For employers
A wrong hire at manager level typically costs several months of salary before anyone admits it was wrong. Most of that cost is avoidable, and it is avoided at the shortlist rather than at the interview. Four ways we hire, depending on what you need:
- Search. Senior and leadership hires, found rather than advertised.
- Flow. Bulk and permanent hiring when you need numbers, fast.
- Campus. Hiring straight from colleges through our institution partnerships. RecruitXcel is the main programme.
- Verify. Background checks, so you find out before joining rather than after.
What it costs
Standard recruitment runs at 8.33% of annual package. On our Operate package and above it drops to 6%, with cheaper background checks, because the hiring sits inside a retainer we are already running. We will tell you which way round is cheaper for you.
How a mandate actually runs
- We agree the role properly. Not a copied job description — what the person has to deliver in the first six months, and what you will pay for it.
- We source and screen. You see a shortlist with notes, not a stack of forwarded CVs.
- You interview. We brief both sides, chase the diary and keep the candidate warm, which is where most mandates quietly die.
- Offer and joining. We stay involved through notice period, because that is when candidates get counter-offered.
For candidates
We are paid by the employer, never by you. What you get is an honest read on where your CV stands, a proper brief before any interview, and a straight answer about the package rather than a number that changes at the offer stage.
Where the recruitment sits in the bigger picture
Hiring is the third of the five steps in our Growth Loop — Source, after See and Shape. That order matters. If your appraisal system is guesswork and your pay bands do not exist, hiring harder will not fix your attrition. We will say so before we take the mandate.