The Executive Search Collaboration: A Guide for Human Resources Professionals and Their Search Firms

The Executive Search Collaboration presents a new perspective on the single most critical function of any organization: finding, attracting, and retaining the well-qualified executives for key senior management openings. Written by leading executive search consultants and human resources executives, the book provides comprehensive coverage of the mechanics of business executive recruitment, focusing particularly on the interaction between corporate personnel professionals and the headhunters who serve them. Numerous examples drawn from real-life experiences enhance the detailed coverage of the entire search process--from the fundamental elements of choosing an executive search firm and interviewing candidates through complex and sensitive issues such as the recruitment of minorities and the international executive search.

Editor Jones-Parker’s introduction sets the tone for the discussions that follow by providing an overview of the synergistic relationship between human resources professionals and executive search consultants. Part I, on the executive search process, includes chapters on the inner workings of the corporate personnel department and the typical high-level search firm as well as a chapter that goes behind the business headlines to reveal details of the most dramatic searches--those for top executives of large corporations. The second section provides a micro-view of the search business and covers the range of services consultants bring to their clients. Individual chapters address research, assessments, closure, and termination. The final section focuses on the three most dynamic areas of the search collaboration: minorities and women, executive recruitment by and for the Federal government, and the globalization of the executive search. The concluding chapter features a dialogue between a senior human resources executive and an experienced search consultant which addresses key issues for the future. Managers and executives on both sides of the executive search collaboration--corporate human resources executives and their outside consultants--will find The Executive Search Collaboration an indispensable and addition to their professional libraries.

JANET JONES-PARKER is President of the Association of Executive Search Consultants, a nonprofit organization representing the executive search consulting profession. She has experience on both the corporate and management consulting sides of business, has lectured extensively on women in business, and authored an article entitled Women’s Jobs for the Sunday New York Times.

ROBERT H. PERRY is Partner at Gibson & Perry, an executive search firm. He is the author of How to Answer a Headhunter’s Call and has published a number of articles in trade and professional journals.