Executive search, where the search itself has to stand up.
Mapped markets, defensible longlists, staged milestones and a progress report that writes itself from the work you already did.
Signals supports retained and executive search as a distinct mode rather than a setting on contingent work. It holds the market map behind a mandate, tracks longlist and shortlist as separate stages, applies off-limits and conflict rules, records assessment against the agreed criteria, tracks staged fee milestones, and produces the client progress report from the work already on the record.
A retained desk in one paragraph
On a retained mandate you are not judged on whether a name appears, you are judged on whether the search was thorough. The client wants to know which companies you covered, who you approached, who declined and why, and how the four people in front of them compare against what was agreed at the outset. That evidence exists, spread across eight weeks of calls, notes and messages in One workspace, and most of it is still reassembled by hand the night before the update.
What makes this desk hard
The update takes a day you have not got.
A client progress report is eight weeks of work reassembled from memory, calls and a spreadsheet, usually the evening before the meeting. The work was done. Presenting it is a second job.
You have to defend who is not on the list.
A client asks why a name is missing and the answer needs to be specific. Approached and declined, off-limits at a client company, or assessed against the criteria and not a fit. A vague answer costs you credibility on a mandate they have already paid for.
Off-limits rules are held in people's heads.
Which companies are protected, for how long, and for which client. Get it wrong once on a retained search and it is not an administrative error, it is a conversation with the client about whether you understood the relationship.
A retained mandate can still fail.
The market does not have the person, or the client will not move on package, or the brief changes at week six. You have taken the fee and delivered a process. No system prevents this and no software will.
What Signals does about each
The progress report is generated, not assembled.
Companies covered, people approached, responses, current stage and assessment against the agreed criteria, drawn from what is already on the mandate. You review it rather than build it. Client rooms.
Every exclusion has a reason on the record.
Declined, off-limits or assessed and not progressed, each with the conversation it came from. The answer to why is this name not here is one click, not a recollection. Everything on a role.
Off-limits and conflicts applied by the system.
Protected companies set per client and per period, applied when a name surfaces rather than remembered when it does not. Manager view.
Failure made visible earlier.
Signals will not save a mandate the market cannot fill, but a search that is not converting shows in the map and the approach data weeks before the meeting where you have to say so.
One click, and the client update is already written from the search.
What is different for a retained desk
Retained as a mode, not a setting. A search type toggle that changes how the mandate behaves, not a checkbox on a contingent job.
Market mapping tied to the mandate. The companies in scope, who sits in the relevant seats, and what has been covered so far, held against the search rather than in a separate document.
Longlist as its own stage. A distinct step before shortlist, with its own criteria, so the narrowing is visible rather than implied.
Off-limits and conflict rules. Protected companies per client, with a period attached, applied when a candidate surfaces.
Assessment against agreed criteria. What the client said mattered at the outset, scored per candidate, so a comparison is against the brief rather than against each other.
Staged fee milestones. Engagement, shortlist and completion tracked as stages with what was agreed at each. Signals records them, your finance system invoices them.
The long form candidate document. Career narrative and assessment against the brief, rather than a formatted CV. Client-ready CVs.
The client progress report. Generated from the mandate, reviewed by the consultant, shared in the client room.
Signals holds the evidence of the search. Invoicing and reconciliation belong to your finance system.
Common questions
A distinct mode. Executive search mandates behave differently from contingent roles, with market mapping held against the mandate, longlist and shortlist as separate stages, off-limits rules, assessment against agreed criteria and staged fee milestones. It is not a flag applied to a contingent job.
Yes, from the map itself. Companies in scope, the seats identified and what has been covered so far sit on the mandate, so coverage is current rather than reconstructed, and it carries into the client progress report without being reassembled by hand.
Rules are set per client, with a period attached, and applied when a candidate surfaces rather than checked afterwards. A protected company flags at the moment the name enters the mandate, and that flag stays on the record as the reason the name did not progress.
It tracks the stages. Engagement, shortlist and completion are recorded as milestones with what was agreed at each, so the commercial position of a mandate is visible on the record. Signals does not invoice, does not reconcile and does not account. That belongs to your finance system.
Yes, that is the default on a retained mandate. The long form document carries career narrative and assessment against the brief instead of a formatted CV, drawn from interview notes and the criteria agreed at the outset, and it is shared in the client room alongside the progress report.
Yes, one system, three desks. Permanent, contract and executive search each run as their own mode with their own stages, and a consultant working across two of them sees one pipeline rather than two products.