Beyond the Resume: De-Risking Your Next Leadership Hire with Scientific Precision

When it comes to executive hiring, traditional recruitment often relies heavily on gut feeling. A candidate looks excellent on paper, interviews exceptionally well, and tells a compelling story. Yet, research shows that up to 50% of executive hires fail within their first 18 months—a misstep that Harvard Business Review estimates can cost an organization up to 15 times the employee’s annual salary in direct and indirect losses.

At Alexander Executive Search, we believe that hiring a leader shouldn’t feel like a gamble. That is why we have engineered a tangible, multi-layered assessment process rooted in data, science, and objective analysis.

Before you even step into an interview room, we provide you with a comprehensive, 360-degree digital portfolio of the candidate. This cross-referenced insight empowers your team to make highly informed decisions and dramatically reduces the risk of a bad hire.

Here is a look inside the multiple layers of scientific data we deliver directly to your screen:

Deep Behavioral Science: The McQuaig Assessments

Resumes tell you what a person has done, but behavioral profiling tells you how they will perform under pressure in your unique culture. We deploy two specific, scientifically validated instruments:

• The McQuaig Job Survey: We work with you to map out the exact behavioral traits, cognitive demands, and temperament required to succeed in the open role.

• The McQuaig Word Survey: The candidate completes a psychological assessment that uncovers their natural behavioral style, situational adjustment, and core motivators. By overlaying these two surveys, we generate a highly predictive “job fit” score, highlighting alignment or potential friction points before the first interview.

Human Nuance: Consultant & Video Summaries

Data is powerful, but context is everything. Our expert consultants distill hours of initial screening into a targeted Executive Summary, highlighting the candidate’s strategic fit, career trajectory, and motivations. Alongside this, we provide a Candidate Video Summary, giving you an immediate sense of their presence, communication style, and executive posture.

Clear Competency Verification

We don’t just ask general interview questions. We subject candidates to targeted, role-specific Key Competency Questions. This layer ensures that you understand the candidate’s hard and soft capabilities, practical problem-solving skills, and direct alignment with your key performance indicators (KPIs) well in advance.

Direct Logistics & Verification

To keep your process moving quickly, we bundle the foundational logistics right into the portfolio:

• Candidate Location Map: Clear geographic and relocation data to ensure logistical alignment with your office or regional demands.

• Two Completed References: Upfront, qualified peer and supervisor feedback to cross-verify past performance.

• Original Candidate Resume: Kept intact for your internal verification, records, and compliance.

📱 Total Transparency, On Any Device

You shouldn’t have to dig through endless email attachments to find this data. Our entire assessment ecosystem is fully integrated into a secure, cloud-based AES platform. Whether you are reviewing candidates on a laptop at your desk or scanning video summaries on your smartphone between board meetings, all of this multi-layered insight is accessible from any web-enabled device.

By transforming executive search from a subjective art form into a structured, objective science, we give hiring managers the clarity they need to lead their organizations forward confidently.

Ready to eliminate the guesswork from your next executive search? Connect with our team today at www.aesrecruitment.com to see our assessment process in action.