Episode 100! Marcus Edwardes speaks with Simon Mullins, Chief Facilitator at Executive Search Information Exchange (ESIX), the world’s leading independent information source for corporate executive recruiting leaders.

Simon has managed executive search from the outside at Korn/Ferry, and from the inside at Microsoft, where he led one of the most advanced internal executive recruiting functions as well as its largest experienced-hire staffing group.

He recently published a book on strategy, tactics, and tools for hiring organizations called Leadership Recruiting with co-author David Lord.

Listen in as David shares his best practices for establishing a foolproof internal recruiting function and streamlining your process in order to get your team on the same page.

He gives his take on minimizing subjectivity during the interview process and how best to go about painting the most vivid picture of your candidate by going beyond the actual interview—focusing the conversation on reference checks in particular.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:12] The case for managing search activity

●      [09:21] How the internal recruiting landscape looks today

●      [12:32] What to expect as a member of ESIX – The Executive Search Information Exchange

●      [19:16] Culture differences between internal and external recruiting

●      [24:05] What to avoid when building an internal function

●      [27:40] Standardizing your internal recruiting function

●      [30:24] Reducing subjectivity during the interview process

●      [35:14] Beyond the interview

●      [37:14] Considerations regarding reference checks

●      [47:25] About the recruiter’s bizarre love triangle

●      [50:09] How a recruiter can position themselves as a trusted advisor

Key quotes:

●      “Across the board, recruiting functions are now being built everywhere in the world.”

●      “A lot of senior leaders are now looking at talent as a key, critical business challenge. […] Without the lifeblood, the organization cannot move forward.”

●      “It’s not just about recruiting quickly. It’s about thinking about the bigger and broader picture. It’s about having all sorts of different leadership perspectives when we’re having these conversations.”