How to choose an executive search firm
A practical guide for CEOs, CHROs and boards.
The choice of an executive search firm rests on five considerations: the adviser leading the work, comparable experience, access to candidates, assessment quality and clear commercial terms. Together, these give CEOs, CHROs and boards a useful basis for comparing firms, including Menity.
When do you need retained executive search?
Retained search is worth considering when an appointment requires systematic market coverage, confidential approaches and detailed assessment. CEO succession, sensitive C-level replacements and roles requiring scarce sector or regulatory experience are examples.
In a retained assignment, the client pays for an agreed process, usually exclusively. In contingent recruitment, payment depends on a hire. Both can involve approaching people who are not looking for a job. The distinction is the commercial commitment; neither payment model alone proves quality.
The agreed scope makes clear what work the firm is committed to completing. For recurring roles with a broad candidate pool, another recruitment model may be more appropriate.
Who will lead your search, and what have they delivered?
The person leading the assignment is as important as the firm’s credentials. An early conversation with that adviser can reveal how they understand the role, assess candidates and form a recommendation. Research support is valuable; accountability for the advice needs to remain clear.
Relevant experience means more than having filled the same title. Replacing a founder, integrating an acquisition and leading a regulated business create different demands. Comparable assignments and client references, where available, help establish how the adviser has handled those demands.
Track record figures are useful when their basis is clear. A mandate is an assignment to conduct a search; an appointment is the hiring outcome. Reported totals may count assignments, accepted offers or candidates who have started, and may describe either the firm or the individual adviser.
Which candidates can the firm actually approach?
Off-limits commitments restrict whom a firm can approach, often because of client relationships or previous placements. Their effect on a particular search depends on which organisations or executives are excluded, for how long, and whether restrictions apply across the firm or only particular offices.
Experience in a sector and access to its executives are separate considerations. A firm may understand the market well while being unable to approach some of its most relevant candidates.
Competing assignments and other client or candidate relationships can also create conflicts. Offering several services is not automatically a conflict; what matters is how overlapping obligations are disclosed and resolved. Neither a global brand nor a boutique structure guarantees unrestricted access.
How will the firm assess candidates?
Assessment should explain why someone could succeed in your mandate, the evidence behind that judgement and what remains uncertain.
Assessment begins with a clear description of what the new leader is expected to achieve and what authority they will have. Interviews and agreed references can then examine the candidate’s personal contribution to previous results, the decisions they made and the circumstances in which they worked.
A blank or appropriately anonymised assessment report can show how the firm documents strengths, limitations and unresolved questions. Where an internal successor is considered alongside external candidates, consistent criteria make the comparison more meaningful.
In a Menity CTO search for a European aviation operator, we screened regulatory eligibility before presenting the shortlist. Requirements that could prevent an appointment belong early in the process.
What should the proposal make clear?
A clear proposal identifies the responsible adviser, scope, deliverables, timetable and reporting arrangements. The AESC Client Bill of Rights provides a useful reference for these expectations.
Reporting arrangements are most useful when they specify when market feedback will be available and how changes to the brief, compensation or timetable will be addressed. For a confidential replacement, clarity also extends to who may know about the search and when the employer’s identity can be disclosed.
Fee proposals become comparable when the calculation basis and scope are clear. The same percentage can produce a different cost depending on whether it applies to base salary or a broader compensation package. A complete comparison also accounts for included services, expenses, payment dates and the terms that apply if the assignment is paused, changed or cancelled.
The value of a replacement commitment depends on its scope as well as its duration, including exclusions and any additional costs. A commitment to conduct another search is different from a refund. Support after the executive joins is a separate consideration and is best defined alongside these terms.
Questions to ask at the first meeting
Why is your proposed approach right for this appointment?
Who will personally lead the work, and what comparable searches have they delivered?
Which parts of the candidate market are off-limits?
What evidence and risks will accompany each shortlisted candidate?
How will you report progress and address problems?
What does the fee cover, and what happens if the search changes or the appointment ends early?
Clear answers, supported by relevant examples, help establish what a firm can deliver. They give CEOs, CHROs and boards a basis for judging both its access to suitable candidates and the quality of advice they can expect throughout the appointment.
Menity works exclusively on a retained basis. Our approach to partner involvement, fees, timelines and replacement terms is explained in Fees, Timelines & FAQs.
About the Author
Vladimír Janík is Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Menity. He has worked in retained executive search since 2007, following a corporate HR career that included serving as HR Director during the HVB Bank–UniCredit integration. He advises on CEO, Board and C-level appointments across CEE, including regulated leadership roles.
Further Reading
About Menity. Menity is a partner-led retained executive search and CEO & Board Advisory firm founded in 2007, working across CEE with selected mandates in DACH and the UK.
