After a bruising four-year period during which many executive search firms — like their corporate clients — were forced to downsize, these firms continue to take a slow, purposeful approach to rebuilding their own consulting and research teams.



In March, ExecuNet's benchmark Search Firm Hiring Index revealed that 24 percent of 123 responding executive recruiters indicated they would be adding new professional research and consulting staff over the next three months, a one point improvement from February.

While the majority of search firms are taking a wait-and-see approach to rebuild their capacity, they are expecting 2012 to provide more executive search assignments from corporate clients than last year.

Some firms — particularly those in especially resilient markets such as healthcare, technology and life sciences — report they are busy and expect to get busier as more companies shift to growth mode given continuing positive news about the economic recovery.

Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.

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