An executive search firm is retained to find senior leaders, and its product is discretion plus judgement. A small team of consultants and researchers carries long mandates, uneven income and clients who trust people, not brands.
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Share your requirementsAn executive search firm is hired by a company to find a chief executive, a plant head or a finance director, and is paid in stages, often with the largest part at placement. A partner owns the client, a consultant runs the search, and researchers map companies, build long lists and make first calls. Mandates run for months, a single search may fail at the last stage, and income swings from month to month. Everything is confidential, from the client's plan to the candidate's interest. The professional services hub and the recruitment agencies hub place the sector in context.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
A search that runs half a year may end without a placement, and consultants carrying such mandates worry about their own pay.
Researchers do the mapping and first calls but see little credit, and the best of them leave to become consultants elsewhere.
A senior partner leaving can take a long-standing client, and the firm has no way of showing that the relationship is also held by others.
A list of candidates, a client name or a salary sits in a mail thread or on a phone, and a single slip can end a relationship.
A candidate who was dropped without a call tells peers, and the firm's name suffers in a small market of senior people.
How a consultant weighs a candidate lives in their head, so a new consultant cannot learn the firm's standard.
A consultant who runs three hard searches that fail earns less than one who landed an easy one, and morale drops.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Career and Succession Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a executive search firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Researcher, associate, consultant and partner, with what each does alone and what moves a person up.
What this coversHideResearcher, associate, consultant and partner, with what each does alone and what moves a person up. See role design.
A short guide on what the firm looks for, how interviews are recorded and how notes are written, so judgement can be taught.
What this coversHideA short guide on what the firm looks for, how interviews are recorded and how notes are written, so judgement can be taught.
Shared credit for the researchers who found the placed candidate, and a clear route from researcher to consultant.
What this coversHideShared credit for the researchers who found the placed candidate, and a clear route from researcher to consultant.
A written habit on where search material lives, who may hold it and what is deleted at the close of a search.
What this coversHideA written habit on where search material lives, who may hold it and what is deleted at the close of a search.
A mix of base pay and share in placements that does not leave consultants anxious during a long search.
What this coversHideA mix of base pay and share in placements that does not leave consultants anxious during a long search. Compensation and rewards covers the choices.
Every candidate told where they stand at each stage, with a short call, even if the answer is no.
What this coversHideEvery candidate told where they stand at each stage, with a short call, even if the answer is no.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Skill levels for researchers, associates and consultants, and a visible route up.
A pay mix that steadies income through long searches and still rewards placements.
Confidentiality notes, role papers and search handover records in one tidy place.
Reviews that count search quality, candidate care and mentoring, not only placements.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
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A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
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A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Share credit when a researcher's candidate is placed, give them a visible route to consultant and review their work as well as their volume. The unseen worker should not stay unseen.
Pay a steady base, add a share on placements and consider a small payment at search milestones. A consultant worried about rent makes poor judgement calls with candidates.
A written rule on where material lives, who may hold it and what is deleted when a search closes. Teach it at joining and repeat it each year.
Name a second contact, bring them to meetings and keep search records in the firm's own system. Agree notice and handover terms with partners in writing at the start.
Senior people stay in a small market for decades, and a candidate treated well may become a client or a source. A short, honest call after each stage costs little.
We would ask how many searches are open, who was credited in the last three placements and where confidential files are kept. A researcher-to-consultant path with a steady pay mix is a natural start, and scope is agreed in writing for your sign-off.
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