Bloomberg Article on Recruitment Generates Backlash

A recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek on the impact of in-house recruiting on the executive search profession was met with backlash from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), which countered that the perspective provided by the magazine is only one side of the story. An AESC survey conducted in 2012 found that most Human Resource executives feel that external executive search services should be continued for mid-level positions all the way up to the most senior executive levels. The reasons given for avoiding in-house recruitment for executive level searches were primarily those involving issues of objectivity, confidentiality, and global reach.

Peter Felix, president of AESC, said, “Taking a five year view of the global revenue trends reported by the AESC it is clear that from an all-time high in 2008, and then a dramatic fall of 32.5% in 2009 at the onset of the global economic downturn, the industry has staged a remarkable comeback. In 2010, revenues grew by 28.5%, in 2011 by 9% and in 2012, even though we expect a year-on-year revenue decline, the industry will still be close to its all-time high. If the overall number of searches conducted starts to decline, but search industry revenue in fact increases, it indicates that higher level—more critical— searches are being performed.”

He added, “Although in-house search is inevitably eating into the lower end of the market by taking work that previously might have gone to executive search firms, nevertheless, the overall market for executive search services is holding firm.”

Be sure to check out both sides to the story. What do you think?