How long does an executive search take?

It depends on the role, how narrow the field is, how quickly decision-makers can meet candidates and the notice periods involved. Rather than relying on a promised end date, agree the stages, the dates for each and how progress will be reported.

Can we search while the current person is still in the role?

Yes, where that is what you want. Disclosure, who knows internally and how candidates are approached are set out in the confidentiality terms before the search starts. How and when the current person is told is your decision.

When do candidates learn which company it is?

At a point agreed with you in advance. Early approaches usually describe the role and the type of business without naming it, and the name is shared once a candidate is interested and the agreed stage is reached.

Do we need psychometric assessments?

Not necessarily. The core assessment is against the written brief, through structured conversations and a review of what each person has led and delivered. Other assessments can be added where you agree they help.

Can we name organisations that should not be approached?

Yes. The market map is agreed with you before anyone is contacted, and any organisations you want left out are recorded in writing and excluded from the search.

Executive Search: How It Works and When to Use It

In brief

Executive search is a researched, direct approach to people suited to a senior role, most of whom are not looking for a move and would never answer an advertisement.
A business usually needs one when the role is senior or new to the business, when the search must stay confidential, or when the likely candidates are settled in steady roles elsewhere.
A search runs from an agreed brief to a market map, direct approaches, assessment, a shortlist with a written view on each person, interviews, references and the notice period.
The search cannot fix a role the decision-makers have not agreed on. The brief has to settle that first.

Executive search is a way of filling a senior role by identifying suitable people and approaching them directly, instead of advertising and waiting for applications. It suits roles where the right people are settled in their current jobs and not looking, where the search has to stay confidential, or where a wrong appointment would be hard to undo. For roles that attract strong applicants openly, ordinary recruitment is usually enough.

How it differs from ordinary recruitment

Ordinary recruitment publishes a role and works with the people who respond, alongside referrals and databases. Executive search starts at the other end. It asks where the people who could do this job are likely to be working now, builds a map of those organisations and functions, and approaches individuals in that map discreetly.

Because the people approached have not applied, the conversation is different. They are being asked whether a role is worth their attention, not applying for one. That puts more weight on how the role is described, on assessment against a clear brief, on references taken carefully, and on keeping the whole process discreet for both sides.

When a business needs one

The role is senior and new to the business. A first head of finance, a first head of operations or a leader for a new business line, where nobody inside has done the job and the founder's network has run dry.
The search has to stay confidential. The current person is still in the role, a change has not been announced, or the business does not want competitors to know what it is building.
The likely candidates are not looking. People who are doing well in steady senior roles rarely read job listings. They have to be found and approached.
The role needs an unusual combination. Sector knowledge with a particular kind of leadership experience, or a function combined with a location that narrows the field.
The same few names keep coming up. Referrals and personal contacts have produced the people the founder already knows, and none of them fits.

When it is probably not the answer

The role attracts strong applicants through ordinary channels
The decision-makers have not yet agreed what the role is for
The compensation range has not been approved
The founder or board cannot make time for senior candidates over several weeks

The last two are worth taking seriously. Senior candidates notice when a business is not ready, and a search that starts before the role and the range are agreed tends to stall in the middle.

How a search runs

1
Agree the scope and confidentiality
The role, level and location, who in the business knows about the search, what may be disclosed and when the company name is shared. These are written down before anyone is contacted.
2
Take the brief
A briefing with the founder, the board or the leadership team on why the role exists, its first-year priorities, the reporting line, the authority it carries and the approved compensation range. Each decision-maker confirms the written brief.
3
Map the market
The organisations, functions and backgrounds where suitable people are likely to be found, agreed with you, including any organisations you do not want approached.
4
Approach and assess
People in the map are approached directly. Those who are interested are assessed against the brief through structured conversations and a review of what they have led and delivered.
5
Present a shortlist
Each candidate comes with a written view on how they match the brief, what is still open and what the panel should probe.
6
Interviews and references
Interviews are coordinated with senior panel members. References are taken with the candidate's agreement, at a stage that does not expose someone who is still employed.
7
Offer, notice period and handover
You decide and issue the offer. Contact continues through the notice period, and a handover note passes what the search learnt to whoever runs onboarding.

A senior brief is a different document

A brief for a senior role spends less time on qualifications and more on the job's real conditions: the decisions the person will own, the authority they will have, who they answer to and what the business will not change for them. These are the questions senior candidates ask first.

This is also where disagreement among the decision-makers surfaces. Imagine, as an illustrative example, two co-founders who both say they want a head of operations. One describes someone who will build systems and reporting. The other describes someone who will run the shop floor every day. Both are reasonable roles, but they are different people, and no search can find a candidate who satisfies two briefs at once. The brief has to settle it before the map is drawn.

Senior role brief: questions to agree before the search

1. Why does this role exist now, and what changes if it stays empty?
2. What must be true at the end of the first year?
3. Which decisions will this person own outright?
4. Who do they report to, and who reports to them?
5. What will the business NOT change for this person?
6. Approved compensation range, and who approved it
7. Who decides, and who must be consulted
8. Organisations not to be approached

Confirmed by each decision-maker:  ________  ________  ________

Confidentiality runs both ways

For the business, confidentiality means agreeing in advance who internally knows about the search, what is said about the role and the company at each stage, and how candidate information is shared. For the candidates, it means protecting the fact that they are talking to you at all. Most of the people approached are employed, and some are senior enough that a rumour would affect them. Information about them should be shared only with the people who need it, and references taken only when they agree.

What the business has to bring

Decision-makers who are available for interviews within days, not weeks
An honest account of the state of the business, since senior candidates do their own checking
A compensation range that is approved before the first approach
A plan for the first months, so the appointment does not end at the joining date

The last point is often overlooked. A senior hire who arrives without a plan, introductions or a clear first set of priorities is being set up to struggle. Joining support for senior people is part of the same work as succession and leadership development.

Search outside, or develop from within

Before starting an external search, ask whether someone inside the business could grow into the role with time and support. Sometimes the answer is no, and the search is the right route. Sometimes the answer is that a capable internal person needs a year and a plan. Making that judgement with both options in view is better than discovering it halfway through a search.

GullyHR provides executive search as a separate service, alongside its other hiring and HR services. Where agreed, we can run a search from the brief to the handover note under confidentiality terms set out in writing. The selection, the compensation and the offer remain your decisions.

Questions we are asked

Talent acquisition fills roles across the business, often through several channels at once, including applications. Executive search is for senior and leadership roles and works mainly through direct, discreet approaches to people who are not looking, with more weight on the brief, assessment and references.

Related service