Recruiting great talent matters, in case you didn't know yet. Now some high profile boffins published in the May Edition of the venerable HBR "The Definite Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad". One of the authors in question works at a competitor that goes by the name Egon Zehnder. Exec101 could not have this passing by without its own, though less venerable and summarized, reading.

What caught my eye in this well written article is how it lays bare "the ad hoc quality, lack of specified criteria, and inconsistency of practice", that is hiring across a broad set of companies.

Despite a universal acknowledgment that hiring good people is a key source of competitive advantage, we could find only a few companies that excel at one or more aspects of the hiring process

The table below, which I directly took from the article, is an excellent summary of good versus bad hiring practice. The research conducted by the authors covered both senior executives, hiring managers and also executive search consultants.

Search consultants can use it as a "map" to gauge the hiring practices of their customers, anticipate what problems can be expected, and plan the search execution along. It makes a great tool to adapt, adjust and position the consultancy part of the search work, as it touches all 7 steps of the process outlined below.

And yes, consulting we must do, because this is what makes us more than just a "headhunter".