94% placement success
Retained executive search for the roles you cannot get wrong
When a hire carries real consequence, contingency recruitment is the wrong instrument. Our retained search model commits dedicated resource to your brief from day one, maps the entire competitor landscape, and delivers a qualified shortlist in an average of four days.
What retained search actually buys you
A retained engagement changes the economics of a search. Because the commitment runs both ways, your consultant is not racing three other agencies to submit the first CV. They are building a complete map of who is doing the job well, at which competitor, and on what terms. That map is the deliverable behind the shortlist, and it is the reason our retained placement success sits at 94% against an industry average of 49%.
How the process runs
Every search opens with a scoping session that interrogates the brief rather than accepting it. We test the specification against the live market, flag requirements that will narrow the field without improving the hire, and agree the target competitor set with you. Research then runs in parallel with direct approach work, so the shortlist arrives in days rather than weeks. You keep one point of contact from brief to signed offer. No hand-offs to an account manager, no delivery team you have never met.
Confidentiality as standard
Retained search is frequently the right route precisely because a role cannot be advertised: an incumbent is still in post, a funding round is unannounced, or a market entry is not yet public. We approach candidates without disclosing your identity until you authorise it, and we brief every researcher on the constraints of the mandate before the first call is made.
Best suited to
Senior leadership, board appointments, revenue-critical hires, and hard-to-fill specialist roles where quality and confidentiality outweigh speed of first CV.
Common questions
Questions we are asked
How is retained search different from contingency recruitment?
Contingency agencies are paid only on placement, so they work at volume across many briefs and send whoever is available first. A retained search is a committed engagement: fees are staged across the process, resource is dedicated to your brief, and the work includes full competitor mapping rather than database matching.
What does a retained search cost?
Retained fees are structured as a percentage of first-year package, staged across engagement, shortlist and placement. The total is typically comparable to a contingency fee, but the risk profile is different: you are paying for a defined process with dedicated resource rather than a lottery ticket on an unmanaged search.
How quickly will we see candidates?
Our average from signed brief to qualified shortlist is four days. Complex or highly confidential mandates can run longer, and we will tell you at scoping if we think your brief sits outside the normal range.
Other services
Other ways to engage us
Ready to brief a search?
Send us the role and we will come back within one working day with an initial view of the market.