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2024 Q2 Exec Search Report

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q2 2024

Midway through 2024, and it feels like—maybe—the market is finding its footing.

Though executive search volume dropped 3% quarter-over-quarter, this can be seen as a win for a market used to taking two steps forward and one step back.

The last time the executive search market seemed to be rebounding, the next quarter saw a 13% drop in search volume, erasing nearly all the momentum from the previous six months. Against that backdrop, Q2 feels like a positive development.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q1 2024

The start of 2024 felt a lot like the end of 2024: solid.

Executive search volume grew 8% year-over-year in Q1 and 12% quarter-over-quarter—similar to Q4 2023.

It has been almost three years since we have seen more than two consecutive quarters of consistent performance in the executive search market. While there is a general sense of optimism, it’s hard to ignore macro developments as indicators that there may be limits to the remaining rebound.

Executive Compensation & Hiring Benchmarks 2023

If you needed to sum up 2023 with any sort of adjective or succinct description, it might be fitting to call it the year of the anti-narrative.

For 12+ years, save for basically one quarter of COVID uncertainty, the growth narrative was clean, consistent, and fairly linear.

Last year, though, was a reminder that, outside of those times, much of the macro works in varying degrees of fits and starts where a single thread is harder to highlight: The pessimism of 2022 was met with a strong public market start to 2023.

Maintaining DE&I Momentum in 2024

Executive leadership is starting to question the impact and investment related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)—79% of exec talent leaders say their bosses want to see metrics regarding DE&I and another 42% are being asked to provide more frequent progress updates.

In this recording, panelists Kirt Morris, Chief Equity Officer, Sabrina Long, DEI Talent Acquisition Leader, and Alexis Millen, Early Careers Program Leader, share their expertise building a transparent and data-driven culture around DEI initiatives at Merkle and Dentsu.

Watch the recording to learn more.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q3 2023

A splash of cold water. That might be Q3 in a nutshell. Rewind three months and optimism was high. Everyone was hoping for a rebound and many were willing to believe certain data points—a market rally, continued growth in executive hiring—served as confirmation we were there—or, at least, almost there.

Mid-Year Executive Search Report: Q2 2023

Executive search volume is up for the second straight quarter. A year after the frothy 2021-2022 executive talent market seemingly fell off a cliff, we’re nearly back to where we were before the takeoff started. All things considered, that’s a positive first half to 2023.

Webinar: “Differentiating DE&I: Revisiting and Uniquely Supporting Each Pillar”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&l) isn’t as much a dedicated initiative as much as it’s being woven into the fabric of organizational cultures. One of the leading voices in that effort—Mita Mallick, Head of DEI at Carta and author of “Reimagine Inclusion”—joined us and our partner, AboveBoard, for a webinar that offered practical advice on how to do this.

Watch the recording to learn more.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q1 2023

Opened searches increased nearly 12.5% quarter over quarter in Q1—the largest single-quarter growth since Q3 2021—but some sectors of the market aren’t yet seeing that turnaround. 

Overall, it seems, we are in an environment that has created three very different markets.

Our report highlights key developments in the macro environment, within each asset class and the technology sector specifically, as well as executive compensation and search velocity benchmarks by asset class.

2023 Executive Search Pulse Survey

While our 2022 benchmarks report quantitatively showed what happened in the back half of the year, we turned to talent partners and executive search leaders to tell us how they’re planning for 2023, what obstacles they see and where they’re focused on delivering value.

Executive Compensation & Hiring Benchmarks 2022

Throughout 2022, we saw a rapid decline in leadership hiring—with search volume declining by 43% in Q4 from Q1, a huge contrast to 2021. Through an economic cool off, companies pivoted in 2022 from a focus on growth-at-all-cost to efficient, sustainable growth–creating demand contraction. Thrive’s annual benchmarks report quantifies what all this means for our industry.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q3 2022

Thrive’s Q3 2022 report reviews macro dynamics impacting leadership hiring as well as the latest benchmark data on search volume, velocity, and executive compensation by industry, role, company size, and asset class. NEW to this report: leadership hiring highs and lows over the past few years.

Mid-Year Executive Search Report: Q2 2022

Thrive’s Mid-Year Q2 2022 report looks at broad public and private dynamics that impact leadership hiring, as well benchmark data on search volume, velocity, and executive compensation by role, company size, and asset class.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q1 2022

Thrive’s Q1 2022 report looks into the latest benchmark data on search volume, velocity, and executive compensation by industry, role, company size, and asset class. NEW to this report: we  also look into role tenure data.

Webinar: Executive Compensation Benchmarks & Search Outlook for 2022

Steve Maxwell of Audax Private Equity joins Thrive in reviewing 2021 executive search and velocity trends, compensation benchmarks, dynamics at play, and the market outlook for 2022.

Executive Compensation & Hiring Benchmarks 2021

Thrive’s annual report looks at executive compensation & hiring benchmarks in 2021. The report dives into YoY data on search volume, velocity, and executive compensation by role, company size, and asset class.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q3 2021

Thrive’s Q3 2021 latest benchmark data on search volume, velocity, and executive compensation by industry and role.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q2 2021

Thrive’s full Q2 2021 analysis of executive search data. (now including executive compensation benchmarks)

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q1 2021

Thrive’s full Q1 2021 analysis of executive search data.

Executive Search Annual Report: 2020

Thrive’s full annual analysis of 2020 executive search data.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q3 2020

Thrive’s full Q3 2020 analysis of executive search data.

COVID-19 Impact Study: Evolutions of In-house Executive Recruiting

For in-house executive recruiters to help guide their teams to the other side of the COVID-19 crisis.

Executive Search Quarterly Report: Q2 2020

Thrive’s full Q2 2020 analysis of executive search data.

How Effective Search Management Delivers the Right Candidate Faster

Learn how to manage the executive search lifecycle better with today’s technology.

How to Use Executive Sourcing to Build a Competitive Advantage

Discover how executive search firms optimize their sourcing process in order to streamline operations and return higher quality candidates.

How to Run Better Executive Searches with Real-Time Collaboration

Learn how top executive search firms use real-time collaboration to spend less time managing the search process, and more time adding value to it.

Supercharging Your Executive Search Process With Thrive TRM

Harness the power of your search firm’s collective intelligence by getting talent data out of spreadsheets and into one unified resource.

Comprehensive Guide to Understanding CRM, ATS, and TRM Software

Discover the software solution that will help your team achieve its maximum hiring potential.

Jump Start Your Portfolio Companies’ Talent Acquisition

Download our white paper and learn how to add real value to your portfolio companies by helping them attract the best talent in their sector, industry, and geographic location.

Executive Recruiter 2.0

Download our white paper and learn how to add real value to your portfolio companies by helping them attract the best talent in their sector, industry, and geographic location.

How to Attract Top Talent Using Inbound Recruiting

Find out how to harness the power of an inbound recruiting strategy in order to attract, hire, and retain top talent.

Using Social Media for Executive Search

Download our eBook and learn how to leverage social media in your executive search process more effectively.

Creating Ideal Candidate Personas

Our free persona template will help you improve your talent acquisition by identifying who your ideal candidates are and how best to reach them.

4 Essential Skills of Any Executive Recruiter

Find out what skills enable the best executive recruiters to build relationships and secure successful placements.

Your Playbook for Better Collaboration in Executive Search

Learn how some of the most forward thinking companies are using collaboration in their talent acquisition strategies to accelerate their time-to-hire and eliminate rework.