Search Partnership

Imperium Search Partnership

Build your team, not a series of vacancies

If you know your business will need to hire again, why restart the recruitment process from zero every time?

Imperium Search Partnership is designed for commodity businesses making multiple, ongoing or evolving strategic hires.

Instead of commissioning separate recruitment exercises vacancy by vacancy, you retain Imperium as your ongoing specialist search partner.

We continuously map your market, identify relevant talent, engage candidates and develop our understanding of your business – while your agreed monthly retainer builds credit against successful placement fees.

Continuous search. Continuous intelligence. One search partner.

Why Imperium?

Imperium Commodity Search operates exclusively within the international commodity markets.Our model combines specialist consultants with dedicated research capability to search beyond active applicants and existing databases.

A Search Partnership brings those resources together around your business on an ongoing basis - creating a recruitment relationship designed for organisations whose requirements extend beyond a single vacancy.Our retained appointments are also backed by a 12-month replacement guarantee, subject to the agreed terms of the partnership.

Traditional recruitment resets. A Search Partnership compounds.

Stop Restarting Recruitment From Zero

Traditional recruitment starts with a vacancy and ends with a hire. When the next role opens, much of the work starts again.

With an Imperium Search Partnership, every search, candidate conversation and market insight builds a deeper understanding of your business and talent market — and carries forward into the next assignment.

The search capability compounds over time.

Traditional Recruitment

Reactive | Transactional | Resetting

Search Partnership

Proactive | Strategic | Compounding

How the Search Partnership Works

A Structured, Flexible Retained Model for Ongoing Hiring Support

We Understand the Hiring Programme

Context matters.

We begin by understanding more than today’s vacancies.

We look at your business plan, structure, growth objectives, priority appointments, potential future hires, target markets and likely recruitment challenges.

This gives us a wider picture of what you are building.

We Become an Ongoing Search Partner

Knowledge builds.

Imperium commits dedicated search and research capability to the agreed project.

Rather than waiting for a new brief before entering the market, we can continuously build intelligence around relevant organisations, individuals and talent pools.

Search Strategy and Priority Evolves

Businesses change.

One role may become more urgent. A new requirement may emerge. A planned appointment may move backwards while another moves forward.

Subject to the agreed scope of the partnership, search activity can move with those priorities rather than requiring an entirely new recruitment relationship every time something changes.

Your Monthly Retainer Builds Search Credit

Investment counts.

An agreed monthly retainer supports ongoing search, research and market intelligence.

Those payments build credit against placement fees for successful hires.

The retainer therefore contributes directly towards the appointments you make through Imperium.

What You Gain

A Search Partnership gives you ongoing search capability, deeper market intelligence and greater flexibility across your hiring programme:

Always-On Search

Relevant markets can continue to be researched and candidates identified even before an individual requirement becomes urgent.

Dedicated Search Capacity

Consultant and research resource is committed to your recruitment programme rather than activated only when a new vacancy is released.

Continuous Market Mapping

We progressively build a picture of competitors, talent pools and relevant individuals across your market.

Flexible Hiring Priorities

Search activity can adapt as the agreed hiring programme and business priorities develop.

Accumulating Market Knowledge

Every candidate conversation and search adds to our understanding of remuneration, mobility, competitors and talent availability.

Predictable Recruitment Investment

A regular monthly commitment allows recruitment expenditure to form part of an agreed programme while contributing towards eventual placement fees.

Built Around the Business, Not Just the Vacancy

What Does a Search Partnership Include?

The exact structure is agreed around each client's requirements, but a partnership can include:

The monthly retainer pays for the ongoing search, research and market intelligence resource committed to the partnership.

Retainer payments then accumulate as credits against placement fees arising from successful hires, in accordance with the agreed terms.

Do placement fees still apply?

Yes.

Each successful appointment generates the agreed placement fee, against which applicable accumulated retainer credits are applied.

Is the monthly retainer an additional fee on top of recruitment fees?

The monthly retainer pays for the ongoing search, research and market intelligence resource committed to the partnership.

Retainer payments then accumulate as credits against placement fees arising from successful hires, in accordance with the agreed terms.

Can we work on several roles at once?

Yes.

The Search Partnership is specifically designed to support multiple agreed searches and evolving recruitment programmes.

The appropriate scope and search priorities are agreed at the outset and reviewed throughout the relationship.

What happens if our hiring priorities change?

That is one of the reasons the partnership exists.

Where priorities change within the agreed scope, we can discuss reallocating search activity rather than automatically treating every new requirement as an entirely separate relationship.

Is the partnership exclusive?

Our Search Partnership is built around exclusive retained assignments.

Exclusivity allows our consultants and researchers to take ownership of the search process and invest the level of time, market mapping and candidate engagement required.

Is there a minimum commitment?

The appropriate structure depends on the size and nature of the hiring programme.

Duration, monthly retainer, expected search activity and commercial terms are agreed before commencement.

Retained Search or Search Partnership?

Retained Search

Best when:
You have one defined, business-critical appointment.

How we work:
A dedicated search team is assigned to that specific mandate and works through an agreed search process until completion.

Commercial structure:
Assignment-based retained search.

Search Partnership

Best when:
You are making multiple appointments or building a team, function, market or business over time.

How we work:
Imperium remains continuously engaged across the agreed hiring programme, with priorities able to evolve as the business develops.

Commercial structure:
Ongoing monthly retainer with payments credited against successful placement fees under the agreed terms.

Explore What a Partnership Could Look Like

If you are planning multiple appointments, building a team or entering a new market, we can explore whether a Search Partnership is the right structure for your business.