HR for Executive search firms: what to set up first

A partner at a small search firm wins a mandate for a chief financial officer. The consultant runs it for five months. The researcher maps forty companies, and makes the first calls. The search ends with an internal candidate promoted by the client. The retainer was partly paid, the success fee is not. The consultant's income is down, the researcher's name was never on a report, and both are now reading job advertisements.

Executive search is a slow, discreet, relationship-led business. This post sets out what to put in place first. It draws on the executive search firms page and the broader sector overview for agencies.

Most search firms have four steps: researcher, associate, consultant, partner. Write what each does alone, what each needs help with, and what moves a person up. Without it, a talented researcher guesses at promotion and leaves to become a consultant elsewhere. The competency and talent page shows how to describe the skills for each step.

1. 1

   Choose the dimensions

   Leadership record, sector depth, team scale, change experience, fit with the client's culture, references.

2. 2

   Write the interview note format

   Same headings every time: evidence, concerns, what is unproven, recommendation.

3. 3

   Hold a calibration session

   Twice a year, the consultants read three anonymised notes and discuss how each would rate the candidate.

4. 4

   Keep examples

   A folder of strong and weak notes, names removed, for new consultants to read.

This is how judgement becomes teachable. It also protects the firm when a consultant leaves, since the standard stays.

The researcher's work shows up in the long list, the first calls, and often in the candidate who is finally placed. Record who sourced the shortlisted names. Put the researcher's name on the search report. Link a part of the variable pay to placements the researcher contributed to. The compensation and rewards page for search firms covers ways to share rewards across the cycle.

• Client names are shared only with the search team, and the list is written down.
• Candidate files live in one system with access rules, not on personal phones.
• Search material is deleted or archived at the close of a search, by a named person, on a stated date.
• Forwarding of candidate details by personal chat is not allowed.
• A partner or consultant leaving hands over mandates in writing and returns devices.

A mix of base and success fee share leaves consultants anxious during a long search. Smooth it with a stated draw, a retainer share paid as stages complete, or a quarterly review. Write which stages count and who decides. Tell consultants how a search that fails at the last stage will be treated. It is better to say so in advance than to settle it in a heated meeting.

In a small market of senior people, a candidate who was dropped without a call tells peers. Set a rule: every shortlisted candidate hears from the firm at each stage, including a short call when the answer is no. Keep a note of the call. The performance management page shows how to review this habit as part of regular feedback.

• Retainer and success fee: the two payments that shape a consultant's year.
• Market map: the sheet of companies and people in a target sector.
• Long list, short list, slate: the stages a search passes through.
• Reference call: a discreet conversation with a former boss.
• Search report: the document a client reads, which should carry the researcher's name.

Partners are owners and employees at once, and they rarely have HR systems applied to them. Yet a partner's departure is the largest single risk. Agree, early and in writing, how client relationships are shared, how a partner's exit is handled, and how the next partner is chosen. Hold an annual conversation about each partner's plans, with someone outside the partnership. Avoid learning about a plan to leave from a client call.

Executive assistants and engagement administrators also matter. They keep diaries, travel plans and meeting notes, and they see every confidential name. Give them a clear role, discretion rules and a path of their own, such as engagement manager, so that the person who knows the firm best does not leave in silence.

Put three dates in the diary for each new consultant or researcher: the end of the first quarter, the half year and the first anniversary. At each, sit with them for half an hour and ask what the firm has taught them, what they have taught themselves and what they still cannot do. Note the answers in the same file as the checklist. Over a few years, the notes become the firm's real training manual.

A full policy manual, a complex bonus pool and a large HR system can wait. Begin with the path, the assessment standard, research credit, the confidentiality habit, pay across the cycle and candidate care. When these hold, add the rest. Tell us about the partners and desks via the requirements wizard and we can help with the first set-up.