The roles that stay open
The people who can do these roles are usually employed, settled, and not reading job adverts.
Why difficult roles take months
When a role is hard to fill, the usual response is to give it to more agencies. It feels like it should work. Three suppliers, three networks, three times the coverage.
What it actually does is start a race. Every agency knows that only the first CV to land gets read, and that a placement made by someone else pays them nothing. So the incentive stops being to find the right person and becomes to send someone quickly.
You end up with more CVs and no better shortlist. The role stays open.
Finding them is not the hard part
In a connected market, identifying who does the job is straightforward. Persuading them to consider leaving a position they're happy in is not.
Around a third
of the people in our network aren't on job boards or active on social media.
They're not looking, and most of them weren't looking when we placed them. Reaching that market means approaching people directly, and it means having something worth approaching them with.
The candidate pack
So on every exclusive search we build a candidate pack: what the business does, why the work is interesting, what the person would actually own. Not a job description. Something that gives a good engineer a reason to take the call.
Before you see a CV
Then we spend time with them before you ever see a CV. Understanding what they'd move for, what they wouldn't, and whether this is genuinely it.
Contingent or exclusive
We work both ways.
Contingent
Contingent works when the pool is reachable and the constraint is hours rather than access.
We'll advertise, work the network, and get on with it.
Exclusive
Exclusive is where we spend most of our time, because it's where the process above actually fits.
When a search is ours, we can commit to it properly instead of racing someone else to the inbox.
Exclusive clients get:
- Priority over contingent work
- Weekly updates on the search, not just when there's a CV
- What the market is telling us: why people are saying no, how your reputation reads to candidates, where your package sits
- An extended rebate period, because a better process should mean better retention
An exclusive search, two principal hires
Cambridge Mechatronics needed two principal-level IC design hires in a niche segment of the semiconductor industry. Rather than advertise, Verso headhunted, approaching passive candidates directly. Both roles reached accepted offer within the agreed timelines.
“Your commitment, communication and depth of knowledge throughout this process were excellent. The outcome speaks for itself - two top-tier hires we're thrilled with.”
Head of HR, Cambridge Mechatronics
We'll tell you if we can't
Not every brief is one we can do well. If the salary doesn't match the market, if the spec is looking for someone who doesn't exist, or if we don't have the network for it, we'd rather say so at the start than spend six weeks proving it.
That conversation is usually more useful than a shortlist would have been.
Need to hire?
Tell us about the role and we'll come back fast.
Need a contractor instead? See the Contract page