How Do I Find A Reputable Recruiter?

Finding a reputable executive search recruiter can be the difference between seeing a strong ROI on your hiring investment and experiencing frustrating hiring expenses, painful time-to-fill, and lackluster placements that fail to move the needle. 

But how can organizations separate the big talkers from the high-performers? 

What Are The Benefits Of Hiring A Recruiter?

Hiring a recruiter comes with a host of benefits. 

As talent acquisition specialists, external recruiting firms are equipped with the specialized experience, skill sets, and tools to generate high-impact, cost-effective placements. 

Organizations also save money and avoid costly morale slumps by outsourcing their hiring needs. Studies show the vast majority of expenses and stress surrounding corporate vacancies are due to the soft costs and stress caused by forcing remaining team members to juggle recruiting activities, the vacant role’s responsibilities, and their own day-to-day tasks. 

What Is The Average Cost Of Job Recruiters? 

Recruiters typically base their fees on the first-year salary offered for the position they’re filling. 

Generalist recruiters specializing in entry-level, intermediate, mid-management, and block recruiting typically charge 15-20% of their placements’ first-year salaries. Assuming an average U.S. worker’s salary of $55,000/year, partnering with a generalist recruiter would cost between $8,250 and $11,000.

Executive recruiters charge a slightly higher rate – between 25-35% of their contracted vacancies’ first-year salary – for every placement. 

The enhanced difficulty associated with identifying, engaging, evaluating, and onboarding world-class executives and specialists often requires more significant time, effort, and resource investment on the part of your executive recruiting partner, which is reflected in their fees.

Assuming an average executive salary of $150,000, partnering with a reputable executive recruitment firm would cost between $37,500 and $52,500. 

How Effective Are Executive Recruiters In Finding Jobs? 

The best executive recruiting firms are talent acquisition powerhouses. Their deep networks, and hard-earned influence position them to save their partners time, money, and headaches throughout every step of the executive or specialist hiring process. 

A reputable, trustworthy executive search firm will maintain a successful placement rate north of 90%. 

This may seem like a high bar, but the undeniable impact of executive recruiting agencies’ work demands the highest professional standards. Executive search firms that can’t regularly and reliably generate placements that delight their candidates and clients represent risky investments, particularly during the ever-heightening War for Talent. 

Another crucial metric to discuss when considering recruitment partners is their familiarity and success working in your industry. While many generalist recruiters niche down to a single industry to streamline their recruitment processes, reputable executive search firms have connections across industries.

How To Identify A Fake Recruitment Agency? 

Like all professions, executive search has its fair share of ineffective and inefficient companies. Spotting these companies early on in the executive search partner interview process will allow you to save your organization tens of thousands of dollars and avoid the expensive process of onboarding an executive hire that represents a poor performance, leadership, or cultural fit.

Fortunately, savvy companies can separate the wheat from the chaff fairly simply by setting up a systemic, strategic executive search interview process. We recommend asking every potential executive search partner questions about their performance, like:

• What is your successful placement rate?
• How many diverse candidates have you placed in the last year?
• What is your average Time-to-Fill?
• How does your firm measure placement success?
• How many clients are you currently partnered with?

We also recommend asking questions about their experience and specializations, like:

• How many years have you been in business?
• Which industries have you worked in?
• And do you have experience recruiting non-executive specialists, like PhD researchers or industry-leading AI developers?

And lastly, we recommend asking questions about their process, like:

• How do you gain an understanding of my organization’s unique needs?
• How do you source candidates?
• How do you evaluate candidates for performance, leadership, and cultural fit?
• How do you ensure an inclusive and equitable candidate search process?
• How do you present your finalist candidates?
• How do you communicate with non-finalists?
• Do you provide post-hire support to ensure your placement’s success?

Can A Recruiter Be Used To Find A Remote Job? 

Remote work is on the rise, and valuable executive search partners have adjusted their search strategies to adjust to the new business landscape. 

Reputable executive search firms are ideally positioned to fill remote jobs, thanks to their global network of innovative and motivated executives. By removing geographic limitations created by in-office work, your executive search partner will be free to scour the globe for the absolute best professional for your vacancy, company, and goals. 

How Medallion Partners Can Help You Fill an Executive Vacancy 

For over 15 years, Medallion Partners has been helping organizations find the perfect executives and specialists for hard-to-fill vacancies. With 98 percent of our placements still in their roles after two years, our work speaks for itself. We don’t just look at a candidate’s work experience. We also look at cultural fit and the candidate’s background, making sure that they will fit into your organization’s flow and culture for the long term. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about how we can help you fill your executive vacancy. 

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