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Recruitment

Nonprofit Executive Search Process Explained (Step-by-Step)

The Maine Group Admin
The Maine Group Admin 05 August 2026 12 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

The executive search carried out by a nonprofit organisation consists of ten stages, starting with the board agreeing on the mandate and ending with the new appointee’s first 100 days; the period from the initial briefing to the making of the offer lasts between six and twelve weeks before the notice period begins. Since the majority of the risk is concentrated in the first three stages, the board spends the least amount of time on these.

It is common for top positions in the sector to be vacant, which is why it is important to get this right. The Chief Executive Survey carried out by Charity Finance in 2025 showed that seven of the largest hundred UK charities had no chief executive acting in the role at the time of the survey, and that 30% of the executives whose data could be obtained had only been in the post for a year or less. The following section outlines what occurs at each stage, who is responsible for it, and why searches fail.

The nonprofit executive search process at a glance

1. Mandate Board agrees the role, the budget and the panel Week 0 to 1
2. Appoint the search partner Terms, fee stages and failure terms signed Week 1 to 2
3. Briefing Consultant visits, role and success measures defined Week 2
4. Market mapping Research team builds the target list Week 2 to 4
5. Approach and screening Direct approaches, first interviews by the consultant Week 3 to 6
6. Longlist review Panel sees the mapping and the shortlist rationale Week 6
7. Assessment Competency interviews, task, psychometrics if used Week 6 to 8
8. Final panel Formal interviews, stakeholder sessions, decision Week 8 to 10
9. Pre-appointment checks References, disqualification declaration, DBS, right to work Week 10 to 11
10. Offer and onboarding Offer, notice period, first 100 days plan Week 11, plus notice

Stage by stage

The board agrees on the mandate.

Before any attempts are made to recruit, the board decides on the type of person it wants. This involves determining the salary range, the reporting relationship, the two or three outcomes that the new appointee is expected to achieve in the first year, and whether the organisation would like a like-for-like replacement or a different kind of leader. Since a departing chief executive’s job description only lists what the previous person did, it is not a good basis for the next appointment.

At this stage, assign a name to the appointment panel, stating who will have the last say and what the chairperson should do if the panel is divided. During the same meeting, enter the panel’s dates into diaries. Searches tend to lose strong candidates during the two or three weeks it takes to reconvene a panel that had never been scheduled.

  1. The selection of a search partner

Retained search services are billed in stages, typically at the time of appointment, when the shortlist is delivered and on the start date. With contingency recruitment, payment is only made upon placement. It is important to put in writing at this stage both the fee schedule and the terms relating to failure, since agencies use the term guarantee to describe three different arrangements: a free replacement search, a rebate on a sliding scale, or a genuine refund. The Maine Group does not charge any fees in advance, takes its fee once placement has been made and provides a 100-day, 100 per cent financial guarantee for the appointment.

  1. The briefing meeting

The consultant visits you; this is the occasion on which a reputable search firm receives its fee, since it is the brief produced as a result of the visit that is presented to the candidates. The Maine Group insists upon meeting each of its clients at their own place of work before a search begins, in all of its divisions including Maine Charity, and this applies equally to appointments to charity leadership positions.

From the briefing two documents are produced. The person specification distinguishes between the truly essential requirements and those which have been carried over from an earlier advertisement. The candidate pack is the document which convinces an existing chief executive to consider a call regarding your organisation; if it sounds like a job advertisement with a logo on the cover, you can expect a short and thin longlist.

  1. Research and market mapping

During the research phase, a list of organisations and specifically named individuals is compiled, starting with the sector in question, the income range and the specialisms mentioned in the brief. In the case of a position for a chief executive of a charity, the list typically includes sixty or more names, these being taken from charities of a similar size, from adjacent subsectors, and also from leaders in the commercial or public sectors who have relevant可转移 experience.

Request to see the map rather than a summary of it. When a firm lists the organisations it plans to contact, it is carrying out a search. When a firm speaks of having an extensive network, it is simply reading its own database.

  1. The approach and the initial screening

The consultant deals directly with the candidates, typically by phone, and conducts an initial interview with all those who respond. The purpose of this screening is to assess both their motivation and their capabilities. A typical type of candidate is a commercial director who wishes to enter the sector, and the straightforward question in this case is whether or not they have understood a governance structure in which the board acts as the employer and earnings are restricted.

This is where pay discussions take place, prior to anyone spending weeks on the process. The ACEVO Pay and Equalities Survey 2025, based on data from 703 charity chief executives, shows the median CEO salary to be £59,850, whereas Charity Finance reports that pay at the top 100 charities was £192,000, an increase from £175,000 in its 2023 survey. These figures refer to the same job title. A consultant who is unable to let a candidate know where your organisation stands in relation to them will lose that candidate at the offer stage.

Review of the longlist by the panel

Since the panel has access to the longlist together with the mapping that led to its creation, the trustees will be able to see not only those who are still in the process but also those who were approached and then declined. It is normal for a search for a charity’s chief executive to result in between twelve and fifteen candidates being selected for the longlist. Moreover, this meeting is also the final stage at which the brief can be altered without having to restart the search.

  1. Assessment

Assessment typically involves a structured competency interview based on the person specification, a task or presentation related to a real organisational problem, and in the case of larger charities a psychometric or leadership assessment. You should evaluate each candidate using the same criteria and record the scores. The fact that the criteria are documented and consistently applied is important for the quality of the decision, and this point is also relevant at stage nine if anyone challenges the decision.

Get involved people other than those on the panel. Holding sessions with the senior management team, and where appropriate with people who use the charity’s services, reveals issues that a panel interview alone will not. Make these sessions advisory and state this clearly in advance, because otherwise you would have unintentionally set up a second decision-making body.

  1. Final panel interviews

The number of candidates taking part in the final panel is usually three or four. If possible, the panel conducts the interviews on the same day, using the same questions in the same order, and makes its decision before the people leave. In cases where the panel is unable to reach an agreement, the chair resorts to the decision rule that was agreed upon at stage one, which is why stage one is important.

  1. Pre-appointment checks

Charity appointment checks include those that are not required for commercial appointments. Since 1 August 2018, the automatic disqualification rules have covered senior charity managers as well as trustees, extending to the most senior manager who reports directly to the board and the most senior person who has control over money. It is the role that determines this rather than the job title. The reasons that lead to disqualification are unspent convictions for dishonesty or deception, certain offences relating to terrorism, bribery and money laundering, contempt of court, and being on the sex offenders register.

The declaration has to be received before the appointment is made, not after it. The Charity Commission provides model declarations and a person who is disqualified may apply for a waiver. You should also check the Individual Insolvency Register, the Companies House register of disqualified directors and the Commission’s register of removed trustees. In cases where the position involves regulated activity with children or adults at risk, you must determine which level of DBS check is appropriate rather than automatically choosing the basic one. Right to work checks are carried out in the same way as they are in any appointment.

  1. The offer, the notice period and onboarding

Since charity chief executives usually give three months’ notice, a search which ends in the eleventh week will generally have a start date in the next quarter. Make use of that gap by agreeing with the person being appointed about the first 100 days before they begin, specifying which trustees they will meet in the first week and what the board expects to see at their first board meeting. Likewise, agree on the performance measures for the first year at the same time, while both parties still remember what was promised during the interview.

Where diverse shortlists are won and lost

The gender pay gap among charity chief executives found in the 2025 ACEVO survey was 10.6 per cent, the median income for men being £64,067 and that for women £57,250. The sector-wide figures are the result of the various individual appointment decisions, and it is during the recruitment process that a board can affect these decisions.

The useful work mainly takes place at the fourth and fifth stages. The Equality Act 2010, specifically section 158, enables an employer to take action in order to encourage applications from groups who are under-represented or at a disadvantage; this includes carrying out targeted outreach, carrying out wider mapping and reviewing the language of the candidate pack. It is at this stage that a diverse longlist is obtained.

Section 159, which has been in effect since 6 April 2011, is more limited and is frequently misinterpreted. It allows an employer to give preference to a candidate having a protected characteristic only in the case where that candidate is just as qualified as the other, only if the employer reasonably believes that the group in question is under-represented or disadvantaged, and never as part of a general policy. In the case of Furlong v Chief Constable of Cheshire Police, the employment tribunal ruled against a force that had applied a tie-breaker without first establishing that the candidates had been genuinely equally qualified. For a board that wishes to rely on section 159, the scoring from stage seven must be able to back it up.

What derails a nonprofit executive search

  • The agreement was reached by email not in person, and it is only at the shortlist stage that the panel realizes that they had wanted different things.
  • The dates for the panel are set after the search has begun, which results in a delay of several weeks between the longlist and the offer and thus imposes a cost on the candidates.
  • The salary band was determined on the basis of last year’s payroll figures rather than current sector benchmarks, this being discovered at the time the offer was made.
  • The assessment scores were recorded in individual notebooks, with no reasons given for the decisions or any basis for a tie-break.
  • The declarations of disqualification have been sent after the offer has been issued.
  • As there is no onboarding plan, a leader who has been recruited to make some change takes three months merely deciding whom to ask.

Where a specialist agency changes the outcome

For more than 25 years the Maine Group has provided services to not-for-profit organisations via its Maine Charity division, carrying out tasks such as arranging fundraising and philanthropy appointments as well as supplying executive assistants and people for senior leadership positions. The firm has been carrying out recruitment for companies in London since 1987 and uses what it refers to as The Maine Method in every position it fills rather than reserving it for appointments at the board level.

When a appointment as chief executive or director is planned for within the next two quarters, the useful first move is to draw up a one-page summary which includes the salary range, the reporting relationship, the selection panel and the outcomes for the first year. You should call 020 7734 7341 to go over it before the position becomes vacant.

Frequently asked questions

How long will an executive search carried out by a nonprofit organization take?

It takes between six and twelve weeks to go from the briefing to making an offer for a chief executive position with a charity, together with the appointee’s notice period, which is usually three months; additionally, one or two weeks should be allowed at the beginning for the board to agree the mandate and to appoint the search firm.

What is the difference between executive search and recruitment?

Executive search is proactive: the consultant maps the market and approaches people who are not applying for anything. Recruitment on contingency terms advertises the role and works an existing database. Search costs more and reaches candidates who are already employed.

Who should sit on the appointment panel?

The chair, two or three other trustees, and where the structure allows a senior staff representative. Keep the panel small enough to schedule quickly. Wider stakeholder sessions can inform the panel without becoming a second decision-making body.

What checks are legally required before appointing a charity chief executive?

A signed declaration that the appointee is not disqualified under the automatic disqualification rules, obtained before the appointment is made, plus right to work checks and references. Where the post involves regulated activity with children or adults at risk, the appropriate level of DBS check applies.

charity CEO recruitment process charity chief executive appointment charity executive search process nonprofit executive search not-for-profit executive recruitment steps
The Maine Group Admin

About the Author

The Maine Group Admin

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How long does charity director recruitment take?

The Maine Group Admin
The Maine Group Admin 05 August 2026 10 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

How long does charity director recruitment take?

It takes from six to twelve weeks to go from the initial request to an offer being accepted, and four to six months to get from the initial request to the new director starting work, since most charity directors give three months’ notice; boards plan according to the first of these figures and then end up losing a quarter’s time waiting for the second.

It is in the gap between the two figures that the bulk of the damage occurs. When a chief executive informs the board that the fundraising director will be in post by June, having launched the search in March, he is giving the offer date and not the start date. The following sections set out realistic timeframes by position, the factors that extend them, and the rare cases in which they are shortened.

Two numbers, not one

The recruitment timeline—comprising the brief, the mapping, the approaches, the assessment, the panel, and the decision—is the figure that the recruiter quotes, and it is the only stage over which either of you has control.

The notice period is part of the time to desk, and for directors in the charity sector this is generally three months. It also covers the days between the making of a verbal offer and the signing of the contract, a period which may seem unimportant but usually lasts two weeks as the job description is finalised and the start date is arranged around a family holiday. When speaking to the board mention both figures from the beginning, putting the second one in bold, and then the discussion about progress in week nine is much simpler.

How long each director role takes

Director of fundraising 8 to 12 weeks 3 months 5 to 6 months
Finance director 8 to 14 weeks 3 months 5 to 7 months
Director of services or operations 8 to 12 weeks 3 months 5 to 6 months
HR director 6 to 10 weeks 3 months 4 to 6 months
Director of communications 6 to 10 weeks 1 to 3 months 3 to 5 months
Interim director 1 to 3 weeks None to 2 weeks Under a month

​

The finance director is the slowest in the group for two reasons. Firstly, the pool of suitable candidates is smaller since a charity finance director must have both appropriate accountancy experience and be fluent in restricted funds, SORP reporting and the audit cycle, and the evaluation process usually includes a technical stage which is something that is not required in other director searches. Secondly, boards tend to plan finance appointments to coincide with the audit or the year end, thereby taking away weeks of availability from the panel at the most inappropriate time.

The position of fundraising director is the most competitive since capable candidates are regularly approached, have multiple interviews going on simultaneously, and leave processes when they come to a halt. More often than any other area, fundraising candidates lose hope after a week has passed without any contact following their first interview.

The person in charge of communications and marketing is the one who takes the longest time among the permanent positions; there are more candidates available, since those coming from agencies and the commercial sector are in fact suitable, and the notice periods are usually one or two months rather than three.

What lengthens the timeline

The main causes of delays are six in number and among them only one is due to the recruiter.

Setting a salary band below the market rate is the most不利 thing to do, since you only realise it at the offer stage after having already spent ten weeks. It is necessary to carry out benchmarking before the search starts rather than after a candidate has declined. The ACEVO Pay and Equalities Survey 2025, which is based on data from 703 charity chief executives, can act as a good guide to the level appropriate for people above your directors, and a specialist recruiter should be able to inform you of what comparable director positions actually paid over the previous twelve months.

The availability of panels comes second; if a panel meets when it is convenient rather than on the pre-booked dates, this adds two to three weeks between the longlist and the first interview, and an equivalent amount before the final round. In cases where director appointments have to be noted or approved at a board meeting, the board’s calendar determines the minimum timeframe—a quarterly cycle alone can add six weeks.

For the month of August and the two weeks before and after Christmas, senior charity recruitment comes to a standstill. The interview panels break up, the candidates go on holiday and the referees can no longer be contacted. A search that is started in mid-July is typically similar to one that is started in September.

The fourth of the pre-employment checks is in fact one that is frequently undervalued. In the case of a post which involves regulated activity with children or adults at risk, an enhanced DBS check is necessary. The Disclosure and Barring Service issues monthly reports on police performance, and the time taken for enhanced checks has been averaging about fourteen days, ten to twenty working days being a reasonable range to plan on. If an application is referred to a police force that has a backlog the time involved can be much longer. The check should be initiated on the day the offer is accepted, not on the day the contract is returned.

The fifth item in the list is references. A director cannot provide a line manager’s reference until they have told their present employer that they are looking for a new position, which implies that your reference process begins after the offer has been made and not before. It is important to agree in advance what you will accept temporarily, and you must never make your start date depend on a reference for which you have not yet asked.

Counter-offers come sixth and are more frequently received at director level than the boards anticipate. A charity which has just lost its fundraising director to you is facing an income problem and has fortnight to deal with it. The reason given is that the candidate has been properly involved with your mission during the entire process rather than having been convinced by the offer at the end.

What genuinely shortens it

  • The dates for the panels are booked before the search begins, with a designated replacement for each panel member.
  • The decision rule reached during the briefing means that a split panel won’t result in an additional two weeks.
  • Instead having three separate rounds, there is just one assessment day, which the candidates favour and which eliminates a fortnight.
  • A temporary cover is in place, thereby eliminating the pressure that causes boards to appoint the least suitable candidate among those present.
  • A recruiter knows the organisation since the first briefing is the most gradual stage in any new relationship.

The fact that a shortlist is obtained more quickly does not reduce the cost; if the appointment fails then the weeks you have saved will have been wasted because a shortlist delivered in ten days is no more than a database search.

Working backwards from the date you need someone

Instead set the plan from the date the person is required to be at their desk, not from the date you would like to begin recruiting. In the case of a fundraising director who has to be in post at the start of a financial year in April, the calculation goes in the opposite direction: three months’ notice brings you to an offer in January, ten weeks of recruitment lead to an agreement being reached by the end of October, and two weeks to appoint a recruiter and to book the panel dates bring you to mid-October.

The discussion regarding an April start takes place in early autumn; boards which start in January for an April start are not engaging in recruitment planning but are preparing an interim plan.

When fast is a warning sign

The fact that a director is appointed three weeks after the usual time period indicates one of three possibilities: that an internal candidate was always intended to be chosen, that the recruiter had a specific person in mind without carrying out any market research, or that the salary offered was so much higher than the standard level that the first contact agreed to the appointment. It’s important to be aware of the first two scenarios before the board gives its approval. If a recruiter promises to provide a shortlist within a week, find out which organisations they plan to approach and pay attention to whether the answer includes any names.

Interim cover while you recruit

An interim director is generally able to begin within two weeks, although in some cases it will be within a few days, and this is the appropriate solution in instances where the gap is operational not strategic—for example, when an audit has to be completed, a bid has a deadline, or the team has no manager. Day rates are greater than those of the salaried version, and this is the price one pays for having speed and for retaining the option to keep searching properly.

Fix the end date of the temporary arrangement on the day that it begins. If a temporary appointment lasts into its ninth month it will be deemed to be a permanent position, and the subsequent permanent search will not draw in a serious external candidate.

Talking to us about a director appointment

For more than 25 years the Maine Charity arm of the Maine Group has provided services to not-for-profit organisations in the areas of fundraising and philanthropy, finance, human resources, executive assistance and the appointment of senior leaders, on a permanent, temporary or interim basis; the firm has also been recruiting for companies in London since 1987.

The first thing to do if you need a director to be in post by a certain date is to start from that date and together work out whether or not the date is valid. You can reach us on 020 7734 7341.

Frequently asked questions

What time does it take to hire a charity fundraising director?

It takes between eight and twelve weeks to go from brief to acceptance of the offer, and between five and six months to the first day when a three-month notice period is included. Since fundraising candidates have several conversations going on at the same time, having gaps of over a week between stages results in you losing candidates.

What is the reason it takes so long to fill a position for a charity director?

The recruitment process generally takes between six and twelve weeks, the remainder of the time being taken up by notice periods, the availability of panel members in relation to the board’s calendar, holiday periods, and the pre-employment checks, which include an enhanced DBS when the position involves regulated activity.

Is it possible to recruit a director of charities in under a month?

It is often possible to arrange an interim appointment within two weeks; if a permanent appointment can be made in less than a month then the position must have been held by a single person, and it is important to establish this before the board approves it.

What is the notice period for a director of a charity?

Three months is the norm at director level, with one or two months more common in communications and marketing roles. Ask about it at first interview rather than at offer stage, because it changes your start date by a quarter.

charity director recruitment timeline charity finance director recruitment fundraising director recruitment how long does charity director recruitment take time to hire charity sector
The Maine Group Admin

About the Author

The Maine Group Admin

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

Choosing the Right Third Sector Executive Search Firm

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 05 August 2026 11 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

Choosing the Right Third Sector Executive Search Firm

When choosing an executive search firm from the third sector, it is important to focus on suitability rather than on reputation; you should take into account the level of the position being filled, the size of your charity, whether you plan to make another appointment in the next two years, and whether the people you need are currently looking. Firms that appear interchangeable during a presentation show quite different behaviour when faced with these four questions.

The article discusses the various types of firms in the market and the purpose of each. If you’ve already decided on the kind of firm you require and are considering specific agencies, then the post which lists the questions to ask before appointing an agency is the more useful one.

Five kinds of firm, and what each is for

Board practice in a large multi-sector firm Chief executive and chair appointments at large charities, and roles needing commercial or public sector crossover Retained, invoiced in stages Cost, and a charity brief handled alongside much larger commercial mandates
Third sector search boutique Chief executive and director roles where deep sector networks matter most Retained, invoiced in stages Narrower reach outside the sector, and rarely useful below director level
Consultancy with a dedicated charity division Director and senior manager roles, and charities that hire across several functions Contingency or retained, often no upfront fee Depth varies, so check the charity division is staffed rather than badged
Interim and fractional provider Cover during a search, or a defined piece of work with an end date Day rate with a margin Higher weekly cost, and a habit of becoming permanent by accident
Advertising led, sifted in house Well known roles with a competitive salary and an active candidate pool Advertising cost plus staff time Reaches only people who are already looking

​

The process usually begins at the top of the list and proceeds downwards until a cost that can be afforded is reached. It is better to start by considering the appointment. A chief executive position at a charity that has a well-known name and involves a complicated funding structure should be handled by a board practice or a specialist firm in the sector, whereas a director of fundraising at a charity earning a few million should not, since paying the standard board practice fees would bring about more prestige than actual outreach.

The one category that is often ignored is the third. A consultancy which has a real charity division carries out director and senior manager appointments at the level at which most charities typically recruit, and is generally able to deal with the positions either side of them. The test to carry out is whether the charity division is made up of people who work on charity roles throughout the week or whether it is merely a section on the website with a shared consultant. You should find out who is in the division and what they worked on last month.

Match the firm to the appointment, not to the brand

Four questions are a more reliable way of settling it than any credentials deck.

What is the current job of the person you are looking for? In the case where they are carrying out a similar kind of work and have no intention of changing positions, you will need a firm which carries out mapping and makes contact. When your position is well known and well paid, an advertised process will generate a large number of applicants and search additions will add to the cost without increasing the reach.

To be honest, what level is the position? In the case of appointments for chief executive or chair positions, it is worth carrying out a retained search. For a head of service or a senior manager, however, this is not necessary, and a company that considers every engagement to be a retained search is in fact selling its process rather than addressing your issue.

Will you be hiring again in two years? The majority of charities will be. In the case where the position of fundraising director is followed by that of finance manager and then by an executive assistant, a company which only deals with the board level has to begin a new relationship every time and pay for each briefing.

How much of this process can your team manage? Advertising may have the lowest fees but requires the most staff time. If no member of the charity is able to go through two hundred applications, then the savings in question are not real.

The continuing relationship question

The best reason for employing a firm with a charity division rather than one that only carries out board searches is continuity, and it is important to be exact about this point. The most time-consuming stage in any search is the initial briefing, since the consultant has to get to know the organisation from the beginning. A firm which already knows your governance, your funding structure and the way in which your board reaches decisions can begin a further search several weeks earlier than a new firm would.

The argument doesn’t hold true in all cases. When you appoint a director once every five years, there is no opportunity to establish a relationship and it makes sense to choose a specialist boutique for a one-off arrangement. However, the need for continuity is important when appointments are regular and cover a number of functions.

Commercial checks most boards skip

Any employment agency carrying on business in the UK must comply with the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, both of which require that the terms of business should be agreed in writing before work starts and prescribe the way in which fees and information about candidates are to be handled. You should ask for these terms before the pitch, not after it; if an agency produces them only after you have already met the candidates or if they delay producing them, this is a signal to you.

Beyond that, four things are worth confirming and take one email:

  • Whether or not a person is a member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation or APSCo and whether or not they are subject to the relevant code of practice.
  • With current certificates, professional indemnity and employers’ liability insurance is provided.
  • The identity of the named consultant and the effects on your search if that person leaves during the process.
  • The terms regarding rebates or refunds in writing are different because a free replacement, a sliding scale rebate and a full refund represent three distinct options that are all described using the same word.

Candidate data, which almost nobody asks about

A search firm deals with a large quantity of personal data concerning people who have never applied for any position, this being the aspect of executive search that is most at odds with data protection laws. The Information Commissioner’s Office has produced guidance on employment practices with regard to recruitment and selection which applies not only to employers but also to recruiters, headhunters and consultancies, relating to the entire process from advertising a vacancy right through to the deletion of candidate information and pointing out that recruitment data frequently contains sensitive information about health, diversity or criminal convictions.

Since the charity is assessed according to the way it treats people, the question of its reputation is just as important as the question of compliance. There are three points that deserve to be asked, and the answers to them are enlightening:

  • Instead, request the privacy notice that they provide to candidates and not the one on their website. If they are unable to produce it quickly then they are not likely to be issuing it.
  • Inquire as to how long the data of candidates they have approached who have declined is kept and on what grounds.
  • Inquire of the panel as to whether the diversity monitoring data is separated out from the rest of the data that the panel sees. It ought to be, and a company which gathers the data and then passes it directly to the panel has not given the matter any proper thought.

What separates two firms that look identical

When you have three firms each with the relevant qualifications and similar fees, their qualifications have ceased to be of any use; what sets them apart is less than the boards anticipate.

It is the consultant, not the company, who secures senior positions in charities by being able to enter into a convincing dialogue with a current director regarding your organisation. You should meet the individual who will actually be carrying out the work and, if the presentation is made by someone who will then hand the responsibilities over, politely say no.

As to whether they will say no, a firm that takes on every engagement without hesitation, including those which have a salary range below the market or a job description that covers three different positions, won’t give you any difficult information later on either.

What happens when a search comes to a standstill? Simply ask: what occurs in week seven if the longlist is small? A solid response entails going back to the mapping and the brief. A poor one consists of expanding the advertising.

Where The Maine Group sits

Maine Group is a recruitment consultancy and has a special division focused on charity work called Maine Charity, which has been working with not-for-profit organisations for over 25 years. The company has been providing recruitment services to employers in London since 1987 and has five divisions dealing with charity, human resources, business support, sales and marketing, and consultancy, so a single relationship can include a director appointment together with the other positions connected to it.

The company uses the same search approach—what it terms The Maine Method—in every job situation and doesn’t limit it to board-level positions; it visits clients at their own workplaces before a search is launched; it does not charge any fees initially and provides a financial guarantee for appointments covering a period of 100 days at 100 per cent. This combination is well suited to charities that need to hire people across various areas. A charity making just one appointment for a chief executive at the top end of the sector might be better off with a specialised board practice, and we would admit that.

If you would like to discuss an appointment, please call 020 7734 7341.

Frequently asked questions

What is the distinction between an executive search firm and a recruitment agency?

Search firms target individuals who are not already applying, using a market map, and bill customers in stages even if you decide not to appoint them. Recruitment agencies advertise and make use of their existing database, and generally charge only when a placement has been made. Some consultancies apply the search method under agency terms.

What is the cost of executive search carried out by the third sector?

Retained fees are generally quoted at a rate of between 20% and 30% of the first-year salary and are billed in instalments, charity rates being generally lower than commercial rates. The contingency amounts are smaller and are paid upon placement. For interim coverage the charge is made on a per-day basis with a margin.

Would it be appropriate for a small charity to use an executive search firm?

Most of the time this is not the case when the position is below director level. Where the salary is competitive and the job is well known, advertising will be able to reach an active candidate group at only a small part of the cost. Search receives its fee when the person you need is already employed elsewhere and not seeking work.

Can a single company take on both the role of director appointments and that of providing support roles?

So, only if it has real depth in relation to those areas rather than just a charity page and a generalist consultant. The benefit is that the firm is already familiar with your organisation, which in turn saves weeks on each search after the first one.

charity executive search firm charity recruitment consultancy choosing a charity search partner not-for-profit search firm third sector executive search firm
Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How Executive Search Firms Support Charity Trustee Recruitment

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 05 August 2026 9 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

How Executive Search Firms Support Charity Trustee Recruitment

Executive search companies assist with the recruitment of charity trustees by identifying and contacting candidates that a board could never come across on its own. They are not able to make any appointments; instead, the board, or in some cases the membership, reaches the decision under the rules set out in the governing document, and the search firm then presents the candidates that have been selected.

In this case, the division is more important than in any paid appointment, which is why trustee search is charged for, scheduled, and carried out differently from director searches.

Why do boards reach outside their own networks?

A study released by the Charity Commission, in collaboration with Pro Bono Economics in April 2025, and based on a survey of over 2,000 trustees, showed that just 6% of trustees had obtained their positions through advertisement. More than half of the charities recruited people via personal connections. Approximately 29% of the trustees were invited to join by the chair and 25% by another member of the board.

The boards formed by recruiting from among the people already present are similar to the people already in the room. The same study showed the median age of trustees to be between 65 and 69, more than half of the trustees being retired, 8% being under 45 and 1% being 30 or younger. Female trustees amounted to about 43%, an increase from 36% in 2017, while 8% came from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to 17% of the general population. The research also revealed that 12% of boards had no legal skills or experience among their trustees.

In response to those findings, the Charity Commission revised its guidance on how to find and appoint new trustees, CC30, on 14 May 2025. The updated guidance encourages boards to use a broader range of advertising channels, to carry out skills audits which are linked to the organisation’s priorities, and to draw up role descriptions that distinguish between what a trustee must already have and what they can acquire after taking up the post.

Getting a search firm to carry out the task that CC30 requests is one option. It isn’t the only option and doesn’t always constitute the correct one.

Trustee recruitment against director recruitment

Paid No, expenses only unless the governing document or the Commission permits payment Yes, salaried
Who appoints The board, the members, or another body, as the governing document specifies The board, or the chief executive for roles below director
Governed by The charity’s governing document and charity law Employment law and the contract
Fee basis for a search firm Fixed fee, or pro bono, since there is no salary to take a percentage of Percentage of first-year salary
Typical timeline Three to six months, set by the board or AGM calendar Six to twelve weeks to offer
What the firm delivers A field of candidates for the board or members to choose from A shortlist and, usually, an appointment

​

What a search firm actually does on a trustee brief

A skills audit before anything else

The first thing to do is to determine what the board is lacking, since this is a different question from that which has just become vacant. Just because a treasurer is resigning does not mean that the charity needs a further accountant, especially when the board already has two and knows nothing about digital technology. A consultant carrying out their role properly will request to look at the board’s skills matrix and will realise if one does not exist.

Lived experience is the only aspect that is taken seriously rather than merely being included on a wish list. CC30 advises boards to seek a combination of technical skills, knowledge of the sector, community connections and lived experience, and since none of these four qualities are usually found in a single individual.

A role description that describes a real commitment

The descriptions of the trustee role too often fail to indicate the amount of time involved, and this is the quickest way of losing a capable trustee by the end of the second year. You should state how many board meetings there are, what the expectations with regard to committees are, whether the meetings are held during the day or in the evening, and whether personal attendance is required. Since daytime meetings in central London exclude the majority of people who are working full time, a board that is not going to change its arrangements should at least be aware that it has made that decision.

Mapping and approach

What a board cannot do is to carry out this step. The consultant prepares a list of individuals who have the required skills, drawing on people from a range of sectors rather than just those already in the charity’s network, and then contacts them directly. A request made to a trustee is a more difficult conversation than one made to a director since there is no salary to mention, the consultant thus having to sell the cause, the board and the value of the experience.

Screening and the checks that follow

The consultant evaluates the candidates in light of the job description, checks their level of motivation, and spots any conflicts of interest as early as possible; although a candidate who is employed by a major funder or who is chair of a charity carrying out similar work in the same area is not ruled out, the conflict must be made clear before the board meets the candidate rather than after.

Eligibility checks apply as they do to senior appointments. The automatic disqualification rules apply to trustees, and a signed declaration is required before appointment. The governing document may also set its own conditions, such as membership. The work of the company concludes with a field of candidates and a recommendation. Although under CC30 a board may delegate certain parts of the trustee recruitment to its staff or to other people, the trustees are still responsible for establishing an effective process and the actual appointment is made in accordance with the governing document. When your members appoint trustees at an AGM, the search comes to an end at the nomination stage and the timetable is then part of the AGM calendar and not that of the recruiter.n and the timetable belongs to the AGM calendThe standard basis for paid positions is a certain percentage of the first-year salary and it does not extend to an unpaid position; the trustee search is therefore charged in one of three ways.y to an unpaid role. Trustee search is therefore priced in one of three ways.

  • The most common arrangement in the case of chair and treasurer searches is a fixed project fee.
  • Work carried out on a pro bono basis or at a greatly reduced price, usually from a firm that is already providing paid services to the charity.
  • The following organisations offer free routes: Reach Volunteering, Getting on Board, NCVO’s trustee resources and the Charity Commission all provide a way of connecting boards with potential trustees at no cost.

Treat the free routes as seriously as possible before hiring anyone. In the case of a general trustee vacancy at a small or medium-sized charity, a well drafted advertisement using a trustee finder service usually results in a good number of applicants. Paid search only justifies its charge when the requirement is genuinely difficult—for example, when appointing a chair, a treasurer with experience in charity finance, a board that needs to change its makeup rather than just replace a person who has left, or when a charity in difficulty is seeking trustees who understand what they are getting into.

When a board should not commission a search

If the board has not agreed on what it is missing, a search firm will produce candidates against a brief nobody believes in. Do the skills audit first.

If the real problem is that the board is unpleasant to sit on, recruitment will not fix it. Boards with unresolved conflict, a dominant chair or no functioning committee structure lose the trustees they recruit within a year, and the search fee buys a delay rather than a solution.

If a single named individual is already lined up, say so at the outset. Running a search around a predetermined outcome wastes candidates’ time and does not give the board the cover it thinks it does.

Talking to us about a board vacancy

For more than 25 years the Maine Group has provided recruitment services to not-for-profit organisations via its Maine Charity division, and it has been carrying out recruitment for companies in London since 1987 in the fields of charity, human resources, business support, sales and marketing, using what it refers to as The Maine Method for each assignment.

When a vacancy on the board is about to occur, the most useful thing to discuss is what kind of skills or qualities the board lacks, how your governing documents deal with appointments, and whether the free routes will enable you to fill the position. We can let you know whether they will. Please call 020 7734 7341.

Frequently asked questions

Can a recruitment agency act as a trustee of a charity?

The trustees are appointed by the board, the members, or another body mentioned in the charity’s governing document. An agency or recruitment firm evaluates candidates, and the decision rests with the person or body named in the governing document.

How much does it cost to recruit a trustee?

A fixed project fee is normally charged since there is no salary from which a percentage can be taken, and in some cases the firm works for nothintrustee-finderng its services are available on a bono basis. There are free trustee finder services available and it is worthwhile trying them first in the case of general boIt is a realistic timeframe, since the act of searching is seldom the limiting factor. Organisations which appoint their trustees at a quarterly meeting, or charitable societies in which the members elect the trustees at the annual general meeting, operate according to a schedule that determines the pace. At an AGM, we are working to a calendar that sets the pace.

Do charity trustees get paid?

No, generally speaking. Trustees work without payment and are entitled to claim reasonable expenses, such as travel and childcare. Any payment must be authorised by the governing document or with the agreement of the Charity Commission.

Should we use a search firm or advertise the trustee role ourselves?

Advertise first for most general vacancies, using a trustee finder service. Commission a search where the brief is narrow, where the role is chair or treasurer, or where the board needs to change its composition rather than fill a gap.

Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How to find top charity executive recruitment agencies

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 05 August 2026 11 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

How to find top charity executive recruitment agencies

The job of an executive search firm is to find, contact, and evaluate candidates for top positions in charities, such as chief executive, director of fundraising, finance director, director of services, and interim supervisors, who are hired for a specific term. Since the firm you select determines which candidates your board will ever meet, this choice is worth more careful consideration than it typically receives.

The majority of boards appoint a chief executive every five or six years, and this frequency is insufficient to develop a sound instinct for making such appointments. The following section describes the work involved in conducting executive searches in the charity sector, the tasks a sector specialist will undertake that a generalist agency will not, and the questions that distinguish the two.

What a charity executive search is, and how it differs from ordinary recruitment

Executive search is an active method. The consultant maps the market for a role, identifies the people doing that job now or sitting one level below it, and approaches them directly. Contingency recruitment is reactive: the agency advertises, works its existing database and sends you the CVs of people who apply. You pay a contingency agency when someone starts. You pay a search firm in stages, whether or not an appointment happens.

In the case of a chief executive position with a charity, searches are generally the way to go since the most suitable candidates are already employed and therefore do not look at job boards. For a fundraising manager or an executive assistant, however, contingency arrangements usually suffice at a lower cost.

A small number of agencies apply a search method to roles that would normally go out on contingency terms. The Maine Group is one of them. Its consultants meet every client at their own workplace before a search begins, and the firm uses the same method, which it calls The Maine Method, across all five of its divisions, including Maine Charity. The practical effect is that a mid-level charity role gets mapped and approached rather than advertised and filtered.

Why sector specialism changes who reaches your shortlist

Pay is the best example of this. The ACEVO Pay and Equalities Survey 2025 gathered responses from 703 chief executives of charities and found the median CEO salary to be £59,850. Charity Finance’s 2025 survey of the 100 largest charities in the UK showed the median salary for a chief executive to be £192,000, up from £175,000 in 2023 and £155,000 in 2019. These figures refer to the same job title within the same sector. A recruitment agency that does not understand where your organisation falls between these two sets of figures will give poor guidance to candidates, leading them to reject the offer.

The same ACEVO survey found a gender pay gap of 10.6% among charity chief executives, with men earning a median of £64,067 and women £57,250. A search firm that tracks its own diversity data at the longlist, shortlist, and appointment stage can show your panel where candidates are dropping out. A firm that does not track it will present the shortlist as though it fell out of the sky.

Sector knowledge is also evident in smaller judgments. A consultant who has appointed fundraising directors can tell the difference between one person who has built up unrestricted income from scratch and another who has managed a single large statutory grant. A generalist, on the other hand, sees both situations as involving £4m raised funds.

The compliance work that sits behind a charity appointment

Since 1 August 2018, the rules concerning automatic disqualification have also been extended to senior charity managers as well as to trustees; these rules apply to the most senior manager who reports directly to the board, typically the chief executive, and to the most senior person who has control of money, usually the finance director. It is the role that determines this rather than the job title. The reasons for disqualification are convictions for dishonesty or deception that have not been spent, certain offences relating to terrorism, bribery, and money laundering, contempt of court, and being listed on the sex offenders register.

In practice, the charity has to obtain a signed declaration before it makes the appointment, not after; the Charity Commission provides model declarations for both trustees and senior managers, and a disqualified person can apply to the Commission for a waiver.

Inquire with an agency that has that step in its procedures. A search consultant familiar with the sector will say that they gather the declaration as part of the offer process and check the Individual Insolvency Register, the Companies House list of disqualified directors, and the Commission’s list of removed trustees. A less capable agency will merely state that it is your legal obligation, which is correct, and will leave it at that.

Two more points should be included in the same discussion. In cases where a posting involves work with children or adults at risk, the appointment must have the appropriate level of DBS check, and the organisation should know in advance which level is required rather than automatically choosing the basic one. Moreover, every agency carrying on business in the UK is subject to the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, which set out the rules concerning fees, candidate data and the terms of business. Being a member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation is a reasonable indication that an agency takes these regulations seriously, although it by itself does not guarantee compliance.

Seven questions to ask before you sign

Apply this to each agency on your list, then compare the responses side by side.

  1. How many chief executive or director positions have you filled in the past 2 years, and may I speak with 2 of those clients?
  2. Who carries out this search day to day, and will that individual be present at the briefing, the longlist review, and the final panel?
  3. What is the source of the longlist? If a firm states that it intends to map several organisations, it is searching for them. If a firm says it has an extensive network, it is conducting a database recall.
  4. What is your procedure for the disqualification declaration, references, and the right to work?
  5. What diversity data do you collect at each stage, and will you disclose it with our panel?
  6. What are your fee stages, and what happens if the person appointed leaves within 6 months?
  7. Who puts together the candidate pack, and may we have one that you prepared for a similar position?

The final question is more significant than it appears. The candidate pack is the document that convinces an existing chief executive to consider your organisation; if it sounds like just a job advertisement with a logo printed on it, the search will fail, no matter what the credentials deck had promised.

Fees, guarantees and what happens when it goes wrong

Retention search billing generally takes place in three stages: when the firm is engaged, when the shortlist is delivered, and when the candidate starts work. The fees are usually expressed as a percentage of the candidate’s first-year salary, ranging from 20% to 30%, although charity rates are generally lower than commercial rates. Contingency agencies charge only when a placement has been made,at a lower rate. rate

Get the failure terms in writing before you appoint anyone, because agencies use the word guarantee for three quite different things. A free replacement means the firm searches again at no fee, which is worth little if you have lost trust in the firm. A rebate returns part of the fee on a sliding scale, so a departure in week ten might return 30% of it. A refund returns the money.

The Maine Group provides a financial guarantee covering 100 days at 100 per cent, does not charge any fees in advance, and takes its fee only once a placement has been made. This practice goes beyond what is usual in the sector and therefore provides a fair standard by which to evaluate other agencies when comparing their terms.

Keep the board close to the process.

The Charity Governance Code includes board effectiveness and equality, diversity and inclusion as one of its principles, and a chief executive appointment provides a test of both. You should decide in advance who will be on the appointment panel, who will have the last say, and what action the chair will take if the panel is divided. Search consultants often notice that strong candidates vanish during the two or three weeks needed to assemble a panel that was not scheduled in advance.

Arrange the timetable at the briefing meeting and enter the panel dates into your diaries in the same week. It is realistic to take between six and twelve weeks from the time of the briefing to making an offer in the case of a search for a charity’s chief executive, allowing for the appointee’s notice period, which is often three months at that level. If a firm is promising to produce a shortlist much faster than this, it usually means they already have someone in mind, which is worth asking about directly.

Signs to walk away

CVs sent in within 48 hours of the first contact, before any member of the agency has met your team or has seen the place where they would be working; a consultant who refuses to state the name of the person carrying out the work; no charity client who is willing to take a reference call; the terms of business only appearing after your panel has interviewed the candidates; and a firm that responds to every request by suggesting an interim worker on a day rate.

A practical first step

Prepare a one-page summary that includes the salary range, reporting relationship, panel members, schedule, and the outcomes the person appointed is required to achieve during the first year. Send this summary to two or three agencies and request in writing from each of them details of their search procedure, their fee structure, and their criteria for failure. The quality of the written responses you receive will tell you more than anything in the way of credentials.

The Maine Group has worked with not-for-profit organisations for more than 25 years through its Maine Charity division, covering fundraising and philanthropy roles, executive assistants, HR and senior leadership positions. To talk through a current or forthcoming appointment, call 020 7734 7341 or visit the Maine Charity division page.

Frequently asked questions

What does a charity executive search entail?

Charity executive search is an active recruitment method for senior roles in the charity sector. The consultant maps the market, approaches candidates directly, and assesses them against a brief agreed with the board, rather than advertising the role and waiting for applications.

What do charity executive recruitment agencies charge?

Search fees, retained, are typically quoted at 20%-30% of the candidate’s first-year salary and billed in instalments. Charity rates are generally lower than commercial rates. Contingency agencies charge only when a placement is made. The Maine Group does not charge anything up front and takes its fee once the candidate begins.

What is the length of the search for a chief executive officer in a charity?

It is usual for the period between the briefing and the offer to last from six to twelve weeks, together with the appointee’s notice period, which at the level of chief executive is usually three months.

Do charity recruitment agencies deal with the recruitment of trustees as well as that of staff?

Yes, they have. Since trustee positions are generally unpaid and require a different method and a different pool of candidates, it is necessary to specifically enquire with the firm whether it has conducted trustee searches, rather than simply assuming it does so as part of its executive work.

Must the agency be based in London?

On the contrary, most searches are conducted by phone and video, and knowledge of the sector is more important than having an office address. Having a base in London is an advantage in cases where the position requires frequent face-to-face meetings or when the candidate pool in that speciality is concentrated in the capital.

charity CEO recruitment charity executive recruitment agencies charity executive search charity leadership recruitment charity recruitment agency London not-for-profit executive search UK
Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How Long Does It Take to Hire Through a Recruitment Agency?

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 10 July 2026 11 min read
Recruitment recruitment process timeline UK

TL;DR

Most permanent hires in the UK take roughly four to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer. Temporary and interim placements can move in a matter of days.

The three biggest variables are the clarity of your brief, the seniority and scarcity of the role, and how quickly your own team makes decisions.

A good agency shortens the timeline by reaching passive candidates, screening thoroughly, and sending a tight shortlist rather than a stack of CVs.

At The Maine Group, our process, The Maine Method, is designed to take you from brief to offer efficiently, and we back every permanent placement with a 100-day, 100% financial guarantee.

“So, how long is this actually going to take?” It is almost always the first question a hiring manager asks us, and it is a fair one. Every day a seat sits empty has a cost, whether that shows up as missed deadlines, an overstretched team, or opportunities that quietly slip away. After more than 30 years placing people into London businesses across secretarial and business support, HR, charity, sales and marketing, we have learned that the honest answer is never a single number. It depends. What we can do, though, is show you exactly what it depends on, give you realistic ranges to plan around, and walk you through every stage so there are no surprises.

This guide sets out typical UK recruitment timelines, the factors that speed things up or slow them down, and a stage-by-stage look at how we run a search. We have also included a real, anonymised case study from our own desk, because timelines make far more sense when you can see them play out on an actual role.

The short answer: typical UK recruitment timelines

If you want a planning figure to work with today, here is what we tend to see across the roles we handle. These ranges assume a reasonably clear brief and a hiring team that is available to review shortlists and interview without long gaps.

Type of hire Time to shortlist Time to accepted offer
Temporary / interim 24 to 72 hours 2 to 7 days
Junior to mid permanent 5 to 10 working days 3 to 5 weeks
Senior / specialist permanent 1 to 3 weeks 5 to 8 weeks
Executive / hard-to-fill 2 to 4 weeks 6 to 12 weeks

A useful rule of thumb: shortlisting is the part a specialist agency can compress most, because we are already talking to the right people. The offer stage is where timelines often stretch, and that part is usually within your control rather than ours. More on that shortly.

What actually affects how long hiring takes

Two identical-looking vacancies can take wildly different amounts of time to fill. When a search runs long, the reason almost always sits in one of the following areas.

1. The clarity of your brief

This is the single biggest lever, and the one most people underestimate. A vague brief (“we need a strong all-rounder”) forces us to guess, which means more back and forth and a slower shortlist. A sharp brief that separates the genuine must-haves from the nice-to-haves lets us move quickly and confidently. Taking an extra half hour at the start to get this right routinely saves a week or more later.

2. Role seniority and how scarce the skills are

Broadly, the more senior or specialised the role, the smaller the pool and the longer the search. An experienced Executive Assistant in central London can often be shortlisted within days. A niche fundraising lead with a specific sector background may take a few weeks of proactive headhunting to surface, because the best people are usually employed and not scrolling job boards.

3. Your internal decision-making speed

Here is the uncomfortable truth we share with every client: the market moves faster than most hiring processes. Strong candidates typically hold more than one option. If it takes ten days to arrange a first interview and another two weeks to reach a decision, you will lose people, and the timeline resets. Agencies cannot fix internal delays, but flagging them early is part of the job.

4. Market conditions

Candidate availability shifts with the economy, the season, and even notice periods. In a candidate-short market you compete harder and move faster. It is worth keeping an eye on independent labour market data, such as the ONS labour market overview and the REC JobsOutlook, to understand the conditions you are hiring into.

Here is how those factors tend to pull in each direction.

Speeds the process up Slows the process down
A clear, prioritised brief A vague or shifting brief
Fast interview scheduling Long gaps between stages
A single, empowered decision-maker Multiple sign-offs and diaries
Realistic, market-aligned salary A package below the going rate
Working with one specialist agency Briefing five agencies at once

From brief to offer: every stage of The Maine Method explained

Over three decades we have refined a process we call The Maine Method. It is deliberately built to be an executive-search-style service, even for contingency roles, because doing the groundwork properly is what makes the shortlist small and the placement stick. Here is what actually happens, and roughly how long each part takes.

Stage What happens Typical duration
1. Discovery We meet you, your team and, wherever possible, your workplace to understand the role, culture and must-haves. Day 1 to 2
2. Search & sourcing We tap our network, database and passive market, headhunting people who are not actively applying. Day 2 to 10
3. Screening & profiling We interview and reference candidates and run personality profiling as standard to check fit, not just skills. Runs alongside sourcing
4. Shortlist of three We present a tightly matched shortlist, usually three candidates, with honest commentary on each. By day 7 to 14
5. Interview & selection We coordinate interviews, gather feedback both ways and keep momentum up. 1 to 3 weeks
6. Offer & onboarding We manage the offer, help with contracts, and support the first day and beyond. 3 to 7 days

A few things are worth drawing out. In stage two, the real value is reaching people who are not on the job boards at all. The strongest candidate for your role is very often someone who was not looking until the right opportunity was put in front of them properly. In stage four, we deliberately keep the shortlist small. The aim is that the hardest part of your day is choosing between three genuinely excellent people, rather than wading through forty CVs that half-fit. And in stage six, we do not disappear at the offer. We help with onboarding because a fast hire that leaves in month two is not really a fast hire at all.

Case study: an HR Manager filled in 18 working days

To show how the timeline plays out in practice, here is a recent search from our HR desk. Details have been anonymised at the client’s request, but the sequence and dates are real.

The situation

A mid-sized membership organisation in central London had been trying to fill a standalone HR Manager role for nearly three months through job adverts and two other agencies. They had seen plenty of CVs but no one who combined the operational HR experience with the softer, people-first style their culture needed. The role had become urgent, as their outgoing HR lead was working a notice period that was about to end.

What we did

  • Ran a proper discovery session on day one, visiting the office to get a feel for the team and pinning down the three qualities that genuinely mattered versus the ones on the wish list.
  • Focused the search on passive candidates who were settled but potentially open, rather than re-advertising to the same active pool the client had already exhausted.
  • Used personality profiling to sense-check cultural fit before anyone reached interview, which is standard on our permanent roles.
  • Presented a shortlist of three on day eight, each with candid notes on strengths and any watch-outs.

The result

The client interviewed all three within a week, held second-stage conversations with two, and made an offer on day 16. The successful candidate accepted on day 18. She started once her notice concluded and, in the client’s words a few months on, had been “adding value from day one.” The role that had resisted filling for three months closed in under four working weeks once the search was run properly and the client kept the interview process tight. It is a neat illustration of the point above: the sourcing was ours to accelerate, and the client’s quick, decisive interviewing did the rest.

How to speed up your hiring without cutting corners

Rushing a hire and speeding one up are not the same thing. You can genuinely shorten the timeline while raising quality if you focus on the parts that are within your gift.

  • Write down your three non-negotiables before you brief anyone. If everything is essential, nothing is, and the search slows.
  • Block interview slots in advance. Reserving two windows in your diary at the outset removes the single most common cause of delay.
  • Name your decision-maker early. Searches drift when it is unclear who has the final say.
  • Benchmark the salary against the current market, not last year’s. A strong package attracts a faster yes.
  • Back one specialist rather than briefing several agencies. Counter-intuitively, exclusivity usually produces a better shortlist sooner, because the recruiter can justify investing real headhunting time in your role.

Why speed is only half the story

It is tempting to judge a recruitment process purely on how fast it fills the seat. We would gently push back on that. A hire that lands quickly but leaves within a few months costs far more than the fortnight you saved, once you factor in the rehiring, the lost momentum and the impact on the team. This is exactly why we build fit-checking into the process and why we underwrite our permanent placements with a 100-day, 100% financial guarantee. If a placement does not work out within that window, we put it right. Sharing that risk keeps everyone honest about getting the match right the first time, not just the fast time.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to hire through a recruitment agency in the UK?

For permanent roles, expect roughly four to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer, depending on seniority and how quickly you interview. Temporary and interim placements can be filled within days, sometimes within 24 hours for well-defined roles.

Why is using an agency faster than hiring directly?

A specialist agency is already in conversation with relevant candidates, including passive ones who are not applying anywhere. That removes the slowest part of direct hiring, which is building a qualified pool from scratch, and replaces a flood of applications with a short, pre-screened shortlist.

What slows down the recruitment process the most?

In our experience it is rarely the candidate market. The most common delays are an unclear brief, slow interview scheduling, and too many sign-offs. All three are within the hiring organisation’s control, which is good news, because it means you can influence the timeline directly.

How many candidates should a recruiter put forward?

Quality matters far more than quantity. We typically present a shortlist of three closely matched candidates rather than a long list, so your time goes into meeting genuinely suitable people rather than filtering CVs.

What happens if the person I hire does not work out?

Reputable agencies offer a rebate or replacement guarantee. At The Maine Group, permanent placements are covered by a 100-day, 100% financial guarantee, so the risk is shared rather than resting entirely on you.

Can you recruit quickly for urgent or temporary roles?

Yes. Temporary and interim cover is where speed is greatest. Because we maintain an active pool of available professionals, we can often introduce suitable candidates within a day or two of your brief.

Ready to start the clock?

If you have a role to fill and want a realistic timeline for it specifically, rather than a general range, we are happy to talk it through. Share the brief with us and we will tell you honestly how quickly we think we can move, and what would help it move faster. Get in touch with The Maine Group and let us take it from brief to offer.

how long does recruitment take recruitment agency process. recruitment process timeline UK
Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

Local, National or Global? Where We Source Your Next Hire

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 10 July 2026 10 min read
Recruitment global recruitment agency London

TL;DR

The right candidate is not always where you expect. Sometimes they are a few streets away in the City, sometimes a timezone away in Dubai.

As a London recruitment agency with more than 30 years on our doorstep and 20 years of international placements, we search at three levels: local, national and global.

Local suits roles that need daily office presence and London market knowledge. National widens the pool for hybrid and remote roles. Global is for niche skills, overseas offices and international expansion.

Our advice is simple: match the search radius to the role, not to habit. We help you choose, then source accordingly, across London, the wider UK, Dubai, Europe, Africa and the US.

“Where is the right person for this role, actually?” It is a deceptively big question. For years the default answer for a London business was “somewhere in London,” and for many roles that is still exactly right. But the working world has stretched. Hybrid patterns have widened what counts as commutable, remote roles have opened up the whole of the UK, and a growing number of our clients are hiring for offices in the Gulf, mainland Europe, Africa and the United States. The search radius has become a genuine strategic decision.

We have spent more than three decades placing people into London businesses, and around twenty years running international searches alongside that. So we tend to look at every brief through the same lens: what is the smallest search area that will reliably give you an excellent shortlist? Sometimes that is a postcode. Sometimes it is a continent. This guide walks through how we think about local, national and global sourcing, where our reach extends, and how to pick the right approach for your next hire.

Start local: why our London roots still matter

There is a reason we have stayed based in the heart of our client base in London’s West End and City. Proximity is an advantage you can feel. When a role needs someone in the office most days, a strong understanding of London salaries, sectors and commuting realities matters enormously. A candidate who looks perfect on paper but faces a 90-minute each-way commute rarely lasts, however good the match.

Local sourcing is usually the right call for office-based support and business-critical roles where presence and pace count: Executive Assistants, Office Managers, front-of-house and team-support positions. It is also where our network runs deepest, because relationships built over 30 years in the same square mile mean we often already know the person you need.

Going national: sourcing across the wider UK

The rise of hybrid and remote working has quietly rewritten the map. For roles that only need a presence a couple of days a week, or none at all, restricting your search to Greater London can mean overlooking excellent people an hour or two up the line. Widening to a national search opens up a far larger pool, which is particularly valuable for specialist or hard-to-fill positions where the London-only market is thin.

National sourcing tends to suit HR specialists, marketing and digital roles, finance functions and consultancy positions where the work travels well and the talent does not need to sit at a specific desk. The trade-off to weigh is culture and connection: remote hires can thrive, but they need a deliberate onboarding plan rather than being left to find their feet. That is exactly the sort of thing we help clients think through before the search begins.

Thinking global: talent across Dubai, Europe, Africa and the US

For around twenty years we have delivered international recruitment alongside our UK work, and it has grown into a core part of what we do. Global search comes into its own in three situations: when the skills you need are genuinely scarce in the UK, when you are staffing an overseas office, and when you are expanding into a new market and need people who already understand it on the ground.

Dubai and the Gulf

The Gulf is one of our most active international regions. UK organisations opening a Dubai presence often need senior support and management hires who combine international professionalism with genuine local market knowledge. We source into the region regularly and understand the practical realities, from cultural fit to the pace of setting up a new office abroad.

Europe, Africa and the United States

Beyond the Gulf, our reach extends across mainland Europe, Africa and the US. Each market has its own rhythms around notice periods, expectations and the way senior candidates prefer to be approached. Rather than treat international hiring as “UK recruitment, but further away,” we adapt the search to the region, which is what makes the difference between a shortlist that looks impressive and one that actually lands.

Here is a simple view of where we search and what each level is best suited to.

Search level Best for Typical roles
Local (London) Office-based roles needing daily presence and London market knowledge EAs, Office Managers, team support, front of house
National (UK) Hybrid and remote roles, and thin specialist markets HR, marketing, finance, consultancy
Global Scarce skills, overseas offices, market expansion Regional leadership, senior support, specialist hires

How we decide where to search for your role

We do not start with a map. We start with the role, and the search radius follows from it. In practice, four questions usually settle it.

  • How much physical presence does the role genuinely require? Daily presence points local, occasional presence opens up national, none opens up global.
  • How scarce is the skill set? The rarer the skills, the wider we cast, because the best fit for a niche role is rarely on your doorstep.
  • Where does the role actually sit? A role anchored to a Dubai office is a Gulf search, not a London one, however British the parent company.
  • What is the wider hiring strategy? If you plan to grow in a region, hiring people already rooted there pays off well beyond the first placement.

The honest bit we share with clients: casting wider is not automatically better. A global search for a role that only needs someone in the office on Tuesdays simply adds cost and complication. Matching the radius to the reality is the whole game.

What changes when you hire internationally

International hiring is rewarding, but it is not the same process on a longer runway. A few things shift, and planning for them up front keeps the search smooth.

Consideration What to plan for
Compliance and right to work Local employment rules, visas and sponsorship vary by market and need factoring into the timeline
Timezones and interviews Scheduling across regions takes coordination; we manage this so momentum is not lost
Salary and package norms Benchmarks, benefits and expectations differ by country and should be set to the local market
Notice periods These vary widely internationally and affect realistic start dates
Cultural fit on the ground Local market knowledge often matters as much as the CV for roles based abroad

None of this should put you off. It simply means an international search rewards an experienced partner who has run them before, rather than a scramble across job boards you cannot read.

Case study: staffing a new Dubai office from London

Details below have been anonymised at the client’s request, but the shape of the search is real.

The situation

A London-headquartered professional services firm was opening its first office in Dubai and needed a senior Office Manager to anchor it: someone who could set up operations from scratch, represent the firm confidently with regional partners, and bridge the London and Gulf ways of working. Their instinct had been to hire in London and relocate, but early conversations suggested the strongest candidates would be people already established in the region.

What we did

  • Reframed the search as a Gulf search rather than a London one, drawing on our international desk and regional network.
  • Prioritised candidates who combined international professional standards with genuine on-the-ground knowledge of Dubai.
  • Ran personality profiling as standard to check the candidate could operate autonomously in a brand-new office far from head office.
  • Coordinated interviews across timezones so the London leadership and the successful candidate could meet without weeks of diary friction.

The result

We presented a focused shortlist, and the firm appointed an Office Manager already based in the region who was able to start quickly and had the new office operational within weeks. Because the hire understood the local market from day one, the leadership team could stay focused on the launch rather than on hand-holding. It is a clear example of the core point: the right person was never in London at all, and searching there first would only have slowed things down.

Making the right choice for your business

If you are weighing up where to search for an upcoming role, a few practical steps make the decision easier.

  • Define the presence the role truly needs before you set the location, not after.
  • Be honest about how scarce the skills are; if the UK pool is genuinely thin, widening early saves weeks.
  • Where a role is tied to an overseas office, plan for local sourcing and the compliance that comes with it from the outset.
  • Lean on a partner who works across all three levels, so you are not forced to fit the role to whichever pool a specialist happens to cover.

Frequently asked questions

Do you only recruit in London?

No. London is our home and our deepest network, but we source nationally across the UK and internationally too. We work across Dubai and the wider Gulf, mainland Europe, Africa and the United States, choosing the right search level for each role.

What makes a good global recruitment agency in London?

The ability to search at every level rather than defaulting to one. A strong local network for office-based roles, national reach for hybrid and remote positions, and genuine international experience for overseas offices and scarce skills, all under one relationship.

Is international recruitment slower than hiring in the UK?

It can involve extra steps, such as right-to-work checks, cross-timezone interviews and local salary benchmarking. With an experienced partner managing those in parallel, an international search does not have to feel slow, and it often reaches better-suited candidates.

When should I search nationally rather than just in London?

Whenever a role does not need daily office presence, or when the London-only market for a specialist skill is too thin. Hybrid and remote roles in particular benefit from opening the search to the whole UK.

Can you help us staff an office abroad?

Yes. Staffing overseas offices, particularly in Dubai and the Gulf, is a core part of our international work. We prioritise candidates who combine professional standards with real local market knowledge so the office is productive quickly.

How do you decide where to source candidates for a role?

We start from the role, not the map. The required presence, how scarce the skills are, where the role physically sits and your wider growth plans together tell us whether to search locally, nationally or globally.

Not sure how far to look? Let us help you decide

Whether your next hire is a few streets away or a few timezones away, the starting point is the same: a proper conversation about the role. Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will advise honestly on where the right person is most likely to be, then run the search to find them. Explore our global recruitment reach or get in touch with The Maine Group to talk it through.

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Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How Recruiters Find and Shortlist the Right People (Including the Ones Who Aren’t Looking)

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 10 July 2026 9 min read
Recruitment recruitment process

TL;DR

The best person for your role is usually not applying for jobs. They are settled, doing good work, and open to the right approach rather than actively looking.

Recruiters find candidates through three routes: an established network, proactive headhunting of the passive market, and referrals built on reputation.

Finding people is only half the job. Shortlisting is where a good recruiter earns their keep, screening for skills, then checking culture and personality fit.

At The Maine Group we run personality profiling as standard and present a tight shortlist, usually three genuinely matched people, so your time goes into meeting the right candidates rather than sifting CVs.

Here is a truth the recruitment industry does not say out loud often enough: if you only ever meet the people who apply, you are only ever meeting part of the market. Job adverts reach the roughly one in five professionals who happen to be actively looking on the day you post. Everyone else, the settled, the busy, the quietly-open-but-not-searching, never sees it. And more often than not, the perfect person for your role is sitting comfortably in that second group.

So how do recruiters actually find the right people, including the ones who are not looking, and then narrow a wide field down to a shortlist you can trust? After more than 30 years doing exactly this from our base in London, we can pull back the curtain. This is how good sourcing and shortlisting really work, and where the craft lives.

Why the best candidate is usually not applying

At any given moment, the working population splits into two groups. Active candidates are on the job boards, updating their CVs and applying. Passive candidates are employed, engaged, and not looking, but would consider a genuinely better opportunity if it landed on their desk. The passive group is far larger, and it tends to contain the people who are good enough that they rarely need to job hunt.

This is the single biggest reason to use a specialist recruiter rather than relying on adverts alone. Reaching passive candidates takes a network, credibility and the confidence to make a direct, well-judged approach. Here is how the two groups compare.

Active candidates Passive candidates
How you reach them Job adverts, applications Direct approach, referrals, network
Share of the market The minority who are looking today The larger, settled majority
Typical quality signal Available now, motivated to move Often high performers, currently valued
What it takes to engage them A good advert A credible recruiter and the right pitch

How recruiters actually find candidates

Good sourcing is rarely one channel. It is several, used together and weighted to the role. These are the routes that do the heavy lifting.

An established network and database

Three decades in the same market means we already know a great many of the people our clients need, and have relationships with many more. A well-tended network is not a dusty list of old CVs; it is live relationships with professionals whose careers we have followed, sometimes for years. When a brief lands that fits someone we know, the search can start with a phone call rather than a blank page.

Proactive headhunting of the passive market

For roles where the right person is unlikely to be applying, we go and find them. This is the part people picture when they think of executive search: identifying the individuals doing the exact work you need elsewhere, and approaching them thoughtfully. We run this executive-search-style approach even for contingency roles, because it is what surfaces candidates who would never respond to an advert.

Referrals and reputation

Great candidates know other great candidates. A reputation built on treating people well, both clients and candidates, means professionals are willing to recommend peers and to take our call when we ring. Referrals often produce some of the strongest introductions precisely because they come with a built-in endorsement.

The mix shifts by role. Here is roughly how we weight the channels.

Sourcing channel Best suited to Reaches
Network and database Roles similar to ones we place often Known, trusted professionals
Proactive headhunting Niche, senior or hard-to-fill roles The passive market
Referrals Any role, especially specialist ones Peer-recommended candidates
Targeted advertising High-volume or entry-level roles The active market

From long list to shortlist: how we screen and match

Finding people is the visible half of recruitment. Shortlisting is the half that actually protects your time and your hire. A long list of maybes helps no one. The skill is in narrowing it down responsibly, and that happens in layers.

Screening for skills and experience

First, the objective layer. Does the person have the experience, competencies and track record the role genuinely needs? We interview candidates properly and take up references, so that by the time anyone reaches your shortlist, the basics are already verified rather than assumed.

Personality profiling as standard

This is where we go further than many. On our permanent placements we run personality profiling as standard, not as a paid extra. Skills tell you whether someone can do the job; profiling helps reveal how they work, how they communicate and whether they will thrive in your particular environment. It is one of the most reliable ways to reduce the risk of a hire who looks right on paper but does not settle.

Matching to your culture, not just your job spec

A job spec describes a role. It does not describe your team, your pace or your way of doing things. That is why we insist on getting to know you, your people and, wherever possible, your workplace before we shortlist. Cultural and performance alignment is what turns a competent hire into a long-term one, and it is impossible to judge from a CV alone.

Why we present a shortlist of three

You might expect a recruiter to prove their worth by sending you a stack of candidates. We take the opposite view. Our aim is that the hardest decision you face is choosing between three genuinely excellent, closely matched people, rather than wading through forty CVs that half-fit. A shortlist of three respects your time and signals that the screening has already been done rigorously. If the first three are not right, that tells us something useful about the brief, and we recalibrate rather than pad the list.

Case study: finding a fundraiser who was not looking

Details have been anonymised at the client’s request, but the search itself is real.

The situation

A national charity needed a Senior Philanthropy Manager to lead its major-donor programme. The role demanded a rare mix: the technical fundraising expertise to secure significant gifts, and the warmth to build long-term relationships with high-value supporters. The charity had advertised twice and met several capable applicants, but none combined both sides well enough. The best people, it turned out, were all happily employed elsewhere.

What we did

  • Started from our charity network rather than a fresh advert, drawing on relationships built across the sector over many years.
  • Identified and approached a small group of passive candidates who were excelling in similar roles and not actively looking.
  • Ran personality profiling on the strongest prospects to check the relationship-building style the role really needed.
  • Presented a shortlist of three, each with candid notes on strengths and any areas to explore at interview.

The result

The successful candidate had not applied for a single role in over four years and would never have seen the advert. She was open, however, to the right conversation, which is exactly what our approach is built to start. She was appointed, settled quickly, and the profiling proved accurate: her donor-relationship style was a natural fit for the charity’s culture. It is the clearest possible illustration of the point that opened this article. The best person was not in the applicant pile at all.

What this means for you as a hiring manager

If you are recruiting soon, a few things follow naturally from all of the above.

  • Do not judge the market by your applicants alone. The strongest candidates are usually the ones you will never see unless someone goes and finds them.
  • Value a short, well-screened shortlist over a long one. Quantity is easy; a shortlist you can trust is the hard, valuable part.
  • Share the real culture of your team, not just the job description. The more we understand your environment, the more accurately we can match for fit.
  • Ask how a recruiter checks fit beyond the CV. Profiling and proper screening are what stand between you and an expensive mismatch.

Frequently asked questions

How do recruitment agencies find candidates?

Through a combination of an established network and database, proactive headhunting of people who are not actively looking, and referrals built on reputation. Targeted advertising has a place for high-volume roles, but for most quality hires the network and headhunting do the heavy lifting.

What is a passive candidate?

A passive candidate is someone who is employed and not job hunting, but would consider the right opportunity if approached well. This group is larger than the active job-seeking market and often contains high performers who rarely need to look for work.

How does the shortlisting process work?

After sourcing a wider field, a recruiter screens candidates for skills and experience, interviews and references them, and then assesses culture and personality fit. The result should be a small, closely matched shortlist rather than a long list of maybes.

Why do you only present a few candidates?

Because a tightly matched shortlist respects your time and reflects thorough screening. We aim to present around three genuinely suitable people so your effort goes into meeting the right candidates, not filtering CVs. If those three are not right, we recalibrate the brief.

Do you use personality profiling?

Yes. On permanent placements we run personality profiling as standard rather than as an add-on. It helps reveal how someone works and communicates, which reduces the risk of a hire who looks right on paper but does not settle into the team.

Can you find candidates who are not applying for jobs?

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to use a specialist recruiter. Through headhunting and our network we reach settled professionals who would never respond to an advert but are open to the right conversation.

Looking for someone who isn’t looking for you?

If your last advert did not surface the right person, the right person may simply not have been looking. That is exactly the search we are built for. Tell us about the role and the team behind it, and we will go and find the people who fit, including the ones you would never reach on your own. Get in touch with The Maine Group to start the conversation.

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Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.

Recruitment

How to Create an LGBTQIA+ Friendly Recruitment Process

Meeta Sahni
Meeta Sahni 02 June 2025 3 min read
Recruitment Recruitment Process

At The Maine Group, we believe that fostering an inclusive workplace starts with the recruitment process. As we celebrate Pride Month, it’s essential to highlight the importance of LGBTQIA+ friendly recruitment practices.

Here’s how you can ensure your hiring process is inclusive and welcoming:

1. Use Inclusive Language

Ensure that your job descriptions and application forms use gender-neutral language. Avoid phrases that might inadvertently exclude non-binary or transgender individuals. Instead of using “he/she,” opt for “they” or simply address the candidate directly.

2. Promote Your Commitment

Clearly state your commitment to diversity and inclusion in your job postings and on your company website. Highlight any existing policies that support LGBTQIA+ employees, such as non-discrimination policies, diversity training, and employee resource groups. This transparency reassures potential candidates that your company values inclusivity.

3. Train Your Hiring Team

Provide training for all employees involved in the hiring process to raise awareness about unconscious biases and the importance of LGBTQIA+ inclusion. This will help ensure that all candidates are treated fairly and respectfully, creating a more welcoming environment from the very first interaction.

4. Create a Safe Interview Environment

During interviews, avoid making assumptions about a candidate’s personal life or identity. Use the name and pronouns the candidate prefers and encourage open and respectful dialogue. This approach helps candidates feel valued and respected, which can positively influence their perception of your company.

5. Offer Benefits that Support LGBTQIA+ Employees

Make sure your benefits package includes comprehensive health coverage for LGBTQIA+ employees, such as transgender-inclusive healthcare and mental health support. Additionally, offer policies that support diverse family structures. These benefits demonstrate a genuine commitment to the well-being of all employees.

6. Showcase Your Diversity

Highlight the diversity within your current team and share stories of LGBTQIA+ employees on your website and social media. This demonstrates that your company values and supports diversity, making it more attractive to potential candidates who prioritize an inclusive work environment.

7. Seek Feedback and Improve

Regularly seek feedback from LGBTQIA+ employees about their experiences with your recruitment process and workplace environment. Use this feedback to make continuous improvements and show your commitment to creating an inclusive workplace. This ongoing dialogue ensures that your practices evolve to meet the needs of your employees.

By integrating these practices, you can create a recruitment process that not only attracts top talent but also fosters a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. Celebrating Pride Month is more than a gesture; it’s a commitment to ongoing support and inclusivity.

Happy Pride Month from all of us at The Maine Group!

At The Maine Group, we are dedicated to helping businesses build inclusive and supportive work environments. If you need assistance in developing LGBTQIA+ friendly recruitment practices, contact us today to learn how we can support your diversity and inclusion efforts.

Meeta Sahni

About the Author

Meeta Sahni

Meeta brings 25 years of experience in talent consulting, with a focus on leadership, wellness, and empowering people. She speaks and coaches on mental health in the workplace, women in business, and authentic leadership.