What good hiring managers do on day one of a retained search
By Faraz Iqbal, Managing Partner
Across the seven years I have run senior search work, I have noticed a small set of hiring managers whose searches consistently land in the 8-to-10 week window. These hiring managers are not necessarily the smartest, the most senior, or the most experienced. What they share is a day-one protocol that, in our observation, the rest of the market does not run.
The protocol has six steps. Step one: the hiring manager writes a 200-word note describing what the role looks like at the 18-month point. Not what the role does at hire — what the role has produced after a year and a half. The note is shared with the search firm at the brief meeting.
Step two: the hiring manager names, by name and inside the same week as the brief, two or three people they would consider perfect for the role. They commit not to approach those people directly, but the names are shared with the search firm as a calibration set.
Step three: the salary band is signed off by the CFO, in writing, before any candidate is approached. Not after the first round. Not after the shortlist. Before the search starts. This single step removes roughly half of the late-stage offer-stage friction we see across the rest of the market.
Step four: the hiring committee — typically three to five people — is locked. Names known, calendars cleared. The hiring manager is responsible for keeping the committee on the same page; the search firm is not.
Step five: the hiring manager commits to a weekly 30-minute review with the search firm. The review is calendarised for twelve consecutive weeks. The hiring manager attends every single one personally — the review is not delegated.
Step six: the hiring manager personally takes the first 20 minutes of every first-round interview. Not the team. Not a deputy. The hiring manager.
These six steps are not mysterious. The reason they are not standard practice is that, in aggregate, they require somewhere between 40 and 60 hours of hiring-manager time over the course of the search. Most hiring managers are unwilling to commit that. The hiring managers who are willing to commit it tend to be the ones whose searches we are most likely to deliver inside the window we promised.