Research Summary. Some key points about hiring a business leaders in the United States include:

  • HR departments typically spend 15% of their expenses on recruitment.
  • It usually takes about 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • It typically takes 36-42 days to fill a job opening.
  • The median cost to hire a business leader is $1,633.
  • Small businesses spend an average of $1,105 per business leader on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • There are currently 10,744 business leaders in the US and 117,296 job openings.
  • New York, NY, has the highest demand for business leaders, with 48 job openings.
  • Houston, TX has the highest concentration of business leaders.

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How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Business Leader

There are different types of costs for hiring business leaders. One-time cost per hire for the recruitment process. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, onboarding, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider all of these costs when evaluating hiring a new business leader employee.

You can expect to pay around $90,430 per year for a business leader, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for business leaders in the US typically range between $26 and $69 an hour.

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How to hire a Business Leader, step by step

To hire a business leader, you should create an ideal candidate profile, determine a budget, and post and promote your job. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a business leader:

  • Step 1: Identify your needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Writing a business leader job description
  • Step 5: Post the job
  • Step 6: Interview process
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new business leader
  • Step 8: Go through the checklist for the hiring process

1
Identify Your Needs

The first step to find business leaders for hire is determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

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Before you hire a business leader, you should also consider the ideal background you'd like them to have. For example, what industry or field they have experience in, what level of seniority or education the job requires, and how much it'll cost to hire a candidate that fits the bill.

The list breaks down common business leader roles and compares their salaries.

Type Of Business LeaderDescriptionHourly Rate
Business LeaderTop executives devise strategies and policies to ensure that an organization meets its goals. They plan, direct, and coordinate operational activities of companies and organizations.$26-69
Process Improvement ManagerProcess Improvement Managers oversee the operational processes of the company. These processes are usually related to production, sales, marketing, human resources, or finance... Show More$38-65
Director Of Business OperationsThe position of a director of business operations involves the direction and coordination of an organization. It is the main responsibility of the directors of operations to oversee the profitability and overall growth of their organization... Show More$32-87

2
Create An Ideal Candidate Profile

Before you draft a business leader job description, imagine the ideal employee for the role and begin creating a profile. What are they proficient in and what sort of background do they have?

Business leaders typically have the following skills:

Common Skills:
  • Analytics
  • Project Management
  • Customer Service
  • Business Development
  • Lean Six Sigma
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Business Process
  • Business Plan
  • Process Improvement
  • Business Operations
  • HR
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Data Analysis
  • Dashboards
Check All Skills

Here are the responsibilities that most business leaders perform:

Responsibilities:
  • Create and manage SharePoint portal site for SFA department.
  • Lead process and results metric development for all components of Medicaid business system.
  • Develop project plans, project status reports, manage the team and resolve day-to-day issues with emphasis on SDLC.
  • Set up a governance document to be share throughout all of department which outline how SharePoint would be manage.
  • Manage sales and technical group to complete a custom online shopping system and CRM system for digital and print products.
  • Utilize GMP to manage department budgets for capital expenses, spare parts, tools, and yearly contracts with outside vendors.
Check all Duties

Cultural fit is also an essential factor that you shouldn't overlook. Consider how your perfect business leader will contribute to the team dynamic and help grow the team's culture in a positive way. If you can include a clear vision of this in your business leader job description, it'll help attract candidates who are better suited for the position.

Most Common States For Business Leaders In The US

Rank #State# Of Jobs% of PopulationAvg. Salary
1Pennsylvania3,93731%$94,975
2Massachusetts2,19532%$87,505
3Ohio1,71215%$68,108
4Washington1,63822%$119,270
5Minnesota1,26623%$76,491

Professional Project Manager CV example

3
Make A Budget

Including a salary range in your job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A business leader salary can vary based on several factors:

  • Location. For example, business leaders' average salary in kentucky is 60% less than in new york.
  • Seniority. Entry-level business leaders earn 61% less than senior-level business leaders.
  • Certifications. A business leader with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
  • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a business leader's salary.

Updated March 16, 2023

Business Leader Salary Estimate

$90,430

$43.48 hourly

Entry level Salary
$56,000 yearly

Business Leader Average Salary By Location

RankStateAvg. SalaryHourly RateJob Count
1New York$124,329$6022
2Washington$121,241$586
3California$111,304$5415
4New Jersey$110,095$532
5Delaware$96,882$474

Business Leader Average Salary By Company

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Lyft$151,018$72.60
2Meta$150,704$72.457
3TBWA Worldwide$150,642$72.421
4World Fuel Services$149,341$71.803
5Control Risks$149,061$71.667
6Devon Energy$149,012$71.64
7Airbnb$146,766$70.56
8Credit Suisse$145,783$70.091
9Apple$145,538$69.971,352
10Google$145,423$69.9181
11DoorDash$141,045$67.8136
12Biogen$137,041$65.89597
13PayPal$136,711$65.7336
14AstraZeneca$136,548$65.6533
15Accenture$136,513$65.63410
16DTCC$135,465$65.135
17UST Global$134,356$64.596
18Postmates$134,005$64.43
19SoFi$133,723$64.298
20Airtable$133,337$64.102

4
Writing a Business Leader Job Description

A job description for a business leader role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a business leader job description:

Example of Full Job Description

Job Scope

We have an exciting opportunity for a hands-on transformation lead with a passion for curiosity, quality, and driving end user adoption of high agility behaviors. We are seeking a proactive individual with an agile, growth mindset to join Visa's Transformation Office. The Transformation Lead - Business Agility will lead a multifaceted set of initiatives that will focus on defining Enterprise agility and increasing agility across Visa.

The primary responsibility for this role will be defining and communicating the behaviors and mindsets, practices, processes, systems, and tools required to improve business agility. Effectively driving adoption of agility concepts and Agile practices across the enterprise is also a critical component of this role. The Transformation Lead will be an integral member of the Enterprise Business Agility team, partnering with other coaches to develop materials and driving change to increase the agility in all functions across Visa.

Key Responsibilities

Drive refinement and scaling of Digital Transformation strategy that helps employees across Visa embrace high agility principles, practices, mindsets, and behaviors

Partner with Transformation Office team members and stakeholders to drive key transformation program activities. Establish and maintain relationships with a broad base of key stakeholders (i.e., executives and staff) in the business.

Manage the execution of large, complex, transformation initiatives including leading across multiple functions to ensure success

Provide thought-leadership on how to sustain transformation and increase agility across Visa

Serve as an agility subject matter expert for stakeholders and team members of the assigned business units

Strengthen collaboration and partnership between Product and Technology, Client Services, Design, Marketing, and Sales

Effectively guide the transition of new capabilities into BAU operations

Manage cross-functional communications to maximize understanding, impact, and speed of change adoption

Regularly communicate progress of transformation work to Senior Leaders

The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of (and experience implementing) methodologies, frameworks, processes, and tools that make organizations more dynamic, flexible, and adaptable. They will have significant experience driving transformation/change efforts in an embedded consultancy model. They should be comfortable with hands-on problem-solving and solutions development in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment. The role requires the person to be comfortable with ambiguity, be a creative and independent thinker, analytically minded, with a solid background in financial and general business analysis.

This position is open to the following locations: Austin TX, Foster City CA, Miami FL.

This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work from the office two days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% of the time based on business needs.

5
Post A Job

To find business leaders for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

  • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
  • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any business leaders they would recommend.
  • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level business leaders with the right educational background.
  • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

Post your job online:

  • Post your business leader job on Zippia to find and recruit business leader candidates who meet your exact specifications.
  • Use field-specific websites.
  • Post a job on free websites.

6
Interview Process

Recruiting business leaders involves bringing your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they introduce their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

Don't forget to include a few questions that give a candidate chance to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their special skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, candidates who are good enough can move on to the technical interview.

The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7
Send A Job Offer And Onboard Your New Business Leader

Once you have selected a candidate for the position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. It is important to make sure that your offer is competitive, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new business leader. Employee Action Forms should be completed by Human Resources and the hiring manager. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8
Go Through The Checklist For The Hiring Process

  • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
  • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
  • Define job responsibilities and requirements
  • Establish budget and timeline
  • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
  • Write job description
  • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
  • Promote the job internally
  • Process applications through applicant tracking system
  • Review resumes and cover letters
  • Shortlist candidates for screening
  • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
  • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
  • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
  • Conduct background checks on top candidates
  • Check references of top candidates
  • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
  • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
  • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
  • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
  • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
  • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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Hiring Business Leaders FAQs

How Much Does A Good Business Leader Cost?

A good business leader costs $43.48 an hour in the US. However, it can vary based on factors such as the business leader experience, abilities, industry, and the specific requirements of your business.

What Are The Duties Of A Business Leader?

The duties of a business leader are:
  • Create and manage SharePoint portal site for SFA department.
  • Lead process and results metric development for all components of Medicaid business system.
  • Develop project plans, project status reports, manage the team and resolve day-to-day issues with emphasis on SDLC.

Should I Hire A Business Leader With No Experience?

Yes, you should hire a business leader with no experience. Hiring an entry-level business leader with no experience offers versatility for your team. They may lack some qualifications, but are adaptable and have not yet formed problematic habits. However, more training may be required compared to experienced.

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