Headhunting

A Headhunting mandate ends with one recommendation and what it would take to close that person, with a profile of them from the consultant who interviewed them, for the decision and the integration. Before it, you receive a definition of the role measured against your own numbers, and the reason a previous appointment did not hold where there was one. Then a map of the market for the role: the executives on it who are not applying are approached directly and in confidence, every candidate is read on the same scale against the criteria the role was defined by, the shortlist carries the evidence behind each name, the case against as well as the case for, and the finalists' references are checked. The market map stays with you for the next senior decision.

In Headhunting, the search is run against what the role has to be worth to the business, not against a job description. That value, and what the role must deliver to earn it, is measured against your own numbers. The decision is held to the same measure when someone asks, a year later, whether the hire worked, so "did it work?" has an answer.

One consultant takes a Headhunting mandate and stays with you until the contract is signed. You are not handed to an account manager. The same consultant answers for the shortlist and for every judgment in it, so there is one person to question about any name on the list.

They are approached directly, and in confidence. The candidates worth a senior mandate are usually doing the job well somewhere else, and no advertisement will reach them. Once on the list, they are held to the same evidence as everyone else: seniority does not buy a shorter interview, and every candidate is read on the same scale, so the comparison is between people and not between interviewers.

A wrong hire at this level is paid for twice. The first bill is visible: the months the seat stood empty, the fee, the severance. The second rarely reaches a report: the decisions not taken, the people who left because of the wrong hire, and the year the market moved while the role was being learned. A Headhunting mandate starts from what the role must deliver and what it is worth to the business, and, where a previous appointment did not hold, from the reason why.