How long does it take to hire a manager or a director?
At Volta Executive, the shortlist arrives within 10 days and the hire is concluded within 3 weeks by direct search. The 3 weeks run from scoping to the chosen candidate, offer accepted, when the five key success factors are in place. The candidate's notice period, often three months for a manager in post, comes on top. Across all methods, hiring a manager took 12 weeks on average in 2024 (Apec, 2025).
What is direct search recruitment?
Direct search, or headhunting, consists of identifying and then personally contacting professionals in post who do not respond to job ads. The firm first maps the search ecosystem (companies, sites, roles where the profile exists), then approaches each person by LinkedIn, email and phone.
What are the key success factors in hiring a manager?
Five conditions: a response within 48 hours at most; exclusivity given to a single firm; 1 hour of scoping and a scorecard; speaking directly to the future manager; a defined search ecosystem. Together, they make a shortlist within 10 days and a hire within 3 weeks possible.
Why does a manager hire fail?
Five causes keep coming back: slowness; multi-firm competition; the five-legged sheep; no dialogue with the direct manager; the job ad without the search. Each is the exact opposite of a success factor: slowness versus the 48-hour response, multi-firm competition versus exclusivity, the five-legged sheep versus scoping.
Why give a hire exclusively to a single firm?
Because several firms on the same role approach the same candidates with different pitches and different salaries, and none can commit 100%. Exclusivity allows the firm to hold to a timeline (shortlist within 10 days, hire within 3 weeks) and the market to hear a single message.
What is a “five-legged sheep” in recruitment?
An ideal profile that does not exist: a job description that adds up every desirable skill without ranking them. The answer is the scorecard, built during the scoping hour, which separates the essential skills from those that decide between two finalists.
What is a recruitment scorecard?
A decision tool, built during the scoping hour, that ranks each skill by its impact on the expected results of the role: essential, needed within twelve months, useful, bonus. It avoids the search for a five-legged sheep and gives every candidate the same assessment grid.
How is confidentiality maintained during the approach?
The executives approached read an anonymous brief: your company's name appears only after the qualification interview. A confidentiality agreement (NDA) can be signed before scoping. No executive approached and no confidential assignment is ever mentioned on social media or on this site.
What happens after the signature?
A 90-day onboarding follow-up, with four check-ins at D7, D30, D60 and D90, with the hire and their manager. If the hire leaves or their probation period is ended, the replacement guarantee relaunches the search at no new fee: 3 months, extendable to 6 months.
How are the fees for an assignment paid?
25% of the annual gross package of the executive hired for one role, 23% per role from two similar roles, assigned together (same function and same level). Fees are paid in two stages: a one-third deposit at launch, deducted from the final invoice, balance on signature of the offer letter. The mandate is given on an exclusive basis.
