When to Hire an Executive Recruiter

As competition for executive talent remains intense, more and more companies are finding it imperative to bring in specialized executive recruiters to search for and attract the best individuals in the market place for their team. Why? One mistake in hiring at a senior level and a company can suffer major strategic setbacks. What's more, few companies have the bandwidth within their HR department to deal with an activity as intense and demanding as executive searches.

If you decide to conduct the search with in-house stay, the first step is to conduct an analysis of your staff's abilities, you'll need to determine whether the members of your staff have the necessary skills to complete searches for all levels of candidates or whether their talents are limited to successfully filling entry-level and mid-level positions only – positions that are usually sourced through print and Internet advertising.

Outside executive search consultants spend all day every day conducting executive searches. They understand proactive outreach for the highest levels of on-target candidates. They are adept at sourcing contacts from previous searches. In other words, they go find the candidates. They don't wait for the right person to answer an ad or send in a resume.

The depth of knowledge found from outside search firms is a key differentiator. Shulman Associates, for example, handles executive searches in corporate communications, public relations, marketing communications, and other positions that are closely related to the function of delivering the right profile and brand messages to the company's various constituencies – customers, shareholders, employees, opinion leaders and the public at large. That's all we do.

We've been doing this for over 20 years. We are experts in this field. We don't recruit talent for any other positions.