How we work

Every client that Greenhill works with is different, with their own unique challenges in attracting the strongest candidates.

Greenhill ensure we understand your organisation, recruitment and cultural needs, enabling us to agree a service that is designed to work best for you.

We offer three services to our clients: Exclusive, Retained Search and Contingency

Exclusive

Greenhill filled 100% of the roles worked on exclusively in 2019.

Partnering with us exclusively provides the most effective way to discover the most suitable candidates. We qualify and interview before determining the strongest panel to submit. Clients see the greatest success when our consultants commit the time to the most detailed, deep searches which yield the best results possible – leading to the best hires in the shortest possible time span.

Some advantages to you working exclusively with us:

Screening – The most thorough process possible as it is not a ‘fastest finger first’ scenario. Our screening process is not just about matching skill sets to a job specification. It is about cultural, team and business fit.

Brief – The greatest opportunity to really get to know your organisation’s challenges and objectives.
Time saving – One brief with one agency, rather than multiple conversations with consultants of mixed ability.
Search – Exclusivity provides greater time to complete a detailed, wide range of searches.
Confidentiality – You may need to keep the opportunity out of the public domain.
Candidate experience : Avoid negative perceptions of your brand and provide potential employees with the best experience of your company from first introduction.
Working in a competitive sector – Exclusivity allows us to look at potential candidates not currently looking for a move.

Retained Search

This is typically seen as an effective tool when working on Director / C-level positions. It is also highly effective for niche sales or marketing roles where suitable candidates are also scarce. Greenhill manage the entire process, which includes all direct and internal applications.

Many of our clients’ services, products, operating markets and business strategies require a special combination of skills and experience to be demonstrated. It is likely the pool of suitable talent is highly limited and thinly distributed (often in locations outside of the UK). A retained search process deploys dedicated research resources to analyse hiring markets in great depth, to ensure that all relevant talent is identified, approached and considered.

High-achieving senior sales and marketing professionals are likely to be employed in exciting, well-rewarded, stimulating roles, at a leading firm within their market. They are emotionally and professionally invested in its future plans. A-Grade sales and marketing directors/executives are therefore very unlikely to be actively seeking new opportunities. As relevant opportunities for progression are infrequent, some will be open to discussing a special opportunity, if approached appropriately in confidence by a consultant that they trust. Greenhill ensure these candidates, often from our 20-year network, are approached discreetly and briefed accurately.

Uniquely skilled, senior sales and marketing talent requires the greatest level of recruitment resource and expertise in order to attract them to career-changing opportunities. A retained search is the most effective means of achieving this.

Contingency

As a client, you only pay a fee when a successful candidate starts in their post, so you really have no risk in trying a new agency for your next role.
Some businesses find it best to work with Greenhill alongside other agencies that complement our specialisms. This is known as contingency recruitment.

There are typically two common advantages for you:

Generalist agencies

Clients may have an existing successful relationship with a large, ‘generalist’ agency, often with multiple offices across the UK. The agency may provide them with candidates for roles across several functions in their business, for example Finance/IT/HR/Administration. This allows the generalist agency to nurture its understanding of the client, often as it works on multiple roles across multiple functions.

Our specialism of one function, sales and marketing, provides us with the greatest level of insight as to what our clients consider to be an A-Grade sales or marketing professional for their business. A specific methodology tuned to our specialist function, along with a 20-year network consisting exclusively of sales and marketing professionals, strengthens the shortlist of candidates for consideration.

Sector-specific agencies

Some of our clients’ value working with an agency that recruits solely within their own industry sector, for example life-sciences. Sector-specific agencies are likely to have an extensive network within our client’s industry, along with a thorough understanding of their competitors and industry challenges.

Sector specific agencies typically recruit across multiple job functions and their industry-specific network of candidates covers all business functions. Greenhill’s 20-year network, consisting entirely of senior sales and marketing professionals, regularly complements shortlists provided by sector-specific agencies.