AI-powered Executive Search
TalentMesh combines AI-powered sourcing & CV analytics with executive-grade talent assessment to enable data-driven execuitive search that places visionary leaders with unrivalled speed and scientific accuracy.
Defining the perfect leadership profile
The key to getting executive search right is sourcing leaders with the right experience, skills and personality to building top-performing teams and organizations. But defining what good looks like for your specific organization is not straightforward. Whereas traditional methods rely on human intuition, TalentMesh has diligently mapped the experienced, skills, and personality traits required to perform in different leadership roles. We use this data to create detailed leadership profiles, that are further tailored to the clients unique hiring situation by our leadership experts.Superior sourcing of leaders with AI
Combining AI and our unique people & skills research, our in-house experts identify, contact and engage executives with the right skills who are not actively looking.
Using AI-optimised job ads and sponsorships, we attract the best executives actively looking for jobs on the most relevant job boards & social platforms.
We match you with exceptional executives in our database, who have already been assessed and validated to have the skills needed.
Our AI and experts evaluates experience with scientifc percision
We leverage AI to instantly analyse every word from each candidate’s CVs to extract relevant experience and match it with key criteria that is created by our AI model and then curated by our experts and clients. This yields a quantified Experience Score for every applicant.Identify soft & hard skills through our proprietary assessments
To eliminate biases in selection, TalentMesh administers a combination of Personality, Aptitude, Emotional Intelligence and Skills assessments to every candidate, creating a complete and impartial view of each executive’s current skills & personality match as well as the executive’s growth potential. Our assesments are tailored to each role, ensuring we are assessing for the qualities that lead to high-performance and ignoring the noise.Shortlist with scientific precision and speed
TalentMesh instantly aggregates the experience and assessment results into a Talent Score. We then rank all applicants on this basis, elevating those most likely to excel in the role without excluding anyone. Our unique skills-first approach, empowered by AI, allows us to define a shortlist with unmatched speed and with zero human biases.Calibrate interviews for consistent, unbiased evaluation
TalentMesh interview experts are former proven industry executives as well as professional executive recruiters, combining the best practices from the search industry with first-hand knowledge of what drives business success. Based on the interviews, we provide comprehensive applicant reports that provides all the data needed to select top-performing execuitives.
Hiring with certainty
Hiring an executive is one of the most business-critical decisions a company can make, so don’t take any chances. Make data-driven hiring decisions, based on unique TalentMesh data, so you can place exceptional executives and guarantee the best business outcomes for your organization.FAQ
Executive search is a service that helps companies and supervisory boards find, attract, assess and hire executive leaders. This service typically focuses on placements within the C-suite, at the supervisory board level or in the management level directly beneath the C-suite. The service includes identification of the most relevant candidates across the market, engagement and solicitation of these hard-to-reach executives, interview and assessment to test aptitude and personality fit, and support in offer negotiation and closing.
The right executive search firm will depend on the type of role, the nature of the business, the strategy and situation of the company, the geographic presence of the organisation and demands of the client. The key points to consider are:
Specialisation versus scale: specialist boutique firms will have a deep network and expertise within a narrow sector, function or market to the detriment of a wider network; whereas large global firms will benefit from a strong brand name and network effects but may lack the in-depth understanding of your specific situation
Technology and methodology: different firms have different approaches to the search process and methodologies for assessing executives, as well as different levels of technological sophistication; most established firms take a traditional, personal and low-tech approach whereas new players use increased automation and AI to reduce human biases and accelerate time-to-close
Pricing model: some firms will charge you a portion of the fee up-front before starting the project, whereas others will only require payment upon a successful placement
A typical search will take no less than 3 months and up to one year, with the average time to close being approximately 6 months across the industry. In North America, the executive typically starts working with the new company within 1 month after signing; in other regions it can take up to another 6 months before the executive joins.
Executive search firms charge a percentage of the total cash compensation for the first year of employment (comprised of base salary plus on-target cash bonus). The fee ranges between 25% and 33%.
The term “retained” refers to the pricing model. In retained executive search, you pay a portion of the fee before beginning the project, and additional payments at certain time intervals. This fee will be due regardless of the outcome of the project (i.e. whether a hire is made or not). The alternative is a contingent model where payment is only due upon completion or after reaching certain milestones. Should the project be cancelled prior to a placement or contractual milestone, the client will not be liable for any payments. Note, the choice of retained versus contingent does not impact the overall price; only the payment schedule and the client’s financial liability in the event of a cancellation or an inability to make a hire.
Firms find candidates through:
Proprietary databases and networks built over years of operation
Public databases and resources (such as LinkedIn, news publications and others)
Referrals, recommendations and word of mouth
“SHREK” is an acronym referring to the five largest global executive search firms, similar to the “Big 4” in Audit & Accounting. SHREK stands for Spencer Stewart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry.