The longer definition
A fuller definition has four parts.
Managed. Executive search is a process somebody owns end to end — brief, research, approach, assessment, referencing, offer, notice and start. The value is as much in the management as in the names: at this level, searches fail in the handoffs far more often than in the sourcing.
Research-led. The market is established before anyone is contacted. That is what makes it possible to say “here is the whole population, and here is why these four” rather than “here are four people who were interested”.
For senior leaders. The test is not a job title but scarcity. A search is justified where the qualified population is small and not actively looking, which can be true of a technical principal and untrue of a vice-president.
Through to a start date. An appointment is not complete at signature. Notice, garden leave, regulatory approval, relocation and the first weeks in post are all places a search can still fail, and a firm paid on placement has no commercial reason to stay involved through them.
The seven stages
Stage two is the one that separates a good search from a poor one.
Brief and success profile
- What happens
- The role is defined by what the appointee has to achieve, not by a job description. Capabilities that predict success are agreed, with how each will be assessed.
- Why it matters
- It is the only defence against a shortlist being judged on impression, and the basis on which every exclusion is later justified.
Market mapping
- What happens
- The complete qualified population is identified and verified before anyone is approached.
- Why it matters
- A search that produces candidates without first producing the map cannot tell you who it missed. This is also where most clients usefully discover their own brief was too narrow.
Confidential approach
- What happens
- Named, discreet approaches. Interest, motivation, notice and restrictive covenants established.
- Why it matters
- How people respond — including who declines and why — is the clearest evidence you will get about how the role is perceived.
Longlist to shortlist
- What happens
- Structured interviews against the success profile, written assessments, and a documented reason for every exclusion.
- Why it matters
- A shortlist without the reasoning behind it is an opinion.
Client interviews
- What happens
- The interview process is managed, feedback handled in both directions, board or committee stages run where applicable.
- Why it matters
- Senior candidates withdraw during slow or disorganised processes, and the best ones withdraw first.
Referencing and offer
- What happens
- Structured referencing, including regulatory references where required; an offer built on compensation evidence; negotiation and acceptance.
- Why it matters
- An offer constructed without market evidence either overpays or fails, and both are expensive.
Notice, approval and onboarding
- What happens
- Notice, garden leave, regulatory approval, relocation and the first weeks in post.
- Why it matters
- In several markets this is the longest stage. A search firm that disengages at signature is absent for the part most likely to go wrong.
Retained, contingency and fixed fee
The fee model decides the incentives, which decides the advice you get.
| Retained | Contingency | Fixed project fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it is paid | Instalments regardless of outcome | Only on placement | Fixed fee for the work, agreed up front |
| Typical level | 25–33% of first-year package | 15–25% of first-year salary | Scoped on the search itself |
| Market coverage | Exhaustive | Whoever is reachable quickly | Exhaustive |
| Incentive created | To complete the assignment | To close a placement quickly | To do the work well; no interest in the outcome |
| Can report 'do not hire' | In principle, rarely in practice | No commercial reason to | Yes — the fee is unaffected |
| Who owns the research | The firm | The agency | You |
| Best for | Board and C-suite where coverage must be total | Deep markets with available candidates | Senior appointments where you also want the market evidence |
None of the three is dishonest. They simply create different incentives, and it is worth being clear-eyed about which one you are buying.
The pattern worth noticing is in the fifth row. A firm whose fee depends on an appointment being made has no commercial reason to tell you the role is wrongly designed, the package is uncompetitive or the right candidate is already inside your business. Those three findings are frequently the most valuable output of a search.
How it differs from adjacent services
| Service | Starts from | Produces | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Executive search | A defined appointment | An appointment, plus the search report | Retained, contingency or fixed fee |
| Talent mapping | A role or population to understand | A named, verified population — nobody approached | Project fee |
| Talent intelligence | A business decision | Evidence and analysis | Project fee |
| Talent pipelining | A future need | Pre-engaged candidates | Project fee |
| Talent sourcing | A live requisition | A qualified shortlist | Project fee or day rate |
| Contingency recruitment | A live vacancy | Available candidates | Percentage on placement |
| Interim and fractional | An immediate capability gap | A temporary appointment | Day rate or margin |
When to use it
Use search when
The qualified population is small and not actively looking. The appointment is confidential. The role is a board or C-suite appointment with governance requirements. You are entering a market where you have no network. Or the cost of the wrong appointment is very much larger than the fee — which at this level it almost always is.
Do not use search when
The market is deep and candidates are actively looking. You already know who you want and only need to reach them. The role is not yet properly defined. Or the budget only stretches to a search done badly — a half-researched search is worse than none, because it produces false confidence that the market has been covered.
Consider mapping first when
You are unsure the role should exist, or unsure what it should pay. A map costs a fraction of a search, answers both questions, and becomes the search’s first stage if you proceed.
The success profile
A success profile is a written statement of what the appointee has to achieve in the first twelve to twenty-four months, the capabilities that predict success at those things, and how each capability will be assessed. It is agreed before research begins.
It is not a job description. A job description lists duties; a success profile states outcomes and the evidence that someone can deliver them. The difference shows up at shortlist stage, when a job description produces a debate about who seemed most impressive and a success profile produces a comparison against agreed criteria.
It also protects the process. Every assessment and every exclusion written against an agreed profile is defensible — to a board, to an unsuccessful internal candidate, and if necessary to a tribunal. Assessment by impression is defensible to nobody.
Off-limits and conflicts
An off-limits agreement is an undertaking not to approach the employees of certain organisations for an agreed period. At minimum it covers the client. With larger firms it frequently covers their entire client base.
That second category deserves attention when you are choosing a firm. A large search 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 ones. Asking for the off-limits list before you appoint a firm is a reasonable and revealing question.
We agree off-limits explicitly in the scope document for each engagement rather than applying a blanket policy, and we state in writing which organisations are excluded and why. Where an exclusion would materially weaken a search, we say so before you sign.
What executive search cannot do
Every firm should publish this list.
- It cannot make an uncompetitive proposition attractive. If the package, the structure or the leadership are the problem, better search will surface that faster — it will not fix it.
- It cannot guarantee an individual will accept. It can establish that a qualified population exists and how it responds; it cannot promise a named person.
- It cannot compress a notice period. In several markets the gap between acceptance and start is months, and no fee changes that.
- It cannot resolve a contradictory brief. It can only surface the contradiction — ideally at scoping rather than at shortlist.
- It cannot see inside a competitor. Internal performance ratings and confidential individual pay are not observable, and a firm claiming otherwise is either inferring or doing something you would not want attached to your name.
- It cannot substitute for a decision. A good search narrows the field and evidences the trade-offs. Choosing remains yours.
A short glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Executive search | A managed, research-led process for appointing senior leaders, covering the whole qualified population. |
| Retained search | Search commissioned and paid in instalments regardless of outcome. |
| Contingency recruitment | Recruitment paid only if a placement is made. |
| Success profile | A written statement of required outcomes, predictive capabilities and how each will be assessed. |
| Longlist | Every candidate researched and approached who meets the criteria, before assessment narrows it. |
| Shortlist | The assessed candidates presented for interview, with the reasoning for every exclusion. |
| Off-limits | Organisations a search firm has agreed not to approach, and for how long. |
| Garden leave | A notice period served away from the workplace, still employed and usually still paid. |
| Restrictive covenant | A contractual restriction on where and for whom someone may work after leaving. |
| Regulatory approval | Pre-appointment approval or assessment of a senior individual by a financial or sector regulator. |
| Market map | The complete, verified qualified population for a defined role. |
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 →
Executive search FAQs
What is executive search?
Executive search is a managed, research-led process for appointing senior leaders. It identifies the entire qualified population for a defined role, approaches those people confidentially, assesses them against an agreed success profile, references them and manages the appointment through to a start date.
It differs from recruitment in method and in purpose: the market is researched rather than advertised to, because at this level the strongest candidates are employed, performing well and not looking.
What is the difference between executive search and recruitment?
Recruitment generally works from people who are available — applicants, databases, networks — and is usually paid a percentage on placement. Executive search works from the market: it establishes who could do the role whether or not they are looking, and approaches them directly.
The practical test is whether the people you need would answer a job advert. If they would, recruitment is cheaper and faster. If they would not, search is the only instrument that reaches them.
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 makes it cheaper up front but creates an incentive to close.
There is a third model: research-led search on a fixed project fee, which gives retained market coverage without a percentage-of-salary fee. That is what we do.
How long does an executive search take?
Ten to fourteen weeks from brief to accepted offer for a senior appointment, and twelve to eighteen weeks for a board or C-suite role.
Time to start is separate and often longer. UK, German, Austrian and Belgian executive notice periods run from three to twelve months; regulatory approval adds weeks in financial services; relocation adds more. The process page sets out both timelines.
How much does executive search cost?
Retained search firms typically charge 25 to 33 per cent of first-year total package, so a $400,000 appointment costs $100,000 to $132,000. Contingency recruiters typically charge 15 to 25 per cent on placement.
We charge a fixed project fee for the work: $12,000 to $28,000 for a senior appointment and $28,000 to $55,000 for a board or C-suite role. Full comparison on the fees page.
What are the stages of an executive search?
Seven: brief and success profile; market mapping; confidential approach; longlist to shortlist; client interviews; referencing and offer; and notice, approval and onboarding.
The stage that distinguishes a good search from a poor one is the second. A search that produces candidates without first producing the market map cannot tell you who it missed.
What is a success profile?
A written statement of what the appointee has to achieve, the capabilities that predict success at it, and how each will be assessed — agreed before any research begins.
It matters because it is the only defence against a shortlist being judged on impression. Every assessment and every exclusion in our searches is written against the profile, which is also what makes the process defensible to a board or an employment tribunal.
Do executive search firms guarantee their placements?
Many offer a replacement guarantee for a defined period, and the terms vary considerably. It is worth reading precisely what triggers it, how long it runs and whether it is a free replacement or a credit.
Our position is different 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. We agree replacement terms in the scope document case by case.
What is 'off-limits' in executive search?
An agreement not to approach the employees of certain organisations — typically the client itself and, with some firms, their other clients — for an agreed period.
Off-limits is worth examining carefully when choosing a firm. A large search firm with many clients in your sector may be contractually unable to approach precisely the companies where your best candidates sit. We agree off-limits explicitly in the scope rather than applying a blanket policy.
What can executive search not do?
It cannot make an uncompetitive role attractive. It cannot persuade someone to move for a package that is below market, into a structure that does not work, or under leadership they have reason to doubt.
It cannot guarantee a specific individual will accept. It cannot compress a notice period. And it cannot resolve an internally contradictory brief — it can only surface the contradiction, usually at the shortlist stage, which is why we try to surface it at the scoping stage instead.
Who uses executive search?
Boards and nomination committees appointing directors and chief executives; chief executives building a leadership team; HR and talent leaders filling roles their own team cannot reach; private equity and venture investors appointing into portfolio companies; and organisations entering a new market where they have no network at all.
Is executive search confidential?
It can be, and often needs to be. The common reasons are that an incumbent is still in post, that the appointment signals a strategic change the company is not ready to announce, or that the organisation is in a transaction.
In a confidential search the opportunity is described without naming the employer until a candidate is genuinely engaged and, where appropriate, an NDA is in place.
How do you assess a candidate at this level?
Against the written success profile, using structured interviews run by the consultant who did the research, supported by evidence from the market and by structured referencing.
Psychometrics and board presentations can be added where they genuinely inform the decision. What should not happen is assessment by impression, which is how a shortlist ends up reproducing whoever interviewed most confidently.
What is the difference between executive search and talent mapping?
A talent map identifies and profiles the qualified population and stops there — nobody is approached. It is research, and it is frequently bought to decide whether to open a role at all.
Executive search uses that map and then approaches, assesses, references and appoints. Many clients buy the map first and convert into a search only if the evidence supports it.