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Engaged Search

Some roles are too important to get wrong

Engaged Search is a committed partnership on a defined number of roles. You get priority, real market intelligence, and a recruiter who is accountable to the outcome rather than to volume.

Our Approach The Process Specialties Fees FAQ

Our Approach

Why an Engaged Search Produces Better Hires

The fee structure of a search determines the type of search you get. Here is what sets an engaged search apart, and why the difference matters for your business.

Access to Passive Candidates

The strongest candidates are already employed and not browsing job boards. An engaged search funds the time-intensive outreach required to reach them, something contingency economics simply do not support.

A Dedicated Search, Not a Lottery

You get one recruiter fully accountable to your search, not five agencies racing to submit whoever they can find first. The search has structure: a defined timeline, regular status updates, and a partner who picks up the phone.

Quality Over Speed

Without the horse race, there is time to rigorously assess fit, including leadership style, cultural alignment, and long-term retention risk, and to deliver a tight, well-vetted shortlist instead of a stack of resumes.

Your Brand Is Protected

An engaged recruiter represents your company thoughtfully in the market. A contingency recruiter managing five clients simultaneously has a diluted incentive to protect any one client's reputation with candidates.

Mutual Commitment

The upfront fee is a signal in both directions. It tells you the client is serious, with no tire-kickers. It tells the client I am accountable to deliver. That alignment consistently produces better outcomes.

Market Intelligence Included

An engaged search includes compensation benchmarking, a competitive talent landscape read, and honest feedback from the market. That advisory layer is something contingency simply does not accommodate.

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The fee structure determines the type of search you get. If you want one recruiter exclusively focused on finding the right person, including people who are not looking, that requires a different model.

Recruit Strong, Talent Advisory

The Process

How a search actually runs

Most searches that fail were broken at the intake stage, not the sourcing stage. So that is where the time goes.

Intake and Role DefinitionWe pull apart the role before anyone is contacted. What the person will actually own, who they need to win over internally, what the market will genuinely pay, and which requirements on the job description are real versus inherited. This is often where a search quietly gets rescoped, and it should be.

Market MappingA picture of where the talent sits, which competitors are holding it, and what it will take to move someone. You see this whether or not it flatters the plan, because it is the intelligence that makes the rest of the decisions defensible.

Direct OutreachPassive candidates approached individually, by me, about your role. Not a posting, not a blast. Where reach matters, my national network of independent recruiters extends the map without diluting who does the talking.

Screening and ShortlistA short slate with real reasoning attached, including the reservations. You get told what concerns me about a candidate, not just what sells them.

Offer, Close, and LandingStructuring the offer so it is accepted, managing the counteroffer conversation before it happens, and staying in contact through the first weeks so the placement holds.

Specialties

Where I already know the market

Search and placement across three sectors, plus the corporate functions that sit inside all of them.

IT & Corporate

Technology leadership plus the corporate functions, finance, HR, and commercial roles that every one of these businesses depends on.

Manufacturing, Packaging & Industrial Automation

Plant and operations leadership, controls and automation engineering, quality, and continuous improvement.

Architecture, Engineering & Construction

Project and design leadership, licensed professionals, preconstruction, and the operations roles that keep work delivering on schedule.

Outside these sectors? Ask. If I am not the right partner for the search I would rather say so on the first call than three weeks in.

Fees

Plainly stated, before you ask

Twenty five percent of the placed candidate's first-year base salary, which sits squarely inside the range contingency firms charge for the same role. The difference is not the total. It is when the commitment is made, and what that changes about the search you get.

Engaged search with Recruit Strong

25%

·One fifth of the fee at engagement, credited against the total, locks in your search as high priority

·A dedicated search with a defined timeline, regularly scheduled updates and a transparent candidate pool

·Market intelligence report provided covering competitive compensation benchmarks and a realistic picture of the available talent pool

·Thirty years of market knowledge on every call. Never a script.

·We stay with you until the right person is in the role

Typical contingency search

20–30%

·Nothing due until a placement is made

·Your role worked alongside every other role on the desk, with higher fees and easier placements taking priority

·No market intelligence, no benchmarking, no advisory layer

·Often a junior recruiter working from a script

·No obligation to finish the search, which is highly detrimental to your bottom line

How the fee is paid

One fifth

At engagement Twenty percent of the total fee begins the search. It is not an additional charge. It comes off what you owe on placement, so the total is the same either way.

The balance

On placement Due when your candidate accepts and starts. No milestone invoices in between and no charges outside the agreement.

45 days

Guaranteed If the placement does not hold within forty five days for reasons within my control, the search is reopened at no additional engagement fee.

So why not just use a contingency firm?

Sometimes you should, and I will say so on the first call.

When contingency is the better answer

If the role is easy to fill, the talent pool is deep, and speed matters more than fit, do not pay me to engage. That is a genuinely different problem than the one this model solves.

What free at the start actually costs

·A recruiter paid only on placement has no economic reason to spend three weeks courting someone who is not looking. You get the candidates who are available, not the ones you want.

·A search that quietly goes nowhere costs nothing in fees while the seat stays empty. That empty seat is usually the most expensive line item of all.

Who actually works your search

At a contingency firm it is frequently someone a few years out of school, working from a script, with no frame of reference for the working world your hire is stepping into. What that costs you is everything a script cannot capture:

·Reading what a candidate is not saying

·Catching a buying signal while it is still live

·Hearing the hot button that will decide the offer

·Telling you honestly that a strong resume will not survive your culture

That judgment is not a process you can hand to someone. It is thirty years of reading rooms, candidates, and offers, and it is most of what the twenty five percent is actually buying.

Sales and commission-driven roles Where a role carries no base salary or only a minimal one, the fee is calculated on first-year expected cash compensation instead, so the basis reflects what the person will actually earn. Bonus, equity, and long-term incentives stay outside the calculation in every case.

Exact terms are set out in the search agreement, which you see in full before signing anything.

Questions

Engaged Search FAQ

How is the fee calculated?▾

The total search fee is twenty five percent of the placed candidate's first-year base salary. The engagement fee that starts the search is twenty percent of the total fee, credited back at placement. For sales and other roles with no base or only a minimal one, the calculation uses first-year expected cash compensation instead. Bonus, equity, and long-term incentives are excluded in every case, so the number does not move after the fact.

Is the engagement fee refundable?▾

No. The engagement fee is earned when the work begins, because that is the commitment that makes the model work. What it buys you is a search that does not get deprioritized. Specific terms, including what happens if you withdraw the role, are written into the agreement.

What if the search is unsuccessful?▾

The search continues until the role is filled or you decide to stop. If the market mapping shows the role cannot be filled as defined, I bring you that finding early with options, rather than running out the clock on a search that was never going to close.

How long does a typical search take?▾

Six to ten weeks from engagement to accepted offer is typical, with the shortlist usually landing in weeks three to five. Specialized or geographically constrained roles run longer, and you will know which yours is after the market mapping.

What geographic areas do you cover?▾

Primarily the Greater Philadelphia area, which is where our relationships run deepest. For national searches, we draw on a trusted network of recruiters who know their local markets the way we know ours. You have one point of contact throughout, regardless of where the search takes us.

How does your national recruiter network help my search?▾

It extends reach into markets and geographies I do not personally cover day to day, without handing your search off to someone else. I remain your single point of contact and the person who presents every candidate to you.

Can a search stay confidential?▾

Yes, and it often needs to be, whether you are replacing an incumbent or moving on an opportunity before it becomes public. Confidential searches are handled without your name entering the market until you choose.

You also coach job seekers. Is that a conflict?▾

The two sides are kept deliberately separate. Coaching clients are not funneled into client searches, and client searches are not staffed from the coaching roster. What crosses over is knowledge, which is exactly why the market intelligence you get is better than what you would get from a recruiter who only ever sees one side.

How do we get started?▾

A thirty-minute call about the role. If Engaged Search is the right fit, you receive a search agreement laying out scope, milestones, and timeline. Nothing starts until that is signed.

Have a role you need filled properly?

Thirty minutes on the role, the market, and whether this is the right model for it. No agreement, no obligation.

Schedule a Call

Recruit Strong, LLC

Philadelphia Area · National Reach · Est. 2017

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