Energy Search Associates will perform a retained search on your behalf for a pre-agreed upon percentage of the candidate’s annual starting salary. (Highly commissioned Sales and Business Development roles will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.) Once the search is accepted, one-third of the amount of the first bill is due. The second would be due after receiving three acceptable resumes, the remaining third on the day of hire. There is a 90-day guarantee for retained placements.

We define retained as follows: Our client will provide us with a detailed job description, list of desired targeted competitor companies, and contact information for all decision makers involved in the interviewing process. We will then identify additional competitors, a list of potential candidates through a combination of our database, research, cold calling, and networking. We will then obtain a resume from interested candidates and will interview/phone screen those who meet the qualifications. Qualified candidates resumes will then be submitted to the appropriate contact for review.

Just like anything else in life, you get out of something what you put into it. If your company shows a commitment towards us by making a down payment (retainer) towards a search, we can afford to make the commitment to “take ownership” in your company’s needs.

With a retained search, we can commit multiple full-time employees, Researchers and specific Candidate Sourcers to your search. In turn this saves your staff time and resources to present, educate and coordinate a search with multiple agencies.

Additionally, potential candidates are much more open to speaking with retained search firms for specific positions. They know the business and they like to know that the company has made a cash commitment to following through and making a hire. They also like to know that there aren’t multiple agencies muddling the process. A lot of the folks that we will be calling have rarely considered a change (this is the kind of person anyone wants); being “wanted” and committed to via a retained search will help to gain their attention. Multiple agencies calling the same candidates on your company’s behalf adds significant confusion for the candidate.

Upon receiving a Retained Search Agreement, your company becomes our sole focus until we have made significant progress and given you quality performers to negotiate with. Any agency of integrity is going to have extra motivation to “reward” their client for making this level of investment in them.