A FastCompany magazine article and survey featuring Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh revealed that his past bad hires cost his company well over $100 million. Also, 27% of the U.S. employers in their survey reported that just one of those bad hires cost their company more than $50,000.

This is not only a credit union industry problem. This wave will transcend across all industries, from the Fortune 500 on down. The question at hand is, how prepared will your organization be, regardless of its size?

Despite the critical nature of acquiring the right CEO, most credit union leadership teams have neither the proficiency nor the time to devote to doing it right – and well. Therefore, credit unions should consider the requirements involved before seeking executive talent on their own. Much like selling your house without a time-tested realtor, going it alone can set you up for significant disappointment and failure, a large expenditure of time nobody can spare, and a big hit to the executive pocketbook.

Why? The executive search process is detail oriented, time consuming, and requires a high level of specialized expertise. Credit union management teams can avoid the unanticipated siphoning of member money that occurs from making bad hires by partnering with a professional executive search team whose sole focus is on helping you acquire the best candidate to lead your multi-million- or multi-billion-dollar operation.

With a professional executive search team with national reach, you can expect their well-established and calculated search methodologies to procure the most dynamic and qualified leader possible. And the other plus? The firm should guarantee its work.

Read more: Credit Union Resources' research shows the majority of people in senior positions are boomers …

Until recently, executive search services in the credit union industry have been provided primarily by only three firms; however, additional highly capable options are now available in the marketplace. The problem has been that the expertise required for launching start-up executive recruiting operations is scarce, so credit unions have found themselves turning to firms outside the industry – firms that don't understand credit unions.

An efficient and innovative search firm offers assistance to credit unions that greatly reduces the risk in this delicate process. These firms have extensive evaluation tools and rigorous qualification processes to evaluate what the candidate says and to detect what the candidate is not saying.

There is great value in selecting a firm that understands the credit union industry and can respect the principles of what this community is all about. Even though your options are limited when selecting a firm with roots in the credit union industry, I not only believe that is a critical factor, but how that firm is prepared to deliver in difficult market conditions is a bigger question. The landscape of executive search is changing and you need to make sure the executive search firm you select has moved into the 21st century to accommodate the changes.

With a shortage of executive talent beginning its descent on the industry with aging-out senior managers, the senior managers in credit unions today need to take a good look at the relationships they have with search firms. Be sure to keep in mind that with the shortage of executive talent, it is now a national marketplace. The firm you select not only needs the tools to provide tier-one executive leadership to credit unions in all 50 states, but is also willing to invest in the process by making an on-site visit to gain a deeper knowledge of the culture of the credit union.

Often, credit unions are hesitant to hire a professional search team because of its perceived associated costs. But in the end, it all boils down to the numbers. Placing the wrong people in senior executive positions within your credit union can cost you up to three times more than the cost of hiring professionals to do the hard work for you. That's something to think about as the wave of change fast approaches.

Marcus Cotton is vice president of executive  recruiting for Credit Union Resources. He can be reached at 832-200-8714 or [email protected].