Insights
A clearer perspective on leadership.
Ideas and practical questions for Boards, CEOs and People leaders making important talent decisions.
Talent advisory
Do you actually need to replace the person who's leaving?
Before you start a search, work out whether the vacancy still makes sense.
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Internal promotion or external hire: how should you decide?
A practical way to compare internal successors with the external market.
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What is an executive team review, and when should you do one?
An executive team review tests whether roles, accountabilities and capability still fit what the organisation needs next.
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How do you benchmark an executive team against the external market?
Benchmark roles, people, reward and available external capability, not just job titles.
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- What is external talent benchmarking?External talent benchmarking compares your internal talent or role requirements with credible people in the outside market before you commit to a search.
- How do you assess an internal candidate for an executive role?Assess internal candidates against the future role and the external market, not against how well they do their current job.
- The client thought they needed a search. They didn't.Why the most useful answer from a search firm can sometimes be: don't search.
- How much does executive search cost in the UK?Executive search is commonly priced as a retained fee, a percentage of remuneration or a fixed project fee. The important comparison is what is included and what outcome is being bought.
- Executive search fees: why are they still based on salary?The work involved in a search isn't neatly proportional to the candidate's salary. That's why re:find prefers fixed project fees.
- How long should an executive search take?For many UK executive searches, a credible assessed shortlist should be achievable in around four to six weeks, although unusually narrow, international or confidential assignments can take longer.
- How to choose an executive search firmChoose the firm and people who understand the decision, can reach the relevant market and will personally do the work, not simply the best-known logo.
- When shouldn't you use an executive search firm?Don't commission a full search when the role is unclear, a credible internal successor hasn't been tested, or the market can be reached effectively through a simpler process.
- What is Executive Search as a Service (ESaaS)?Executive Search as a Service is an annual executive talent partnership combining search capacity, market intelligence, talent mapping and advisory support for a recurring fee.
- Executive Search as a Service vs traditional executive searchTraditional executive search buys one assignment. ESaaS creates an ongoing executive talent relationship covering search plus intelligence and advisory.
- How many executive hires justify an annual search partnership?There is no magic number, but recurring senior hiring of roughly three to five searches a year is a sensible point to compare an annual partnership with buying each search separately.
- What is a succession review, and what should it produce?A succession review tests named internal candidates against a defined future role and the external market, and ends in a written decision, not a talent grid.
- How to run an executive team review in six weeksAn executive team review can be done in six weeks if the question is defined at the start and the Board agrees what evidence would settle it.
- Executive reward benchmarking: how to do it without a survey subscriptionA useful executive reward benchmark compares a specific role against ten to fifteen named comparators, not against a survey median for a job title.
- When a CEO changes, which roles should be reviewed first?After a CEO change, review the roles that report directly to the CEO and own the plan's biggest risks, usually finance, people and the largest operating unit, within the first hundred days.
- Psychometrics in executive assessment: what they tell you and what they don'tPsychometrics add evidence about how a leader is likely to behave under pressure. They do not tell you whether the person can do the job, and they should never be the deciding factor.
- How to assess a leadership team before an acquisitionLeadership due diligence maps the target's key people and functions before completion, so the acquirer knows who it is buying, who it must keep and where the gaps are.
- Board questions to ask before approving a senior hireBefore approving a senior appointment, a Board should ask whether the role has been defined for the future, whether internal options were tested, how the shortlist was built and what the package assumes.
- The internal candidate who isn't ready: what to doWhen an internal candidate is close but not ready, the options are to appoint with support, to bridge with an interim or external appointment for a fixed period, or to search; the choice depends on how big the gap is and how long the organisation can wait.
- Organisation design before recruitment: the three questionsBefore recruiting into a senior structure, settle three questions: what the structure has to deliver, where the decisions sit, and what each role needs in a person. Recruiting first and designing later costs at least one search fee.
- How to scope an annual search partnershipAn annual search partnership is scoped around the searches you can see coming, the ones you suspect, the advisory support you want between them, and a review rhythm. It is written down before the fee is set.
- What market intelligence should a search partner give you between searches?Between searches, a search partner should tell you who is moving in your market, what senior roles are paying, what competitors are building and who is likely to be approachable when your next role opens.
- Measuring a search partnership: the four numbers that matterJudge an annual search partnership on time to shortlist, completion rate, retention at twelve months and total cost against buying the same searches separately.
- Employer brand for a newly formed business: what senior candidates actually askSenior candidates considering a newly formed business ask about the plan, the funding, the parent's commitment, who they will report to and what happens if it fails. A candidate pack that answers those honestly does more than any employer brand campaign.
- Succession insight as a service: keeping the internal picture currentSuccession insight within an annual partnership means the internal candidates for the most likely vacancies are assessed against the market on a rolling basis, so the answer is already known when a role opens.
- When to end an annual search partnership, and when not to start oneDo not start an annual search partnership below three senior searches a year, and end one when the hiring pattern changes, the relationship stops being candid, or the numbers no longer beat buying searches separately.
- What a good executive search brief containsA good search brief defines the outcomes the role owns, the decisions it makes, the evidence of success at twelve months, the package and the process. It is written with the search firm, not handed to it.
- Confidential searches: how they work and when you need oneA confidential search keeps the client's identity, and sometimes the role's existence, from the market until a candidate has been assessed and has signed a non-disclosure agreement.
- Why senior searches stall at offer, and how to prevent itSenior searches stall at offer because the package was not benchmarked, the process lost pace after final interview, or nobody tested the candidate's real position before the number went out.
- How many candidates should a shortlist have?For a UK director-level search, a shortlist of four to five fully assessed candidates gives a real choice without wasting the panel's time; more than six usually means the assessment was not done.
- Retained versus contingent search for senior rolesRetained search pays for the process and the firm's full attention; contingent recruitment pays only on placement and gets the attention left over. For director-level roles, retained is nearly always the better buy.
- What to ask an executive search firm before you signAsk who will do the work, how the market will be mapped, what the shortlist will have been through, what the fee covers and what happens if the appointment fails.
- First-ever roles: how to search for a job nobody has done in your sectorA first-of-a-kind role needs a brief written by people who have seen the role work elsewhere, a market map that crosses sectors, and a panel that assesses against outcomes rather than sector experience.
- How to use a search firm's market map after the searchThe market map from a completed search is a live asset: use it for succession planning, for the next role in the same function, and for a reward benchmark, before it goes stale in about eighteen months.
- What does a replacement guarantee actually cover?A replacement guarantee commits the search firm to run one further search at no professional fee if the appointed candidate leaves within a set period, subject to conditions that vary widely between firms.
- Executive search in the public sector through CCS RM6229Public bodies can engage re:find for senior appointments through the Crown Commercial Service RM6229 Permanent Recruitment 2 framework, Lot 2, without running a separate tender.
From the archive
183 articles from the previous re:find site.
Kept at their original addresses. Written for HR, change and search audiences between 2016 and 2026.
- 5 Reasons the Market Isn’t to Blame for Your Slow Senior SearchCareer and leadership