A hiring brief arrives in the inbox: a VP role at a pharmaceutical company in Germany.
So, what do most recruiters do? They jump on a teams call with the client.
The obvious ground gets covered. Previous experience, qualifications, the basics anyone would ask. What’s missing is the deeper territory: skills beyond the CV, motivators, family life, career aspirations, how much autonomy they want.
There’s no structure to the conversation; it drifts wherever the next idea or piece of information happens to take it.
After a 45-minute conversation the recruiter starts searching with what they think is a thorough understanding of the role.
On the client side, then the waiting starts. At senior level, the industry average is 6 to 9 months. We’re faster than most with an average of 3.5 months and we don’t cut the process to get there.
Before we search, we scope properly. This first stage of our 6S Search Process isn’t a formality, it’s where we decide whether this is a search worth running at all.
We take real pride in how we scope a new role, so it’s worth walking through what makes the process so meticulous.
The problem isn't the search. It's what happens before it.
Hires don’t fail because of a shortage of candidates. They fail because of a misalignment nobody caught early enough.
The brief was vague. Stakeholders had different ideas about what they needed and nobody said so out loud. Compensation expectations were never properly tested, the hiring manager wanted one thing and HR briefed something else.
By the time the mis-hire is obvious, it’s too late. The recruiter has been paid. The guarantee has run out. You’re back to square one with a team that’s lost confidence in the process. Sound familiar?
That’s not a sourcing problem; it’s a scoping problem and it’s entirely avoidable. Many mis-hires we’ve been brought in to fix trace back to this same root cause, not a shortage of good candidates, but a brief nobody properly aligned on.
Stage one: Scoping
The first stage of our tried and tested 6S Process is Scoping. It’s the part of executive recruitment most firms treat as a formality. It isn’t.
We meet with all key stakeholders. Not just HR. Not just the hiring manager. Everyone whose opinion will shape the final decision. We want to understand the role in context: what the team looks like, what’s changed, what success looks like at six months and at 12 and what’s been tried before.
We ask the questions that make some clients uncomfortable and we challenge the brief when it needs challenging: on scope, on salary, on whether decision-makers actually agree. We’ll walk through exactly what those questions look like later in this piece.
Stage two: Scorecarding
Once we understand the role, we build the Candidate Fit Scorecard.
The Candidate Fit Scorecard is not a list of requirements. It’s a weighted framework. We separate what’s essential from what’s desirable. What must be proven from what can be developed. What’s a dealbreaker from what’s negotiable. Every criterion is rated, agreed and signed off by the people who will actually make the hiring decision.
Without this, the goalposts move. An interviewer who meets a strong candidate quietly raises the bar. Decisions drift and gut feel fills the gap.
The SHRM 2025 Recruiting Benchmarking Report found that only 20% of organisations track quality of hire. Most are hiring blind. The Candidate Fit Scorecard is how we change that.
It’s the same standard, applied consistently, regardless of who’s in the room. And it’s part of why 97% of our clients hire from the first shortlist we deliver. They’ve already agreed what great looks like, we’ve just gone and found it.
Stage Three: Sourcing
The best candidates aren’t job hunting, so we don’t wait for them to apply. We map the market, research the sector and role in depth alongside using a range of recruitment technology to build a shortlist. We have a global team of Talent Partners whose sole focus is finding the perfect fit.
Stage Four: Selecting
Every candidate is assessed against the scorecard and only those who genuinely meet the bar make the shortlist, typically 3 to 5, not 20. For each candidate, we give clients the full picture, strengths, weaknesses, scorecard performance, then let them make the call.
Stage Five: Securing
An offer isn’t the finish line, it’s the moment searches can fall apart if not handled correctly. We manage compensation, counter-offer risk and notice periods in advance, so the candidate you want says yes and means it.
Stage Six: Satisfying
The search doesn’t end when the contract is signed. We stay engaged through the first 90 days with monthly check-ins, because that’s when most new hires either take root or quietly start looking elsewhere. Both client and candidate are supported at every step, not just left to find their feet.
The questions we ask that others won't
A conventional scoping call lasts 45 minutes. Ours don’t have a fixed end point, because a search built on a shallow brief produces volume, while one built on a deep brief produces the right shortlist. The depth of our understanding at the outset is what makes every stage that follows faster and more precise.
Some questions seem simple: what caused the vacancy? Has this role been redefined or is it like-for-like? What does the person in this seat need to navigate in their first 90 days that won’t appear on any job description? What’s gone wrong with similar hires before and what does this team actually need from their next leader?
Others are more direct: are all decision-makers in the room and aligned on what they’re looking for, because if they’re not, we need to know now rather than at offer stage? Is the salary on the job description what you’d actually pay the right candidate and does the scope hold up against what the market will accept? What’s the most likely reason this hire doesn’t work out and what do we need to get right to prevent it?
These aren’t uncomfortable questions, they’re necessary ones. Most recruiters won’t ask them; we think not asking is the bigger risk. And they’re the reason our clients tell us we understood the role better than they expected.
What this looks like in practice
The output of a proper scoping process is a search that runs without surprises.
The shortlist reflects the brief exactly because the brief was built with real depth. The Candidate Fit Scorecard gives every interviewer the same framework. Nobody is working off different criteria or gut feel.
The result: 97% right-hire, first-time. A 95% offer acceptance rate. Guarantees of 12 to 18 months. Competitors offer three to six months. We offer four times that.
That’s not a marketing claim. It’s a business model. We can only offer those guarantees because we do the work upfront that makes them possible.
Start with the right conversation
A search that starts well delivers well. This matters most in senior leadership hiring, where a mis-hire costs more, takes longer to fix and does more damage to the team around it.
Harder questions at the outset. Assumptions challenged before they become expensive. A picture of the role that goes far beyond any job description. That’s what our scoping does. And it’s why the hires we make aren’t just filled, they’re right.
If you’re preparing to hire for a business-critical role, speak to our team. The first conversation is where everything starts.
