One method, run the same way every time.
A search that starts with the work most firms skip: the brief tested against the market before a single candidate is approached. This is what makes the process move quickly, and what puts the right people in front of you rather than the available ones. Here is the whole of it, stage by stage, including where the platform stops and a partner starts.
We know where to go before we start, and how to put the role to them.
Who exists at this scope and level, what they are paid now, and what would have to be true for them to take the call. All of it is done before the search opens, so no time goes into people who were never going to move, and the approach lands because it speaks to what they actually want. That work is yours whether or not the search runs to a placement.
Six stages, and what changes at each one.
A shortlist is typically with you four to six weeks from the brief being agreed. The stages hold; the pace moves with the market and with you.
The pre-search diagnostic
We interview everyone with a claim on the hire and bring back one agreed picture, tested against the people who actually exist at this scope and level.
One brief everyone stands behind
The chief executive, the CRO, the hiring manager, peer leadership, people and finance, and the market itself: six views, one document, before the first approach goes out.
The Market Map is delivered
Atlas maps the market before the search opens. You hold the comparator set, the live ranges, and who is genuinely reachable.
Approach and assessment
Every candidate is held to the standard agreed at stage one: the first and the fortieth alike. The partner who saw the fit is the person who makes the approach.
Analytics through the search
Reports through the search show you what the market is doing: who is moving, who is not, what your competitors are paying and how they respond to the role. You see the data the decision rests on, not just the shortlist.
A number that lands first time
Because the range was benchmarked at stage one and tested against the market at stage three, the offer is built on a number both sides already recognise.
You know the terms before the search opens.
Our own intelligence platform reads more of the market than any team could by hand. A partner decides what it means.
Atlas was built in-house for this work rather than bought in, which is why the Market Map arrives at stage three of every search rather than being quoted as an extra. The machine does the gathering. The judgement is a person's, and it is the same person throughout.
What that rules out: a shortlist a machine scored, and a recommendation nobody in the room can explain.
What the candidate process looks like.
A brief only holds if the people it describes are treated as well as the client is. The same partner runs both halves, which is the only reason the standard survives contact with a live search.
The candidate view in full“The profile we were looking for was quite unique. In the end, we had a tough time choosing among four finalists. I don’t believe we would have found any of the finalists on our own, or been provided the Animate framework to make the best decision with a modest amount of effort.”
Start with the brief, not the search.
A conversation about the role, not a pitch. If the brief is not ready we will say so, and tell you what we would fix first.