PHOTO: Rausch Advisory Services CEO Michael Harrington speaks to the Mableton City Council, council members TJ Ferguson and Debora Herndon left of photo (Larry Johnson/Cobb County Courier)

At the Mableton City Council work session on Monday, February 10, Michael Harrington, the CEO of Rausch Advisory Services, gave a pitch for the city to contract with his firm to conduct a search for finance and IT directors for the city.

The agenda packet for the meeting gave the following explanation for why hiring an outside recruiting firm was necessary:

The City of Mableton has met difficulties in recruiting a Finance Director, as evidenced by two
unsuccessful attempts, which underscore the competitive nature of the market for this vital role.
The city manager foresees similar difficulties in recruiting an IT Director and therefore intends to
engage professional recruitment services. At the fall planning conference, the recruitment plan
for the Finance Director and IT Director was presented. These positions were identified as
critical for the city’s transition into active status and operational readiness.

Rausch Advisory Services, a foundational partner with the city, has a proven record of
delivering valuable services to the city as our internal auditing agency. The city manager is
confident they will bring expertise and a broader candidate pool to the hiring process. By
leveraging their services, the city manager aims to secure highly qualified candidates who can
drive financial stability and technological advancement, essential components of the city’s
growth and efficiency.

Harrington presented what he said was a major strength of his company in recruiting directors for the city.

“For the role of director of finance and the director of IT, one of the challenges I think the city is facing is getting qualified vetted candidates,” he said. “So one thing Rausch does when we work in a professional resource capacity helping to backfill those type of roles is we utilize our consultancy to further vet those folks.”

“So we look different than a traditional recruiting firm,” Harrington said. “There’s plenty of great recruiting firms out there that can recruit, but they typically tend not to have the professionals that have the capability of vetting them.”

“The unique thing that we do with a lot of our clients is not just to straight per placement, but we also offer contract to hire,” he said.

Harrington offered the city two options.

One would be to directly hire a candidate Rausch had vetted. In that case Rausch would be paid a 25 percent commission on whatever yearly salary the city and the candidate negotiated.

The second option was the one described above, where the candidate would be an employee of Rausch for a probationary period, rather than directly hired by the city. In that case there would still be a 25 percent commission, but that would be amortized over the probationary period.

Harrington said that during the probationary period Rausch would provide the candidate with benefits so that the city would not risk losing the prospect because of a lack of insurance and other benefits.

After the presentation, Harrington told the Courier that if the candidate was found to not be a good fit after a short period of time, the commission would be prorated for the shortened time the prospect actually worked.

This would reduce the risk to the city in the event the prospective director did not work out.