The AESC’s report on the executive search industry reports that 68% of their survey population had in-house executive search functions. This shows a marked increase from 17% in 2005 (AESC’s 2011 Senior Executive Recruitment Survey, the Association of Executive Search Consultants).

While several in-house functions are well established with efficient and effective programs, many are still in infancy or adolescent maturity.

For those that are less mature and who do not have former retained search consultants leading the team,“there appears to be a lack of understanding of what genuine executive search consultancies actually do,” as Tom Bradley, senior search consultant at Euromedica observes in his online article for pharmaphorum (April 10, 2012). Alternatively, where the in-house function’s leadership does have retained search experience, there is often deficit knowledge of overall department management and navigation of corporate operations.

Exacerbating the deficits in these competencies is a dearth of resources to which leaders of executive talent acquisition (ETA) can turn for best practices or consulting.

One organization that does offer services to in-house search professionals is ScoutRock. Intent on filling the void of subject matter expertise, the company provides solution services, benchmarking and networking to the leaders of in-house executive recruiting.

ScoutRock’s latest offering, The Eight Pillars of In-House Executive Recruiting, takes a deep-dive in to effective design of corporate executive recruiting programs and some important process and procedure best-practices.

As the trend towards in-sourcing executive recruiting intensifies, practical service offerings likes these will help leaders of ETA enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of this critical support function. One recent participant noted on social media that ScoutRock’s “...webinar presentation regarding the evolving corporate executive recruiting function was well organized, thoughtful and offered many constructive suggestions. Well worth attending!”

“Executing executive searches internally dramatically increases the business impact of the talent acquisition function and raises the visibility of talent acquisition as a key contributor to business performance....” notes John Sullivan, identified as “the Michael Jordan of Hiring" by Fast Company magazine (ERE, July 20 2009). ScoutRock is one of the few organizations providing services supporting the success of this critical function.

Click here for more details on The Eight Pillars of In-House Executive Recruiting - search-consult readers can save 10% on the normal rates by using the promo code DSTN001.