Search Consultancy for Senior and Specialist Appointments
Alliance runs retained, research-led search for roles that cannot be filled from an applicant pool: senior leadership, scarce technical disciplines and confidential replacements. One named consultant per mandate, across 36+ countries. Permanent appointments only.
We identify the right talent for your specific vacancy, including passive candidates who are not applying elsewhere. You get a targeted shortlist aligned to your business, role requirements, and leadership needs.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
What Is a Search Consultancy?
A search consultancy runs retained, research-led recruitment: it maps a market, approaches people who are not looking, assesses them against a written brief, and manages the process to offer. The engagement is paid to run a defined process rather than to win a race against other agencies.
The distinction from a recruitment agency is what gets bought. An agency is paid per placement and measured on whether it produced a candidate. A search consultancy is paid to produce a market map, a considered shortlist and an honest account of who declined.
The model earns its fee in three situations and almost nowhere else: when the strongest candidates are employed and not applying, when the search must stay confidential, or when nobody internally can reliably assess the candidates.
Outside those three, contingent recruitment usually costs less and works fine, and we would rather say so than take a retainer.
All Alliance appointments are permanent. We do not provide interim, fractional, or contract resources.
For the main practice, see our executive search firms page.
Retained Search, Priced Below the Global Firms
Retained search consultancy at the top of the market is structured for Fortune 100 mandates and priced accordingly. Below that tier, most employers are asked to choose between a disproportionate retainer and a contingency process that is not really a process. Alliance runs the retained method at fee levels calibrated to the business doing the hiring.
How Long Does a Retained Search Take?
Brief and market mapping: weeks 1 to 2.
Confidential approach and assessment: weeks 2 to 5.
Shortlist: weeks 5 to 6.
Client interviews: weeks 6 to 8.
Offer and notice: weeks 8 to 10. Six to twelve weeks to offer is realistic.
How Much Does a Search Consultancy Cost?
Retained search is a percentage of first-year total compensation, billed across engagement, shortlist, and placement milestones.
Ask any firm three things before signing: the percentage, the milestone split, and what happens to the retainer if the search is abandoned. A firm that will not answer the third in writing is telling you something.
What a Retained Engagement Includes
A named consultant on the contract
If the person who pitched is not the person running it, better to know before signing than in week four.
A written brief agreed before searching
Not a job description. The specific gap, the decisions this appointment owns, and what would make an otherwise strong candidate wrong for you.
The market map delivered as a document you keep
Who exists at this level, where they sit, what they cost. You paid for it. Most firms treat it as their asset.
The decline rate reported honestly
Roughly one in ten approached candidates engage. A shortlist presented without telling you how many said no is a filtered view of your own market.
Assessment naming weaknesses
A shortlist where everyone is excellent has not been assessed.
A replacement guarantee
with abandonment terms stated in writing.
How a Retained Search Runs
Brief and Scope (Week 1)
Business context, the specific gap, and the compensation band. We agree on what you will pay before searching, because a brief that does not survive contact with the market costs everyone six weeks.
Market Mapping (Weeks 1 to 2)
Systematic identification of everyone operating at this level in your sector and geography. Delivered as a document, yours to keep.
Approach and Assessment (Weeks 2 to 5)
Direct, discreet approach to mapped candidates. Structured assessment against the agreed criteria. We report how many declined, not only who accepted.
Shortlist and Interviews (Weeks 5 to 8)
Three to five candidates with written assessment against each criterion. Scheduling and feedback managed. The largest avoidable cause of lost senior candidates is a slow client-side feedback loop, and we will chase you about it.
Offer, Counter-Offer and Start (Weeks 8 to 10)
Compensation structuring, counter-offer management, and notice navigation. Counter-offer risk is managed from the assessment stage, not from offer day.
Appointment and Post-Placement Follow-Up (Weeks 10 to 12)
We confirm the executive’s joining, stay involved through the transition period and follow up with both parties to ensure the appointment settles as planned.
Not Sure Which Search Model You Need?
Not sure whether your role needs retained search or a contingent agency? Book thirty minutes. We will tell you which, including when the answer is not us.
Where Retained Search Applies
Senior leadership and C-suite
CEO, CFO, CTO, CIO, COO, CHRO and board appointments. See our executive search consultants practice.
Confidential replacements
Where the incumbent is still in post and the search cannot be visible.
Scarce technical disciplines
Where perhaps twenty people in the market can genuinely do the work and none of them are applying for jobs.
Country manager and market-entry roles
Assessed in the destination market rather than remotely.
First-of-a-kind appointments
A first CISO, a first clinical lead, a first structural engineer, where nobody internally can assess the candidates.
Post-failure searches
Where the last appointment left within a year and the requirement is now assessment quality rather than speed.
Sectors
Technology, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing and engineering, banking and financial services, energy, construction, hospitality, and private equity portfolio companies.
Transformation and growth appointments
Roles created to lead a major restructuring, acquisition integration, international expansion or business transformation where leadership capability must match a specific strategic mandate.
Markets
India, the Gulf, Southeast Asia, Europe, the UK, North America and Africa across 36+ countries.
Who We Serve
Employers running their first retained search
comparing proposals and unsure which differences actually matter.
Boards replacing an incumbent still in post
where confidentiality is the binding constraint.
Private equity and venture-backed portfolio companies
hiring against investor timelines where a twelve-week search is already late.
Companies who used a search firm and were disappointed
usually sold by a partner and delivered by a researcher, now wanting the named-consultant question answered in writing.
Businesses with a scarce-skill requirement
where the constraint is not sourcing volume but knowing which handful of people can actually do it.
HR and talent leaders building a supplier list
needing selection criteria they can defend internally rather than a vendor pitch.
The Alliance Advantage
A named consultant on the contract, with placement history available on request.
Retained method at mid-market fee levels. The same discipline the global firms run, priced for businesses that are not Fortune 100.
You keep the market map, whatever the outcome.
The decline rate reported. How many were approached, how many engaged, how many refused and why.
Confidential by default. Blind profiles, NDA-gated outreach, discreet communication.
Abandonment terms stated in writing before you sign.
36+ countries with in-market assessment where we have teams, and honesty about where we do not.
Permanent appointments only. No interim, no fractional, no contract resource.
We will tell you when retained search is the wrong instrument, which for most roles below director level it is.
When Retained Search Is Right, and When It Is Not
Retained search is over-sold. Most roles do not need it. A contingent agency working a live market will fill a mid-level position faster and cheaper, and any consultancy telling you otherwise is describing its own commercial interest rather than your requirement.
Retained earns its fee in a narrow set of cases: the candidates are employed and not applying, the search must be confidential, or nobody on your side can reliably separate a strong candidate from a plausible one. Outside those, use an agency.
We apply that test on the first call, and we decline mandates on it. It costs us fees, and it is the reason clients come back with the searches that genuinely need us.
We are also wrong for you in two other situations. If you are appointing a FTSE 100 or Fortune 100 chair, the largest global firms have board networks we do not. And if you need interim or fractional leadership, we do not provide it at all.
For firm-level comparison, see executive search companies. For the full range of Alliance services, see our services overview.
Our Client Reviews
We had a senior role that required a very specific mix of industry experience and leadership ability. Alliance did more than send CVs—they mapped the market and approached candidates we would not have reached ourselves. The shortlist was focused, and we appointed someone who has been a strong fit for the business.
The appointment was highly confidential, so we needed a search partner we could trust to handle the process discreetly. Alliance kept communication clear throughout and introduced experienced passive candidates rather than relying on active applicants. We were able to make the appointment without unnecessary exposure.
Our previous recruitment efforts produced plenty of applications but very few people at the level we needed. Alliance took a much more targeted approach, challenged our brief where necessary and gave us an honest view of the available talent market. That made the final hiring decision considerably easier.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
A search consultancy runs retained, research-led recruitment: it maps a market, approaches people who are not actively looking, assesses them against a written brief, and manages the process to offer.
An agency is paid per placement and measured on whether it produced a candidate. A search consultancy is paid to run a defined process, and delivers a market map, a considered shortlist and an account of who declined.
In three situations: the strongest candidates are employed and not applying, the search must stay confidential, or nobody internally can reliably assess the candidates. Outside those, contingent recruitment usually costs less and works fine.
Six to twelve weeks to offer. Mapping takes 1 to 2 weeks, approach and assessment 2 to 5 weeks, interviews 6 to 8 weeks, and offer and notice 8 to 10 weeks.
A percentage of first-year total compensation, billed across engagement, shortlist and placement milestones. Ask any firm for the percentage, the milestone split, and what happens to the retainer if the search is abandoned.
The named consultant and their placement history, the milestone and abandonment terms, the replacement guarantee period, whether the market map is yours to keep, and how the decline rate will be reported.
With Alliance, yes. It is delivered as a document and is yours regardless of outcome. Many firms retain it. Ask.
Yes. Blind candidate profiles, NDA-gated outreach and discreet client communication, which matters most when replacing an incumbent still in post.
Senior leadership and C-suite, confidential replacements, scarce technical disciplines, country manager and market-entry roles, and first-of-a-kind appointments.
No. Alliance places permanent appointments only.
36+ countries including India, the Gulf, South East Asia, Europe, the UK, North America and Africa.
Book a thirty-minute scoping call. We will tell you whether retained search is the right instrument before quoting.
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