Executive search is a recruitment service that is used to hire the candidates for the position of executives in various organizations. Executives are required in every organization from low to high-level in many departments. Companies who need executives may either hire them directly or can hire a third party firm to hire such executives for them. It’s not easy to hire a suitable candidate for executive position especially if you do not have many contact and ways.

There are firms out there known as executive search firms. These firms work as a third party for your company’s recruitment. There are many benefit of hiring such companies for the recruitment. They have good experience in finding and hiring executives, so they can do the task for you in lesser time. As you are running a business, you may not get sufficient time to conduct the interviews and choose the person from a crowd, so it is always beneficial to hire a third party firm to do the task. The position of an executive in the company is of great importance and you cannot take risk of hiring an unskilled and unsuitable person for the job. An executive search firm will assure you with the hiring of a perfect executive for your company.

We will now discuss working of these firms. There are basically three types of executive search models. Working of each model is somehow different. We will discuss each model in brief.

Retained Executive Search-
In this search model, the company hires a firm to recruit officer or senior executives for them. The fee that the executive search firms charges is usually 30% of the annual salary of the recruited executive and this is paid in three installments.

Delimited or engaged search-
This search model is similar to retained search with certain differences. Similar to retained search, it requires the company to pay the executive search firm in advance, but with the condition that the fee is refundable in case if the firm is not able to find a suitable executive for the post.

Contingent search-
These firms are somehow different from the above two. These firms do not get the payment in advance, but only once the executive has joined the company. These firms usually get a 20% of the annual salary of the recruited executive. They receive the payment always from the hiring company not from the hired person.

Executive search firm is a great option for all kinds of businesses. As an executive is an important part of the firm and it may not always be possible for the company to find the best talent in the market, it is advisable to hire a firm that can do the task for you.