services are structured as a consulting engagement. Our approach is flexible, customized, client-centered, and backed by a streamlined and efficient process to ensure timely placement. We offer a variety of options to suit our clients’ needs:
    • For individual mid- and senior-level searches, we build a custom, all-inclusive search process that begins with the development of the ideal candidate profile, includes the cultivation of strong candidates through a targeted research and review process, and ends with the placement of a candidate.

    • For clients looking to grow a specific program area or to rapidly expand their organization, we can staff up an entire department or team while advising on a comprehensive staffing plan and compensation standards.

    • For organizations that have an established HR department or hiring process already in place, CEA’s customized, flexible model allows us to seamlessly partner with our clients so they can engage our expertise where help is needed most.

For more information on CEA Recruiting, please follow the links on the right to view our current and past searches.

Organizational Design Services

Strategic Support for Innovative Organizations

Finding the right person for a specific position is only one rung on the ladder to organizational success. In conjunction with our recruiting services, clients frequently request assistance and advice regarding different aspects of organizational design. We provide customized guidance and support on the full spectrum of organizational design issues, including the following:

  • Organizational structure, including functional divisions and staff allocation among offices

  • Staff planning, including hiring prioritization and budgeting

  • Compensation review, including managing surveys and building organizational compensation standards

  • Board development, including board assessment and identification and cultivation of new board members

Operational Support for Startup and Growing Organizations

CEA assists organizations in their startup and expansion phases as they initiate new program areas domestically and around the world. CEA has worked with a wide range of clients on business planning and helped with the operational startup of many organizations. In conjunction with our Philanthropic Services team, we develop full business plans that establish organizational and operational structures. In many cases, we continue our involvement to help launch the organization. Through our launch services, CEA has supported the operational startup phase of numerous domestic and international organizations and then transitioned operational responsibilities to an in-house executive.

CEA has also assisted in the international expansion of established environmental organizations. We advise on suitable legal structures for nonprofits entering foreign countries and help identify global back-office platforms for human resource management, accounting, and financial services. We have experience assisting nonprofits in their expansion to India, China, and numerous European countries. Issues we have addressed for clients include the following:

  • Nonprofit and for-profit legal status in foreign countries

  • Legal compliance, including registration, business insurance, and board of directors responsibilities

  • Employment compliance, including employment contracts, visas, compensation, benefit packages, and payroll

  • Tax and financial compliance, including accounting systems, management financial reporting, VAT, transfer pricing, and grant reporting

For more information about CEA’s Recruiting and Organizational Design Services, please contact practice leaders Melissa Beard Clack and Jill Kauffman Johnson.

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