A head hunter approaches finance leaders who are not looking, which is why the engagement is retained rather than paid on placement. In Australia the target fee is 18 percent of total remuneration including super, staged in thirds across commencement, shortlist and contract signing.
What exclusivity actually buys you
The most effective way to get dedicated recruitment effort is to partner with a single chosen recruiter on an exclusive or retained basis, because it creates real internal commitment from that agency. Choosing an exclusive or retained recruiter means greater time investment in resourcing, potentially multiple consultants on the search, and more elaborate sourcing from the passive market.
The alternative is worth being honest about. Give the same role to four contingent agencies and you have not bought four times the effort. You have created a race where each one sends their fastest available candidates rather than their best-matched, because effort spent on a search you might fill elsewhere is effort at risk. Exclusivity is not a favour to the recruiter, it is what makes the deep work rational.
| Model | What you get, and when it fits | |
|---|---|---|
| Contingent | Paid only on placement, often multiple agencies | Works when the role appeals to the active market. Effort follows the easiest role in the recruiter's portfolio, which may not be yours. |
| Exclusive | One agency, still paid on placement | More internal commitment without the upfront cost. A reasonable middle for a role that is hard but not scarce. |
| Retained | Staged fee, sole external partner | Passive-market mapping, longlist plus shortlist reporting. For roles where the person you want is employed and not looking. |
I set out the full retained search process, stage by stage, with realistic timings.
How a retained search is structured
A retained package should be specific about what you receive, not just what you pay. Ours includes an executive brief document for client review, a Story post circulated as the first step to prime the market before outreach begins, going out to an engaged audience of over 30,000 accounting and finance professionals across Australia, detailed candidate reporting covering both the shortlist and the full longlist, and positioning as the sole external recruitment partner while you still run your own internal ads or processes.
The longlist matters more than founders expect. A shortlist tells you who the recruiter liked. The longlist tells you who exists in the market, which is the information you need to know whether your salary band and brief are realistic before you have burned three months finding out the hard way.
How the fee works
Retained fees are staged rather than paid on placement. Ours split in thirds: one third on search commencement and agreement of terms, one third on shortlist presentation and confirmation of first interviews, and the balance on contract signing. The target fee is 18 percent of total remuneration, which includes salary plus superannuation. Check which base the percentage is calculated on before you sign, because the 12% super guarantee moves the fee materially on a senior package.
Staging is the point, not a payment convenience. It commits both sides at the start, which is exactly what makes the passive-market work worth doing. A contingent recruiter paid only on success is rationally incentivised to spend their time on the easiest role in their portfolio, and if your search is the hard one, that will not be yours.
What the passive market gets you
The output difference shows up in speed and depth together. Delivering a shortlist of five candidates within six business hours for a CFO role does not happen from a job board or a generalist recruiter. It happens from a specialist network built over years, the Australian finance leaders I interview on The CFO Track podcast. That speed is not the value in itself; it is evidence that the mapping already existed before you called.
What that mapping buys you is genuine comparison. In a recent market mapping for a high-growth scale-up, the shortlist held two qualified CFO candidates: one at $260k with eighteen months of CFO experience, and another at $350k with thirteen years. Both were real options. Knowing the actual trade-off between them is the decision, and you cannot make it from a pile of applicants who happened to be looking that week.
It is worth being honest about how hard the passive market is to reach cold, because that is the work you are paying for. In my early days recruitment was a volume game, and at one point only one in 16 people would answer a cold call. The economics change when the credibility arrives before the approach does: when I attach an episode of The CFO Track podcast to an outreach message, the acceptance rate from passive candidates runs at 50 to 60%, several times what classic cold outreach returns. That gap is the difference between a head hunter with a network and one with a phone list. The other lever founders underrate is the band itself. Paying a little over makes a real difference to who applies, and the difference in quality can be striking, particularly when the role is advertised. I went through this on the Olive Insights podcast.
The gap between those two candidates is the same gap that makes CFO salary bands so wide, and I broke it down by stage.
When you do not need one
A head hunter is the wrong spend when the role is genuinely attractive to the active market and the level is not scarce. A first finance hire at a well-known business with a clear brief will often fill from a good ad and a decent network. Save the retained model for the searches where the person you need is employed, performing, and would only move for something specific.
The other test is whether you know what you are looking for. If the brief is still moving, a search will surface that expensively. Getting the level and the mandate right first is cheaper than running a search twice.
If you are not certain the role is a CFO yet, I set out the signals that say it is.
Common questions
What is the difference between a head hunter and a recruiter?
A head hunter approaches people who are not actively looking, which is why the engagement is usually retained rather than paid on placement. Contingent works the other way round: payment only on a fill, so effort rationally follows whichever search in the portfolio is easiest to close. For senior finance roles the strongest candidates are typically employed and performing, and they never see a job ad, which is what the head hunting model exists to reach.
How much does a retained finance search cost in Australia?
Our target fee is 18 percent of total remuneration, which includes salary plus superannuation, staged in thirds: one third on search commencement and agreement of terms, one third on shortlist presentation and confirmation of first interviews, and the balance on contract signing. The staging is deliberate, because it commits both sides at the start and makes the passive-market work worth doing.
Is exclusivity worth it, or should I use several agencies?
Partnering with a single chosen recruiter on an exclusive or retained basis is the most effective way to get dedicated effort, because it creates real internal commitment. Giving the same role to several contingent agencies does not multiply effort: it creates a race where each sends their fastest candidates rather than their best-matched, since deep work on a role you might fill elsewhere is work at risk.
What should a retained search package include?
An executive brief document for your review, a market-priming post before outreach begins, detailed candidate reporting covering both the shortlist and the full longlist, and positioning as sole external partner while you still run internal ads or processes. Founders underrate the longlist. A shortlist tells you who the recruiter liked, while the longlist tells you who actually exists in the market and whether your salary band and brief are realistic.
When do I not need a head hunter?
When the role genuinely appeals to the active market and the level is not scarce. A first finance hire at a recognisable business with a clear brief will often fill from a good ad and a decent network. The other case is when the brief is still moving: a search will surface that expensively, and getting the level and mandate right first is cheaper than running the search twice.