So many HR professionals are "wise" to the recruiting business. They avoid recruiter phone calls to protect their best people. How do you go about finding the best HR professionals despite the considerable obstacles to this kind of search?

Great question and a real challenge, Nick! Not knowing your precise circumstances the following (nothing new, admittedly) tactics work for us when we are recruiting in our local markets. Some can apply to national recruiting efforts where you do not have visible, consistent name and brand recognition. We rely heavily on asking for referrals from current and past candidates and clients. We mine our database for names by requesting referrals for two reasons: 1. To secure potential candidate names; and, 2. To market our openings. HR people who do a great deal of networking know who is looking, so staying in touch with past candidates, in particular, can serve you well. We rely on consistent networking, visibility, participation and involvement in HR associations, sponsoring major events and speaking whenever possible. Candidates seek us once they know who we are, the caliber of support, consulting and advice they will receive from us. We rely on announcing our openings at general and specialized HR functions and groups. Consistently attending the speciality (recruiting, comp, benefits, etc) HR associations yields candidates. Mining their membership directories yields candidates. Knowing principals at other organizations who sell to HR (outplacement, benefits, HRIS, assessment tools, training etc) yields candidates. Finally, identifying names through articles by or about them in HR publications yields top caliber HR talent. Hope one or more of these ideas works for you -- the key for us has been consistency and visibility.