The challenges facing the HR Director

Yes. We recruit the HR Director and their inner circle. Employee relations directors, talent management leads, senior HR business partners. The level of demand stays the same, because these roles carry the same stakes at their own scale. Employee relations functions commit the industrial peace of the company just as the HR Director does, and sometimes its reputation. We work for listed groups, mid-caps and the portfolio companies of investment funds, with the same process at every level. In-depth interviews, personality assessments debriefed in full, cross-checked references taken from executives who have seen the candidate at work. The shortlist gives you our reading of each profile, their strengths, their points of watchfulness and the conditions for their success in your organisation. It is on that file that the decision is taken.

Along the lines of specialist executive search. A fixed fee or a percentage of the annual remuneration for the role, invoiced in three instalments (at launch, on presentation of the shortlist, on signature). Fees are set out in writing before the mandate, with no hidden extras. The in-depth assessment, the personality tests, the cross-checked references and the integration follow-up are all included. Transparency applies to the rules, confidentiality to the amounts. A failed hire on an HR function costs a great deal more. A weakened social dialogue, a team without a pilot, the fresh start. Our fees are measured against what they prevent. The detail of our rules, guarantee and off-limits included, is set down in black and white on our method page.

Six months of replacement guarantee, written into every mandate. If the candidate recruited leaves the role during that period, we take the assignment back on with no new fees. The conditions, including termination at the employer's initiative, appear in black and white in the mandate, with no grey areas. In sixteen years, that clause has been invoked only twice, in both cases for personal reasons on the candidate's side, never for an error of judgement. That solidity owes nothing to chance. It rests on the initial scoping, the in-depth assessment and the cross-checked references that precede every presentation, then on the integration follow-up that continues for a year after signature. The guarantee protects your decision. Our method makes sure it almost never has to.