Everything you need to know about Executive Search
The C-Suite and senior recruitment service for C-level appointments
As a hiring manager or talent acquisition professional, you’ve likely come across C-Suite recruitment services and executive search firms in your role.
However, looking for straightforward answers to your questions, such as how much does an executive search firm charge? and how long does the executive search process take? can be time-consuming and frustrating. Especially when your senior hiring project is under strict time constraints!
So, we’re here to cut through the noise and tell you everything you need to know about executive search with these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
What is executive search?
Executive search is a specialist recruitment service. It is employed for senior, C-Suite, and executive level roles which require leaders who are key to shaping the future of the business.
These roles can be difficult to fill due to the need for niche skillsets, specialist expertise, or just the sheer number of years’ experience required.
What is the difference between executive search and other recruitment solutions?
Executive search is a much more dedicated and in-depth service than contingency recruitment. While standard recruitment services will involve advertising the vacancy, searching for candidates, and sending a shortlist to the hiring business, executive search services take a more strategic approach.
Depending on the firm you work with, this can involve detailed market research, headhunting, as well as consultancy on remuneration, talent attraction, interview methods, and more.
Is executive search an exclusive recruitment agreement?
Typically, yes. When engaging with a recruitment consultancy on your executive appointment, you would agree to partnering solely with them for the project.
Agreeing to exclusivity means increased dedication and focus from your recruitment partner who will be more enthused about the project due to not having to compete with other recruiters.
However, this varies from agency to agency. It is also possible to agree to a period of exclusivity (e.g. two weeks), allowing the recruitment firm time to search the role. If, at the end of the exclusivity period, no suitable candidates have been found, you can then share the project with more agencies.
Using a smaller number of agencies for any recruitment project can have a raft of benefits – cleaner employer brand representation, stronger agency relationships, and more.
Is executive search the same as retained search?
Retained search is an agreement that is often applied to executive search projects.
Retained search involves you paying an upfront fee to the agency (a “retainer”) to secure their services. This is a popular choice as it guarantees a higher level of dedication from your recruitment partner who will prioritise your vacancy over other clients due to the retained agreement.
How does an executive search process work?
An executive search service is a thorough process. Depending on the agency you partner with and your overall requirements, it can involve:
Discovery
An in-depth discussion with you to understand your business, goals, motivations, values, culture, organisation structure, the job vacancy, person specification, any special requirements, etc.
Market-mapping
The recruitment agency will conduct thorough research of the market, uncovering talent pools across the relevant sectors, skillsets, locations, and salary levels you are considering.
Consultation
Armed with this research, your recruitment partner can offer valuable insights around how to effectively position the role in the market. This can involve guidance on effectively promoting the role and your employer value proposition, as well as giving you realistic expectations around location, salary and benefits, flexible working allowance, seniority, years of experience, qualification levels, etc.
Advertising, search & headhunting
Once you have refined your requirements and the scope of the role, the recruitment agency can go to market. This will involve advertising the role across appropriate employment websites and platforms, broad candidate searching, and headhunting if this is an agreed aspect of your strategy.
You will then be provided with a shortlist of engaged, interested, and suitable candidates from which you can choose who to progress to interviews.
Interviewing
The recruitment agency will work with you to facilitate an effective interview process and a positive hiring experience for the candidates.
Offer Management
Once you have found your preferred candidate, your recruitment partner will support you in delivering the right offer and handling any negotiations, ultimately helping you to secure the right person for your long-term business strategy.
How long do executive search processes take?
An executive search process, from instructing the recruitment agency to offer acceptance, takes 3-4 months on average.
When planning your recruitment projects, it’s also important to consider the time it takes to find the right executive search firm and the chosen candidate’s notice period (which is often 3+ months at a senior level). This means, in total, your C-Suite appointment could take over six months.
For more information on the timeline of an executive search process, see our dedicated article: How long does executive search take? >
How are Executive Search Firms compensated?
Executive search payment terms can differ dependent on the recruitment consultancy you work with. More often than not, a fee is agreed based on a percentage of the approximated final salary and this cost is broken down into three payments:
- Upfront Fee / Retainer – One third
- Shortlist Provided – One third
- Offer Acceptance – Remainder of outstanding total
At MERJE, we focus on flexibility to ensure that the recruitment solution works for your business. We are happy to adapt the payment terms to meet your needs, such as more or fewer payments, or potentially waiving the upfront fee.
How much do Executive Search Firms charge?
The fees an Executive search firm charges is typically around 30% to 35% of the hire’s annual salary. The cost varies depending on the recruitment consultancy you work with as well as the expected complexity of the search, which can be impacted by sector, location, salary level, experience required, etc.
MERJE Executive Talent, our alternative senior hiring solution, offers a standard fee of 25%.
For more information the fees and costs you can expect from an executive search process, see our dedicated article: How much does executive search cost? >
Are Executive Search Firms expensive?
While at first glance, the cost of an executive search service can seem high, it is important to remember that you are benefitting from elevated levels of expertise and experience, as well as more robust and dedicated recruitment strategies.
The higher fees associated with executive search come from the increased level of consultation and more in-depth services like market mapping that you don’t receive with traditional or contingent recruitment solutions.
Does MERJE provide executive search services?
Yes. Our Executive Talent solution promises successful C-Suite and Senior hiring services that are more cost-effective and time-efficient than standard executive search.
With flexible payment options (like minimal-to-no upfront fee) and guaranteed expertise (or we won’t take it on!), we deliver better than executive search results for lower fees and faster. Find out more here >
What locations does your executive search solution cover?
Thanks to our recruitment experts being located across three offices – London, Manchester, and Glasgow – MERJE Executive Talent is a solution for vacancies throughout the whole of the UK & Ireland.
What business functions can your executive search service hire for?
MERJE Executive Talent encompasses the specialist expertise we’ve built over decades of senior and C-Suite recruitment. This means we can deliver executive hiring services across our core specialisms of:
MERJE Governance – including Compliance, Credit Risk, Financial Crime & Fraud, Legal, and Risk Management roles.
MERJE Finance – including Finance and Audit roles.
MERJE Operations – including Business Change & Transformation, Customer Contact, and Operations & Strategic roles.
MERJE Insurance – including Actuarial and technical insurance roles.
What C-level and senior job titles does your executive search service cover?
MERJE Executive Talent is tailored to your business and can be adapted to recruit any Head of, Director, or C-Suite role, including:
- Chief Risk Officer (CRO)
- Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
- Chief Operating Officer (COO)
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Fraud Director
- Risk & Compliance Director
- Actuarial Director
- General Counsel
- Head of Audit
- Head of Financial Crime
- Head of Credit Risk
- And many more!
What industries and sectors does your executive search solution cover?
As with our wider recruitment services, we have grown our reputation as absolute experts in all areas of financial services and banking. This includes:
- Retail Banking
- Commercial Banking
- Corporate Banking
- Wealth Management
- Asset Management
- Investment Management
- Insurance
- Consultancy
- Lending
- Building Societies
- Fintechs
- Payments
- And more.
Over the years, we have expanded our expertise to related and complementary sectors which means we can also deliver on appointments within Telecoms, Utilities, Travel, Healthcare, Technology, etc. Find out more about our sector expertise >
Can you provide executive search services for regulated firms?
Absolutely! As specialists in Financial Services and Banking, we are well-versed in recruiting senior, executive, and C-Suite appointments in regulated environments which require specialist expertise and qualifications such as SMF 16, SMF 17, SMF 5, FCA regulated persons, etc.
We are also accredited by Hellios as an FSQS registered supplier, indicating a successful audit process and demonstrating our compliance with a standardised methodology which allows FSQS Buyer organisations in the Financial Services industry to access our information.
Can you help us write a C-Suite job description?
Yes. Thanks to our consultants’ years (in some cases, decades) of experience in their specialisms, we have seen thousands of job descriptions in our time. We are happy to support you in crafting a suitable and compelling job description for your senior leadership vacancy as part of our Executive Talent solution.
Still looking for answers?
Do you have a question about executive search recruitment or MERJE Executive Talent that isn’t covered here? Submit the question below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Simplify your search for leaders
Hiring for your senior leadership team? Discover everything you need to know about MERJE Executive Talent here or submit your vacancy and we can chat about your C-Suite recruitment strategy.
