Before you sign anything

Not all HR search firms are equal.Most are not even HR search firms.

Ask these ten questions before you sign an engagement letter. The answers tell you whether you are hiring a specialist or a generalist who agreed to take a look at your HR search.

What percentage of your searches are HR leadership?

A firm that places CHROs, VP HRs, and HR Directors as the core of its practice reads that talent market differently than a firm running one HR search a year. Specialization shows up as faster identification, deeper networks, and sharper evaluation.

Listen forAny answer that starts with a list of other functions. Ask what share of last year’s completed searches were HR, and let the pause do the work.

How do you reach HR leaders who are not looking?

The right candidate for your seat is running a function that depends on her right now. No updated resume, no job board, no reply to a generic message. Ask for the specific method: market mapping, warm introductions, targeted outreach from someone the candidate has reason to trust.

Listen for“We post to our network” or “we send InMail.” That is active sourcing wearing a costume, not passive access.

What number of finalists will you commit to, and by what date?

Your side of the agreement is precise to the dollar. The firm’s side should be equally precise. A committed slate is an agreed minimum number of interview-ready finalists, by an agreed date, written into the agreement before any work begins. Three to five is the honest range for a senior HR seat.

Listen forProcess language in place of numbers. A number and a date create a moment where a firm can visibly fail. Vagueness never does, which is exactly why most firms prefer it.

What is your evaluation framework?

“We interview them and check references” is not a framework. A structured evaluation assesses business acumen, talent judgment, executive courage, and scalability, with specific questions tied to specific dimensions and a written score on every candidate before any comparison happens.

Listen forWhether the framework exists on paper. Ask to see the dimensions. A firm that has one will show you in about four seconds.

Who runs this search day to day, and how many are they carrying right now?

Many firms sell the senior partner and staff the work with junior associates. Ask who will be on the phone with candidates, who evaluates them, and who presents the shortlist. Get names. Then ask how many other searches that same person is running this month.

Listen forTwenty to thirty active searches on one desk. That is a volume model, and your seat is this month’s capacity.

What does your guarantee actually pay out, and what voids it?

Duration is the least interesting part. Ask whether the guarantee delivers a replacement search or a credit toward a future placement, whether the replacement carries its own coverage, and exactly what voids it. Money back is not the same as the seat filled.

Listen forA long headline number that turns out to be one-time use, or a shrinking pro-rated credit. Read the answer in the document, not on the marketing page.

What exactly is the fee calculated on?

Every firm quotes a percentage. Almost nobody volunteers the multiplicand. Ask for the basis in writing, with inclusions and exclusions named. The difference between base salary and total package can be twenty thousand dollars on the same hire, and most buyers find out which at invoice time.

Listen for“A percentage of compensation,” undefined. Also ask what happens if you promote the person. You should never be charged because the hire worked out.

How do you handle confidentiality?

Replacing an incumbent or testing the market quietly makes this non-negotiable. Ask how the firm runs a search without alerting the market, how candidates are approached before your name is used, and at what point your company is identified.

Listen forWhether the firm has a rule about sourcing inside your own building. If it has never come up, it will.

What happens if the search stalls?

Searches stall for real reasons: compensation set below the market, requirements that shift in month two, decisions that take three weeks each. Ask how the firm diagnoses a stall and at what point it will tell you plainly that something on your side needs to change.

Listen forA firm that has never had to deliver that message. Either it has not run enough searches or it does not deliver bad news.

Can you name three HR placements still in the seat after four or more years?

This is the question that separates a search firm from a staffing agency. Time to fill is easy to produce and easy to regret. Anyone can fill a seat quickly if nobody is measuring month eighteen. Placements here hold 4 to 10 or more years, and several have gone on to CHRO and Chief People Officer.

Listen forSpeed quoted as the headline metric with no tenure number anywhere on the page.

One question they ask you that reveals everything.

If the first thing a firm asks is “what is the job description,” they are filling a requisition.

If the first thing they ask is “what does success look like in twelve months,” they are conducting a search.

The difference shows up in the results, and usually around month eighteen.

Bring all ten to a confidential conversation.

Fifteen minutes about your open seat, your timeline, and what the market actually holds for it. Answering these plainly is the easiest part of this job.

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The Essential Checklist for Selecting an HR Executive Search Firm