Hire a full-time executive
Some jobs are five days a week and permanent. When that is true, a fractional executive is the wrong answer and we will tell you so. This is the other route: we go and find the person, they join your company as a proper employee, and the fee is a share of what you pay them in year one.
How it works
Four stages, twelve weeks, and nothing on this list is a meeting for the sake of one.
You tell us the job
A conversation about the business, not the job advert. Most companies write down the wrong role the first time. You get a short written brief back: the job, the salary, and what this person has to get done in year one. Nothing starts until you agree it.
Week 1
We go and find people
Not a database search. People get contacted directly, including people who are happily employed and would never reply to a job advert. That is the whole reason to pay for a search instead of posting the role.
Weeks 2 to 5
You meet a shortlist
A small number of people, already interviewed before they reach you, each with a written view on how they match your brief. References and checks are done before an offer goes out, not after.
Weeks 5 to 7
They accept and start
Help through the offer, through the counter-offer their current employer will probably make, and through their notice period. The job is not done when somebody signs. It is done when they start.
Weeks 7 to 12
What it costs
The fee is a share of the salary you pay in the first year. Across the UK, that share runs between 25% and 33%. It is charged on base salary here, which is not true everywhere. Most places will not put that on a page, which is the only reason this one does. Your exact number is written down and agreed before any work starts.
| If you pay them | Fee at 25% | Fee at 33% | Or, part-time insteadwhat that same fee buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| £80,000a year | £20,000 | £26,400 | 17 to 23 daysat £1,150 a day |
| £100,000a year | £25,000 | £33,000 | 22 to 29 daysat £1,150 a day |
| £120,000a year | £30,000 | £39,600 | 26 to 34 daysat £1,150 a day |
| £150,000a year | £37,500 | £49,500 | 33 to 43 daysat £1,150 a day |
| £200,000a year | £50,000 | £66,000 | 43 to 57 daysat £1,150 a day |
That last column is the fee on its own, before you have paid a single pound of salary. It is there because it is the comparison worth making, and because for some people reading this it is the moment they decide to hire part-time instead. That is fine.
How the search is run
The method is what the industry calls retained executive search: a paid, exclusive search in which people who are not looking are approached directly, rather than a race between agencies paid only on a placement. Where the two differ, and when the cheaper one is the right call, is set out in retained vs contingency search.
Hiring outside the UK
The figures above are the UK market. The same service runs in United States and United Arab Emirates, each through a search practice working in that market rather than one firm reaching across borders. Worth reading the right one before budgeting: a US fee is normally charged on total cash rather than base, and a UAE hire means sponsoring somebody’s residency, which is a different commitment rather than a bigger one.
Who does the finding
The search runs end to end through 360Partners, an executive search practice with long experience placing senior leaders into UK companies. getoperators stays your point of contact from the first conversation to their first day, so there is one relationship and no handover to strangers halfway through.
London and Dubai for a decade, and searches now run across the UK, the US and the UAE.
That is worth saying plainly rather than dressing up. The bench on this site is fractional. A permanent hire is a different job, so it is done by people who do that job properly.
When not to do this
This is the biggest number on the whole site, so here are the four times you should not spend it.
Nobody on this site pays us a cut of what they earn, on either offer, so sending you somewhere cheaper costs us nothing we were owed.
Who pays the fee
Most of this industry charges both sides somewhere. Here the company pays the fee, and the person being hired is not charged for being approached or placed.
That is not generosity, it is the reason good people take the call. Somebody who is happily employed and not looking will speak to a search team that is not trying to sell them anything. It is the same rule the fractional bench runs on, applied to permanent hiring.
Common questions
How much does it cost to hire a full-time executive through getoperators?
A share of what you pay them in their first year. Across the UK market that share is 25% to 33%. So on a £120,000 salary the fee is somewhere around £30,000 to £39,600. The exact number for your job is written down and agreed before any work starts.
When do I pay?
A search like this is commissioned, which means part of the fee is paid to start the work and the rest when the person accepts. That is what makes the search exclusive and thorough rather than a race against other agencies. The split is agreed in writing with everything else before anything begins.
Why not just use a normal recruiter?
A normal recruiter is only paid if you hire someone they sent, so they move fast and send you whoever is already job hunting. That works well for jobs with lots of available people. For senior jobs it usually does not, because the right person already has a job and is not reading adverts. Reaching those people takes a paid, exclusive search.
Who actually does the finding?
The search runs end to end through an established executive search practice we work with, with long experience placing senior leaders into UK companies. getoperators stays your point of contact the whole way through, so you are not handed over to strangers halfway.
Should I hire part-time instead?
Quite possibly, and it is worth five minutes before you spend anything. If the job is really two or three days a week, a fractional executive costs a fraction of a salary and there is no search fee at all. At £120,000, the fee on its own would pay for roughly 26 to 34 days of a fractional executive, before you pay any salary. The cost calculator will tell you which side of the line you are on.
Does the person being hired pay anything?
The company pays the fee. The person being hired is not charged for being approached or placed.
How long does it take?
About twelve weeks from the first conversation to their first day. A shortlist usually reaches you in week five to seven, and their notice period is often the longest part of the wait.
Start with the job, not the fee
Send the role and what it has to get done in the first year. You get a written brief back and a number, both agreed before any work starts, and if hiring part-time would serve you better we will say that instead.
Permanent search does not wait on the bench, so this is open now. Fractional searches are a separate thing: a search fee of £2,500, then 15% of annualised value if you hire.
Email the role →More on executive search
This page is the offer. These are about the market around it: what the fee buys, how a search changes depending on who is buying, and the firms compared by one of them.
- Executive search for founders and boards
- What executive search costs, and what the fee buys
- UK executive search firms, compared
- Executive search for startups
- Executive search for VC-backed companies
- Executive search in fintech
- CFO executive search
- CTO executive search
- CMO executive search
- COO executive search
- Sales director and CRO executive search
- The search fee worked through on a CFO
- What the full-time seat pays in the UK