Having a dedicated human resources department with a competent HR executive heading it is increasingly valuable in the modern working world. By June of 2015, for instance, 2.7 million American workers had voluntarily left their jobs. Those people became workers looking for a new position, and getting the right ones into your company is important: just as important as avoiding hiring the wrong ones!

This is not only important because of the sheer volume of workers available for talent acquisition, but also the nature of these workers. An increasingly large number of those that might be found by professional job placement services are millenials. Millenials are referred to as the “Job Hopping Generation” by a recent Gallup poll, which found that six out of ten are open to taking a new job at any time. This means talented millenials can easily be lost.

Companies that have employee recognition programs usually notice an increase in their worker happiness when these programs are designed well. And research also shows that companies with good gender diversity outperform their peers by 15%. Structuring the working environment so as to attract, satisfy, and keep key talent is so important that any business without their own HR department should be looking for HR consultants to help them fill the gap.

Your executive search firm should be helping you with your own human resource staffing, starting with the right HR executive. The HR executive is key to building a department that functions efficiently. You need an HR exective competent and experienced in making high-level decisions regarding how to attain the best staff. They should also be able to make wise decisions regarding budgets and salaries, employee benefits and incentives, and be able to oversee all the other HR staff.

This is not a small job and requires both the right education and the right training. A bachelor’s degree in human resources is a minimum, and a master’s is better: but don’t underestimate the importance of real world experience. Usually a few years working hands on in a human resources department is worth far more than all the pieces of paper in the world.

A good executive placement agency can help you find the right HR executive to fit your needs, whatever the size and goals of your company. Hr recruiters keep up with the talent in these fields and can steer you to the right first hire: the first hire that will improve all future hires you make.