About Executive Search Fees
How executive search is billed in the UK, what moves the fee, and proposals from search firms for your mandate.
What is on this site
One question, "executive search fees", answered with a quote form that works on the page with no account, 4 guides on the questions around it, a data table you can cite (the figures and their method), and the sources every figure rests on.
- Executive search fee structure: how the invoice is actually built: What goes into an executive search fee: the percentage base, staged instalments, expenses, guarantee periods and the definitions that decide the final number.
- Retained vs contingency search: which fee model fits the mandate: Retained search buys exclusivity and a mapped process billed in instalments. Contingency buys introductions billed on placement. How to choose between them.
- Average executive search fees: why no reliable UK figure exists: There is no published average UK executive search fee, and no body sets one. What convention says, why quoted averages mislead, and how to benchmark a mandate.
- Executive search agreement: the terms worth negotiating: Beyond the percentage: fee base, instalments, guarantee and rebate, off-limits, exclusivity, expenses and termination. The clauses that decide what you get.
Reach us
Contact for a question about the site, or enquiries@executivesearchfees.co.uk. The legal terms are on Terms and Privacy.
Executive Search Fees is an independent site operated by Ellul Solutions Ltd. We are not an executive search firm and we are not affiliated with any search firm, professional body or regulator named here. We pass the details you submit to relevant executive search firms, who contact you directly; we may receive a fee from those firms, and you pay nothing. Fee percentages described on this site are market convention as understood in 2026, clearly labelled as such, and are not published averages or standards. Nothing here is legal or employment law advice.