The brief and oversimplified answer is that companies come to us when they’ve been unable to fill a certain critical opening. Our job is to look at the “big picture”; understand the needs of the organization and how this role fits into their team. Next, we develop an ideal talent profile of the different skills and acuities a talent must have to succeed in the role, and then go out into the talent market to find, engage and attract the specific talent that company needs. We primarily look at “passive talent” – candidates who are currently working for a competitor or related company in a similar capacity to our client’s opening (commonly known as “headhunting”), as opposed to those who are actively seeking roles. This method is somewhat the inverse of the traditional approach of building a large funnel of talent who are applying through ads and job boards, and seeing who lasts until the end. Our targeted approach enables our clients to choose from specific talent who closely align with their needs – the “best” vs. the “best available”.

We have a number of different search options depending on level of service and your budget, so please feel free to contact us directly at connect@hagerexecutivesearch.com to see how we might assist with your specific search. But generally, any retained search firm will charge between 30-33% of the targeted first year salary of the position spread into 3 equal payments. Those payments are traditionally due at the start of the search, at a certain milestone (like number of candidates presented or particular agreed upon date), and depending on the firm, either upon completion or upon another set milestone.

Some larger firms also charge an administrative fee of between 10-12% on top of a search fee. Our search fee is based on the base salary. Most of our competitors fees are based on the entire compensation (i.e. including anticipated bonuses and benefits) and don’t in fact guarantee that any candidates will be presented. Hager Executive Search does not charge an administrative fee and for our Retained Search solution, the final third of the fee is a “success fee” due only upon successful placement of a talent.

We also offer a modified version of Retained search called Engaged Search, as well as On-Demand Talent Acquisition and People + Organization Consulting. Please email us at connect@hagerexecutivesearch.com to learn more about which option is best for your needs.

It depends on the complexity of the position and amount of research and consulting with the client partner to determine fit, but most searches are successfully completed on average in approximately 90 days. As we concentrate on passive talent actively working in the space, some searches may take a bit longer simply due to logistics of scheduling, etc.

Again, it depends on the complexity of the search and the level of difficulty of the particular search. Typically, it takes 2-3 weeks to provide candidates for consideration. Our goal is to ensure the candidates are thoroughly vetted prior to presentation to our client companies.

We work tirelessly to ensure that every search we commit to comes to a successful conclusion. There are rare instances where the position does not get filled but those are due primarily to shifting conditions/factors within the client organization, i.e. the client puts the hiring for the role “on hold” for one reason or another.

Whereas traditional Retained Search firms collect the entire fee regardless of success, our fee structure is such that the final fee for any search we conduct is treated as a “success fee” – payable only upon successful hire. It’s our way of showing our clients that we are committed to shared success.

A typical executive search requires many hours of consulting and exploration of the talent pool which requires our researching/sourcing staff to be engaged building passive talent maps. We’re looking for the best fit for a role and as such, we cannot begin a true search/headhunt on a contingent/no fee basis.

That said, our network of talent is extensive and we may already know of a talent who might be worthy of consideration. In certain cases, we may consider sending a talent from our network to the hiring team to consider their candidacy – a contingent “found” if you will. But as a rule, we’re unable to provide a full consultative executive search without some form of initial compensation to cover the cost of our research team. Our research team is always assigned to our current client partners. To dedicate them to a new search, we need to be compensated accordingly. Please understand that the initial retainer is not an additional cost and is in fact deducted from the cost of the overall fee.

We have a modified search method called “Engaged” designed for searches that require less time to fill and require less research. Please contact us at connect@hagerexecutivesearch.com to learn more about our Engaged Search solution.

As a large part of what we provide is consultation and strategy (and we in fact provide those services apart from executive search to companies who want to conduct the search portion themselves) we’re unable to provide a refund for services already rendered. In addition to the talent we provide to consider under our Retained Search service, we also provide our clients with key competitive information and the talent map showing them both potential viable candidates for future positions related to the search as well as potential sources to look towards for other openings in other departments. We provide a tremendous amount of value and data which we share with our clients.

We’re always interested in connecting with talented people and you can contact us via our contact page or by sending your resume to connect@hagerexecutivesearch.com and we will be sure to put you within our talent network. However, by necessity our time and energy is primarily focused on our clients’ needs and as such we’re unable to proactively market a specific talent to new opportunities. If you’re a match for any of our open roles, we’ll be certain to contact you. If you’re actively seeking a position and would like some advice, we suggest you check out our series of blog posts entitled 10 Tips for Job Seekers.

Feel free to email us at connect@hagerexecutivesearch.com if you have additional questions. We look forward to hearing from you!