Why use our services

Improve your hiring success by as much as 100%

Our service improves, by as much as 100%, the probability that your next executive hire will succeed. In most situations, companies and senior managers spend too much time focused on the skills and knowledge that a prospective candidate possesses. Unfortunately, the greatest risk for making a bad hire is not their ability or what they know BUT how they go about doing their work. These are called the candidate's innate characteristics. We primarily focus our attention on these areas.


We make it easy

We can make the process of hiring much easier. Since we have been doing this for more than 25 years, we know how to avoid the pitfalls that are inherent when hiring. You don't have to worry about the next steps, because we plan the process based upon your unique needs and requirements.

You cannot afford the cost of a bad hire

According to a recent survey of 444 companies by Right Management, the cost of a bad hire is between 100-500% of the annual salary, with the majority of the respondents indicating that it was between 200-300%. These are just the hard costs ... recruiting, training, etc and does not take into account lost sales, decreased production, employee morale, etc.

Are you a hiring expert?

Knowing how to hire the right person is an art. Knowing how to hire a new executive that 'fits' takes years to learn. We are hiring experts. We have been hiring people based on 'fit' for more than 25 years. We will become your advocate in the hiring process to ensure that you are looking for the right person and then we will participate in the interviewing process. Since we are the objective third party, we are able to guide the process around obstacles created by emotion.

Our Process

Phase 1 - Do a 'Fit Analysis'

Determine the company's culture or personality

Interview the key company representatives, including the hiring authority, human resources, general employees, and vendors to determine the company vision, goals, style, politics.

Determine the position's skills, knowledge, experience and innate characteristics

Complete an in-depth consulting session with the decision maker to determine the necessary needed for the position being filled. Also, meet with peers, direct reports, and company leadership to obtain a 360 degree perspective for the role.

Create alignment with company leadership

Develop an in-depth position description for the client and obtain approval with all parties to assure that all parties are on the same page.

Phase 2 - Interviewing and Selection Process

Manage the selection process

Develop a interview screening tool --- we create a customized interviewing tool/form complete with questions and selection criteria. Provide training as necessary to the interview team to ensure consistency for the interview process.

Interview candidates

Provide a third party objective perspective to the interview process. On would think that an executive search consultant would do this but their primary interest is to make the placement ... they are not objective by the nature of the contractual relationship.

Facilitate the interviewing debriefing process

Making sure that emotion is managed is critical to the process. Often times we might like or dislike someone for the wrong reasons and a constructive interview debrief helps to suppress unneeded emotion.

Why we are different

HFF Consulting is not executive search ...

The basic premise of executive search is to find a candidate that a senior manager is willing to hire. The intitial conversation between the search consultant and the senior manager doing the hiring is to determine what type of individual the executive wishes to hire. The search consultant does not engage the executive in a challenging conversation to guide the executive. The basic job of the search consultant is keep the client happy ... not challenge their beliefs. Our process challenges the executive's beliefs to ensure that they have considered the necessary components and are seeking the important innate charactristics.

HFF Consuting is not personality or psychometric testing ...

Personality testing is way of cutting corners when hiring an executive. Typically, personality testing is best served for less experienced, higher turnover positions. Taking shortcuts when hiring your company's leadership is a prescription for trouble. If the senior manager doing the hiring has taken the time to investigate their need, knows the right questions to ask and how to interpret the answers, then they are prepared to find the candidate that will 'fit'. We support the hiring executive with our unique knowledge of the types of questions and answers to be used, and how to interpret the answers.