The comparison matrix
Read down the column that matches your situation, not your budget.
| Retained firm | Contingency | Fixed-fee research-led | In-house team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee basis | 25–33% of package, in instalments | 15–25% on placement | Fixed fee for the work | Salary plus tooling |
| Paid if nobody is appointed | Largely yes | No | Yes | Fixed cost either way |
| Fee rises with the package | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Market coverage | Exhaustive | Whoever is reachable quickly | Exhaustive | Depends on capacity |
| Map shown before approach | Sometimes | No | Always | Depends on capability |
| Search report handed over | Rarely | No | Always | Internal |
| Confidentiality | High | Low by construction | High | Lower internally |
| Independence from the outcome | Partial | None | Full | Lower by construction |
| Off-limits constraints | Often extensive | Few | Agreed per engagement | None |
| Institutional memory | Low | None | Low unless retained | High |
| Best for | Appointments where the firm’s brand is part of the governance story | Deep markets with available candidates | Senior appointments where you want the evidence as well | Sustained senior hiring volume |
Retained search firms
The conventional model for board and C-suite appointments.
What they do well
Exhaustive market coverage, a managed process, and — for the largest firms — a brand that carries weight in a board paper and with institutional investors.
Deep existing relationships in narrow global sectors, built over years, which no new entrant can replicate quickly.
Where to look carefully
Who actually runs the search. The partner who pitched frequently is not the person who does the research, and at some firms you will never meet them.
Also the off-limits list. A firm with many clients in your sector may be unable to approach the employers where your strongest candidates sit.
What it costs
Typically 25 to 33 per cent of first-year total package, billed in three instalments. On a $400,000 appointment that is $100,000 to $132,000, and the market map normally stays with the firm.
Expenses are often billed on top; ask whether they are capped.
Our honest position: for a listed-company chair or chief executive appointment where the firm’s name is part of the governance story, a major retained house is a legitimate and sometimes necessary purchase. We would say so rather than pretend otherwise.
Contingency recruiters
Paid only if a placement is made.
What they do well
Speed and low commitment. No fee unless someone is hired, immediate access to an existing network, and genuine value where the qualified population is deep and actively looking.
Where it structurally fails
The fee depends on a placement, so there is no commercial reason to tell you the role is wrongly designed or the package is uncompetitive. Coverage is whoever can be reached quickly rather than the whole market.
Confidentiality is weak by construction, and multiple agencies working the same role signals to the market that you are hiring before you intended it to.
What it costs
Typically 15 to 25 per cent of first-year salary on placement. Cheap if it works, and nothing if it does not — but the research you did not pay for is research you do not have.
Fixed-fee research-led search
What we do. Treat this section with appropriate scepticism.
What it does well
Retained-level market coverage without a percentage fee, and the search report handed over permanently — the map, the approach record, the assessments and the compensation evidence.
Because the fee is for the work, the advice can be that the role should be restructured, the package re-priced, or an internal candidate appointed.
Where it is the wrong purchase
When you need a global brand on the board paper for an appointment the market will scrutinise. When you need relationships at the very top of a narrow global sector that take a decade to build. And when the market is deep and candidates are available, where contingency is cheaper and faster.
We will tell you when one of those is your situation.
What it costs
$12,000 to $28,000 for a senior appointment, $28,000 to $55,000 for board and C-suite, and $55,000 to $120,000 for a leadership team build. Full bands in four currencies on the fees page.
In-house teams
A permanent internal executive recruitment capability.
What it does well
Institutional memory, instant availability, deep knowledge of the business and its culture, and a marginal cost near zero once the capability exists.
At sustained senior hiring volume it is clearly the right answer.
Where it struggles
Independence when the evidence is unwelcome — an internal team reporting into the function whose plan it is testing is in a difficult position, and everyone knows it.
Confidentiality for sensitive appointments, and reach into markets, sectors or languages the team does not already know.
What it costs
Fully-loaded salary per recruiter plus tooling. The business case turns on volume and should be run with fully-loaded cost on both sides rather than salary against a single search fee.
How to choose
Five questions that usually settle it.
- Would the people you need answer a job advert? If yes, contingency or your own team. If no, search.
- Is the firm's brand part of the governance story? For a listed-company chair or CEO appointment that the market will scrutinise, sometimes it genuinely is.
- Do you want to own the market evidence afterwards? If the research has value beyond this appointment — succession, pay review, the next hire — insist on a model that hands it over.
- How sensitive is the appointment? Confidential searches rule out multiple-agency contingency and are difficult to run internally.
- How many senior appointments a year? Below a handful, commission externally. Above that, build internally and commission for the sensitive and specialist cases.
Six questions to ask any firm
Including us. The answers tell you quickly what you are buying.
- Who will actually run this search, and will I meet them? At some firms the person who pitches and the person who researches are different people and you will only meet one.
- Will I see the complete market map before anyone is approached? A firm that cannot produce one is sourcing, not searching.
- Which organisations are off-limits to you, and why? Ask for the list before you appoint. It may include your best hunting ground.
- Do I own the search report afterwards? Ownership and sight of it are different things.
- What is your fee if no appointment is made? The answer tells you exactly whose interest the advice serves.
- What would make you tell me not to hire? A firm that cannot name a single scenario has either never done it or is not paid in a way that permits it.
The off-limits problem
Every search firm agrees not to approach its clients’ employees. That is reasonable and expected. The issue is scope: at a large firm with many clients in your sector, the off-limits list can quietly cover the employers where your strongest candidates work.
It is rarely raised unprompted, and it is not dishonest — it is simply a constraint that lives in a contract you did not sign. The consequence is a shortlist drawn from the part of the market the firm is permitted to touch, presented as the market.
Ask for the list before you appoint a firm, not after. We agree off-limits explicitly per engagement, state in writing which organisations are excluded and why, and tell you before you sign if an exclusion would materially weaken the search.
Executive search by market
Each market page is written for that market rather than translated from a template.
| Market | What changes there |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Three to six months’ notice, garden leave, and Senior Managers Regime approval before an appointee can start. |
| United States | At-will employment and a fast start date, but an offer dominated by unvested equity and state-by-state non-compete law. |
| United Arab Emirates | A Gulf-wide catchment, packages built from basic plus allowances and gratuity, and visa transfer in the timeline. |
| Germany | Supervisory board appointment, notice to quarter-end, and a non-compete the employer must pay at least half salary to enforce. |
| Netherlands | A works council advice right over director appointments, and DNB or AFM suitability testing before a regulated start. |
| Belgium | Working language as the binding filter, board gender requirements, and packages with a 13th month and double holiday pay. |
| Austria | A market small enough to map exhaustively, supervisory board approval, and pay quoted across fourteen payments. |
| Australia | Five capital markets, superannuation inside the package, restraint clauses that are litigated, and director ID. |
Research coverage extends well beyond these eight. These are the markets where we publish a dedicated page because the governance, notice and restrictive covenant rules differ enough to change how the search itself has to be run. See all eight markets →
Comparison FAQs
What is the difference between retained and contingency search?
A retained search is commissioned and paid in instalments regardless of outcome, which buys exhaustive market coverage and the ability to report unwelcome findings. Contingency recruitment is paid only if a placement is made, which is cheaper up front but creates an incentive to close rather than to advise.
There is a third model — research-led search on a fixed project fee — which gives retained-level market coverage without a percentage-of-salary fee and hands the search report to the client.
How do I choose an executive search firm?
Six questions settle it faster than a credentials deck. Who will actually run the search, and will I meet them? Will I see the complete market map before anyone is approached? Which organisations are off-limits to you? Do I own the search report afterwards? What is your fee if no appointment is made? And what would make you tell me not to hire?
A firm that answers all six without hesitation is selling a process. One that answers none of them is selling a brand.
When is a large retained search firm worth the fee?
When the firm’s name is itself part of the governance story — a listed-company chair or chief executive appointment the market will scrutinise — or when you need existing depth in a very narrow global sector where relationships take years to build.
Those are real reasons and we will say so when they apply. They are a different purchase from research-led search on a fixed fee.
What is an off-limits agreement and why does it matter?
It is an undertaking by a search firm not to approach employees of certain organisations for an agreed period. At minimum it covers you. With larger firms it frequently covers their entire client base.
That second category is the one to examine. A firm with many clients in your sector may be contractually unable to approach precisely the companies where your strongest candidates work, and it will not usually volunteer which. Ask for the list before you appoint.
Is contingency recruitment ever the right choice at senior level?
Yes, where the qualified population is deep and actively looking. If several agencies already have good candidates on file and those people would answer an advert, contingency is faster and cheaper, and paying for exhaustive search coverage adds cost you do not need.
The test is not seniority but scarcity. We will tell you when that is your situation.
Should we build an in-house executive recruitment capability?
It depends on volume and on confidentiality. An in-house team is economical at sustained senior hiring volume and has institutional memory no external firm can match.
What it struggles with is independence when the evidence is unwelcome, confidentiality when the appointment is sensitive, and reach into markets or languages the team does not already know. Most mature organisations run an in-house team and commission externally for those three cases.
Do search firms guarantee their placements?
Many offer a replacement guarantee, and the terms vary considerably: the trigger conditions, the period, and whether it is a free replacement or a credit against a future fee. It is worth reading precisely.
Our model differs by construction: because we are paid for the work rather than the placement, we have no incentive to make an appointment happen that should not. Replacement terms are agreed in the scope case by case.
Do you own the research at the end?
With us, you do — permanently. The market map, approach record, assessments and compensation evidence are handed over and are yours to reuse.
Most retained firms keep the map. That is worth knowing, because it means the research you paid for leaves with them and you commission it again for the next appointment.
How do boutique search firms compare with the global houses?
Boutiques typically offer deeper sector knowledge, direct access to the person doing the work, and fewer off-limits constraints. Global houses offer brand, scale, international coordination and existing relationships at the very top of a sector.
Both charge percentages. The question that distinguishes them in practice is who actually runs the search — the partner who pitched, or a researcher you will never meet.
What should a search firm tell us that we do not want to hear?
That the package is below market. That the role as designed combines two jobs. That the reporting line is unattractive to the people you want. That the best candidate is already inside your business. And that the timeline you have assumed is three months optimistic.
A firm that has never told a client any of those things is either extraordinarily lucky or not being paid in a way that permits it.
Can we use more than one firm on the same search?
You can, and it is common in contingency recruitment. At senior level it usually backfires: candidates approached by two firms about the same role conclude the process is disorganised, and the market learns you are hiring before you intended it to.
If coverage is the concern, a single firm with a documented market map answers it better than two firms with overlapping networks.
What does 'research-led' actually mean?
That the market is mapped before anyone is approached, and that the map is the deliverable as much as the appointment. It is the difference between “here is the whole qualified population and here is why these four” and “here are four people who were interested”.
It is also testable. Ask to see the map before the shortlist. A firm that cannot produce one is sourcing, not searching.