Employers use Rhodes Wolfe when an external partner is needed to search for mission-critical talent. Often, a specific skill set is needed and our clients understand the value of finding a dedicated, aligned partner to identify and qualify talent just for them.
- We will find you niche talent
- We will search just for you
- We will work faster than other firms
- We are the most aligned firm in the industry
Working with a search firm that specializes in a specific role, industry, or market does not serve the employer’s interests. It serves the search firm’s and candidates’ interests. Our model, process, and compensation is built to ensure our interests align with your long-term talent goals.
What is Alignment?
We think alignment is when the interests of all parties benefit from the same outcomes.
When it comes to executive search and recruiting, the industry has misalignment baked into the usual arrangement. Heavily commissioned recruiters, shopping candidates from one client to the next, industry/role ‘focus,’ ‘guess my fee’ games, and short-term guarantees are the everyday examples of this typical misalignment.
Here’s what we do to align our interests with yours, the employer:
Commission Free Recruiters
This is significant. The industry leans heavily on commissioned recruiters (or owner-operators) that NEED you to hire so they get paid. Rather than looking at this business on a macro level, each hire can have a year-changing swing on their income. This creates an unavoidable bias in recommendations and process.
Our Executive Recruiters are commission-free. This means they get paid the same whether you hire or not. They get paid the same if it’s a paid placement or a free replacement. They do not make more money if they ‘get you to pay more’ for the candidate. They’re able to think big picture because as a firm, that’s how we think.
They are driven. We measure the performance of our team not on revenue but on the metrics behind the building blocks of successful executive searches – not on the revenue they will drive today.
We Find Top Talent Just For You
How frustrating it is to hear people cite the need for a ‘specialist’ because of their niche… Every role, employer, and industry is unique. But the best practices of executive search are not. Specializing does not align a firm with your interests – it simply gives recruiters another employer to add to the bidding wars for the same talent. It creates no allegiance, except to maybe their largest client. Everyone else gets 2nd and 3rd passes.
We build our searches from scratch. This means every one of the thousands of searches we’ve conducted, across all role types, has started with zero candidates. We learn who you’d like to hire and what’s appealing about you for that talent. When you get submittals from us you know they were found just for you, interviewed just for you, and shared only with you. It usually takes us less than a week to get you interviewing.
All Clients Pay the Same Fees
You know the dance. “Because of our specialization and your unique needs, I’m going to need to put a 29% fee on this search.” You respond with “We typically never pay over 18%, can you cut us a deal since this is a new relationship?” Eventually, you agree on a price having started your relationship with a series of fabricated statements about what you want to pay and what they want to charge. Not the best way to begin a fully-aligned partnership.
We offer two fees that you can choose from on every search. Every other client has the same two options. About 70% of our clients choose the lower option on each search, but that requires a conversation. (Contact us if you’d like to chat)
All Placements Get a 15-month Guarantee
90 days is not enough for the roles you’d bring in an Executive Search firm for. But over 90% of the industry offers that or less. This does not align long-term goals.
We offer a 15-month guarantee on every placement that covers any reason a candidate quits or is fired. It’s very simple. More importantly, with commission-free executive recruiters working to fill roles, knowing we stand behind our work for so long, we get placements right – just about 6% of our placements use our guarantee.