Fractional executive search firms, and how the search differs
A search for a fractional executive is not a smaller retained search. The seat is part-time, the person will hold two or three others at once, the fee is calculated on a fraction of a salary, and the whole thing has to close in weeks rather than months because the company usually needs the person now. Most retained firms do not run them, because the economics do not fit their model. The firms that do, this one included, run a different process, and this page sets out what it is.
The UK market charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary for retained search and 15 to 25 per cent for contingency. What sits inside that number is set out openly, which is unusual in this market and deliberate.
What changes when the buyer is fractional executives
The fee is a share of annualised value, not of a salary
A retained firm charges a percentage of first-year salary, which at a fractional seat of two days a week would mean a search fee out of proportion to the engagement. A fractional search prices on annualised value instead: the day rate multiplied by the days a year the engagement will actually run, with the fee a share of that and a floor so a very small engagement is still worth researching. Nothing is due to start, and nothing is due if nobody is appointed.
Availability is a search criterion, and it changes week to week
A permanent search looks for the best person and then waits out their notice. A fractional search looks for the best person who has the days free in the month you need them, because the good operators hold three or four clients and their diaries are the constraint. A shortlist of three brilliant people who are each full until the spring has failed. The research has to include who is actually available, which is why a bench with live availability is the natural place to run it from.
The assessment is for a part-time fit, which is a different fit
A full-time executive builds the function around themselves over years. A fractional one has to walk in, decide in a fortnight what matters, and run it two days a week while the company runs the other three without them. That takes a different temperament: comfort with not being in the room, a habit of writing things down, and a track record of holding the same seat at several companies at once rather than one at a time. The references to take are from other part-time clients, not from a former employer.
The engagement converts, so the search has to plan for the conversion
A material share of fractional appointments become permanent, either because the seat grows to full-time or because the company decides the person is the one. A fractional search firm writes that path into the engagement at the start: what the permanent terms would be, what notice the operator's other clients would need, and whether the fee on conversion has already been paid. A retained firm has no reason to think about it. A fractional one has every reason to.
The process, where it differs
What the seat owns two or three days a week, which days, on site or not, and what the company needs to see in the first ninety days. Shorter than a permanent brief because the role is narrower, and the days are written in.
The market for that scope, filtered first by who has the days free in the month the company needs them. Availability is checked before fit, because the reverse wastes everybody's time.
Three people, each with a published day rate, each with the days confirmed, within five business days of the brief. A fractional search that takes a month has missed the point of hiring fractionally.
Against the written scope, with references from the candidate's other fractional clients rather than from a former employer, because the question is whether they can hold a seat part-time, not whether they once held it full-time.
Engagement letter with the days, the rate, the notice and the conversion terms written in. Fee on appointment, on annualised value, and nothing before.
What to ask a search firm
- How do you check availability before you shortlist, and how current is it?
- What is the fee calculated on, and what happens if the engagement converts to permanent?
- Whose references do you take for a fractional candidate, other clients or former employers?
- How many days from brief to shortlist, and what happens if the first three do not fit?
- At what point would you tell us this seat should be a permanent search instead?
Where it goes wrong
- Running a fractional seat through a retained firm and paying a salary-based fee on a two-day engagement
- Taking references from a former employer for a part-time role the candidate has never held part-time
- Agreeing the days verbally and finding in month two that the operator's other client has first call
- Not writing the conversion terms down, then negotiating them when the company wants to make the person permanent
When a search is the wrong instrument
If the seat is genuinely full-time and permanent from day one, a fractional search is the wrong instrument and a retained search is the right one. The pages on executive search cost and the firms compared set out that route honestly. Fractional search is for a seat that is part-time, urgent, or not yet certainly permanent, and most first executive hires at a growth company are at least one of those.
Common questions
What does a fractional executive search firm charge?
A share of annualised value rather than of a salary: the day rate multiplied by the days a year the engagement will run, with a fee on that and a minimum so a small engagement is still worth researching. By comparison, retained search in the UK charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary. On a fractional seat the two approaches produce very different numbers.
How long does a fractional executive search take?
Days rather than months. A properly run fractional search returns a shortlist within a week of the brief, because the candidates are already working fractionally, have published rates and known availability, and have no notice period to serve. The company usually needs the person now, and the process is built around that.
Can a fractional appointment become permanent?
Often, and it should be planned for at the start. The engagement letter should state the permanent terms, the notice the operator's other clients would need, and whether a further fee is due on conversion. Written down at appointment, conversion is a formality. Left unwritten, it becomes a negotiation at the worst moment.
Permanent, or the part-time version first
Retained search runs a full-time appointment end to end. Operator Search answers the same brief fractionally in five business days, which is usually the faster way to find out whether the seat is real. Or browse the bench and approach somebody direct at no cost.