Why Retained Search is Right for You

It is often difficult to characterize the true value of a retained search firm in promotional materials. Yes, there is money spent up front, but the ROI clearly “works” if the true objective is to find the best person in the marketplace. A retained model allows the best retained firms to deploy a team to focus exclusively on your search. This proactive effort is critical for a search with demanding candidate specifications – which is the case with most retained searches. The client wants the search firm to find and develop passive as well as active candidates, and that requires an excellent dataset, but also highly experienced personnel, extensive networking, and “finessed persistence” from the receruiter. If the client company pays a contingent fee at the end of the search but spends twice as much time finding a “B level” candidate, the return on investment is certainly not compelling. That is even before the lost opportunity costs are considered. We just completed a challenging search for a highly regarded pharmaceutical R&D client with very demanding candidate specifications. The initiative involved months of painstaking work researching candidates in industry, academia, government, non-profit institutions and healthcare organizations. Many of the top people could not be found on industry networking sites. In addition to the normal process of eliciting referrals, the work involved detail such as studying publications of leaders in the field to find other candidates listed as authors, speaking with key opinion leaders, looking for alternate key words in publications to use for researching data sites, and thoroughly researching other therapeutic areas that might have overlapping candidates. The search also involved meticulous care to understand the culture of the company and then fine tuning of the search strategy to embrace parameters not initially spelled out. As is always the case good candidates were surfaced who elected not to proceed at very stages of the process. Qualified candidates were also eliminated by the client company. It is the job of the search firm to quickly ferret out the reasons why and to jump back into the search with heightened awareness and passion. A successful retained search thus requires a search team with significant experience but also a high frustration tolerance and a high degree of tenacity. It is particularly important to have experienced recruiters who make the initial outreach. The best candidates will not tolerate a junior staffer reading from a script, and this initial contact is critical. One chance is all a search firm will get with a top candidate. The initial recruiter must understand the therapeutic area and be a master communicator. Actions with candidates who are turned down are also critical. It is very important for the search firm to ensure that those candidates feel as if they have been treated with professionalism and respect. This continual, timely and professional feedback throughout the candidate’s tenure takes time, but eventually the “word gets around” if search firms are unresponsive or otherwise handle top candidates in an unprofessional manner. The best retained search firms understand that long term relationships with all candidates are important. If the search is important to the organization, it is wise to move directly to a retained search firm with a strong track record of success.