Our approach
At Bedford, we work from the belief that retention strategies kick in from the moment a candidate is contacted. Our proprietary tools provide a unique perspective regarding culture, performance, leadership, and team “fit.” And our integration methodology ensures that new leaders are integrated quickly and successfully without breaking stride.
In-depth sector experience combined with a unique approach to talent acquisition allows us to build winning relationships with both clients and candidates.
Talent strategy
The majority of companies initiate the search when it becomes apparent a position needs to be filled. We believe that a reactive mindset limits possibility. Learn how. 
Bedford offers three services that enable clients to manage their talent pool strategically.
Benchmarking
Team Assessment provides an in-depth appraisal of the leadership demands and overall capability of teams deemed critical to the organization’s success.
Scouting
To complement the organization's succession needs, Bedford’s TalentScouting constantly scans the marketplace to identify outstanding executives.
Building bench strength outside of a specific search not only reduces the risk that the sudden loss of a key executive implies, but means that the client always has up-to-date, strategic intelligence as to the best talent available.
Inspiring
Every great organization has a great story. Our Blueprinting helps clients create a compelling recruitment story. It identifies—in seven words or less—the inspirational message that positions your organization as being uniquely attractive.
Executive search
We identify and screen for outstanding leaders who produce quantifiable results that are essential to your company’s success. Learn how.
Nothing is more important in the hiring process than ensuring fit. The Bedford approach to “fit” is driven by four essential questions.
Is there a culture fit?
Culture is a make-or-break issue when sourcing talent from the outside. At Bedford, we use a suite of proprietary assessment tools to map the organization’s present and “needed” culture.
Is there a leadership fit?
Over the past decade we have developed and honed a unique, proprietary methodology to define role specific leadership competencies.
Is there a team fit?
Understanding the stage of development of the team the candidate will be joining—and the specific contributions made by each member—are critical issues in the hiring process. This is especially the case where the candidate is being hired to be the team leader.
Is there a performance fit?
The Bedford Scorecard provides a clear and measurable method to define success in a specific role. The Scorecard goes beyond financial results to measure key value drivers; market, operational, employee and social.
Unique assessment tools
We have two additional assessment services to ensure candidates will deliver quantifiable results that are essential to your company’s success:
- RHR International provides world-class CEO assessments, utilizing both personal interviews as well as in-person and online state-of-the-art psychometric tools.
- SmartAssessment® is the most rigorous executive assessment process in the industry and is used by Fortune 500 companies to reduce the risk of inappropriate hiring choices. It is an intensive, fact-based process of identifying the right person to achieve a specific set of strategic outcomes to drive the financial performance of a business. It is the most accurate predictor of talent assessment known, and reports a greater than 90% success rate for the new hire against pre-defined expectations.
Executive integration
Success is not measured by whether candidates can do the job, but how successfully and how quickly they deliver results.
Learn how.
A value-driven search starts with reach—an ability to attract and deliver best-in-class candidates. Finding the right candidate often means looking where others can’t or haven’t thought to look. Next comes the challenge of “fit.” However, success is not measured by whether candidates can do the job, but by how successfully and how quickly they deliver results. This speaks to the quality of the integration process.
Our Without Breaking Stride support delivers a road map for success; a self-guided framework that anticipates each of the critical stages the new executive will move through. It is also an invaluable “mentor's guide” for the hiring manger.
Without breaking stride
Without Breaking Stride was written specifically to de-risk that concern. Developed by our leadership advisor, Dr. John Burdett, the workbook is an easy to follow “map” of integration success.
Based on his own work that goes back over a decade, Without Breaking Stride fills an important gap in the modern search process, and we are delighted to offer this evolutionary resource as part of our holistic approach to help organizations straddle the talent management agenda.