Choosing a Search Firm

A retained executive search has a shape, and every proposal should describe it. If a stage is missing, ask why.

The brief. The business, the pipeline, the team the leader inherits, the numbers the seat is accountable for, and the profile that will succeed in it, agreed in writing before anyone is approached. A firm that starts calling before the brief is settled is guessing.

The market map. A complete written picture of who holds the equivalent role across the target businesses: named individuals, their current remit, their tenure and their likely motivation to move. This is the document that turns a search from a database query into a search. Ask to see one from a previous assignment, with the names removed.

The approaches. Each person on the map is contacted personally and confidentially, and the conversation is about the work. Ask who will make those calls. The answer should be the person sitting in front of you, not a researcher you will never meet.

Assessment. A shortlist of four to six people, each interviewed at length and written up with reservations as well as strengths. A shortlist that reads like a pile of CVs has not been assessed.

The offer and the notice period. The firm manages the offer, the counter-offer and the three to six months between acceptance and the start date. This is where appointments are lost, and a firm that stops at the offer letter has left the riskiest part of the search to you.

The guarantee. A replacement or refund term if the person leaves within a stated period. Read the exclusions: a guarantee that expires before the notice period has ended is not one.

Put the same ten to every firm you are considering, and compare the answers rather than the pitches.

1. Who will run the search, and what have they done in this sector? You are appointing a person, not a firm. Ask for their background and for the last three comparable seats they filled.
2. How many searches is that person running now? A director-level search needs weeks of mapping and dozens of calls. Someone running twelve at once cannot give yours that.
3. Which businesses are off limits? Every firm has clients it will not approach. Ask for the list before you sign, because if it covers the companies the people you want work for, the search is compromised before it starts.
4. What is the fee, what is it charged on, and when is it paid? Percentage of base or of total package; minimum fee or none; how many instalments and what triggers each. The fees page sets out what the UK market charges and what I charge.
5. What do I receive at each stage, in writing? A brief, a market map, a progress report at agreed points, a written appraisal of each shortlisted person, and a note of who declined and why. If the answer is "a shortlist", the search has no visible stages.
6. How long did the last three comparable searches take, from brief to accepted offer? Six to eight weeks is realistic for a director seat in construction. A promise of two is a promise to send you whoever is available.
7. How do you assess people, and can I see an example appraisal? With the name removed, a previous write-up shows you whether the assessment goes beyond a CV summary.
8. What happens if the person leaves in the first year? The guarantee, its period and its exclusions, in the proposal rather than in a later conversation.
9. What happens if the search does not produce an appointment? Which instalments are still due, and whether the firm will re-run the search on the same brief without a further fee.
10. Which two recent clients can I speak to? Not a testimonial page. A conversation with someone who has bought the same service for a comparable seat.

Some answers should end the conversation.

A shortlist promised inside a fortnight means the firm intends to send you the people it already has. A fee payable only on placement, for a director-level seat, means the firm cannot afford to spend weeks on your search and will not. No written market map means there is no map. A researcher makes the calls and the consultant presents the results, which means the person who knows the least about your seat is the one making your approaches. The off-limits list arrives after the contract, or not at all. The guarantee is shorter than a senior notice period. And the pitch is about the firm's database, its offices and its brand, rather than about the twenty or thirty people it intends to approach for you.

None of these is unusual. Each one tells you what you are actually buying.

A proposal is a description of how the search will be run, and it should be read as one.

Start with the fee: the percentage, what it is charged on, the minimum if there is one, and the instalments. Then the stages, and what is delivered at each, because that is where the fee is earned. Then the terms: exclusivity and its period, the off-limits list, the guarantee and its exclusions, expenses, and what is due if the search is withdrawn. Then the people: who runs it, who supports them, and how often you will speak.

What is not in the proposal matters as much. If the market map, the written appraisals or the offer management are not described, they are not being offered, whatever the pitch said. Ask for them to be added before you sign, and if the firm will not add them, you have your answer.

Two proposals with the same percentage can describe entirely different services. Compare the work, not the number.

Three ways to fill a senior seat, and each has a place.

A contingency agency is paid only if someone it submits is hired. It works quickly across many roles and puts forward the people it already knows and who are available now. For a Quantity Surveyor or a Site Manager, that is often the right tool, and there are good agencies doing it. At director level it fails, because the model rewards speed and availability over reach and assessment.

An in-house team knows the business and costs nothing per hire, and for internal moves and mid-level roles it is often the best option. For a confidential search, a seat the business has not filled before, or a market the team does not know, it lacks the map and the reach, and the people it needs to approach will not take the call.

A retained firm is engaged exclusively and paid in stages. The staged fee funds the mapping, the direct approaches and the written assessment, and it puts one name on the outcome. For the seat where the wrong appointment shows in the accounts within a year, that is what the fee is for. What a construction headhunter does that an agency does not, and what a retained search costs, each have a page of their own.