Forbes Top 20 Best Executive Recruiting Firms 2017

How We Were Chosen

To conduct its research, Statista first consulted with sources like trade organizations and company databases, identifying about 4,000 recruiters in both the Executive Search and Professional Search categories. Then it invited thousands of recruiters, employees who have worked with recruiters over the past three years, and H.R. managers to take an online survey. The survey asked them to recommend up to 10 recruiting firms (excluding their own), and it gathered a total of 20,000 recommendations. The companies with the most recommendations ranked highest.

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Methodology

For the toplists of “America’s Best Recruiting Firms” Statista and Forbes divided the broad field of recruitment firms into two main categories:

  1. Executive Search (specialized on permanent placement of executive positions with at least USD 100,000 income per year)
  2. Professional Search (specialized on permanent placement of professional and specialist positions up to USD 100,000 income per year).

The top lists in these two categories are based on three online surveys among:

  • 18,000 external recruiters (peer review)
  • 3,000 candidates/employees (with experience with recruitment firms within the last three years)
  • 500 HR-managers (as clients of recruitment firms within the last three years)

The surveys took place between 6th December 2016 and the 7th February 2017 with invitations sent by e-mail including a personalized link. Each interviewee could name up to ten recruitment firms per category, either with the help of a longlist with more than 4,000 recruitment firms (auto-fill option) or as a free nomination.

To see the Top 25 2017 Forbes Executive Search Firms list click here.