No percentage fees · No rushed process · No overpromising
Clearer decisions, less internal time drain, and a hire you can stand behind.
Every hire juggles time, cost and risk. We start by defining what success looks like for the role, then manage the process step by step. Candidate conversations are substantive — not box-ticking — and they feed directly into considered shortlists, so you're deciding with real insight rather than under pressure.
The Direct model
The same staged path runs through every search. Here's what each stage delivers.
Role clarity
We go beyond a skills list into motivation and mindset — the things that actually make someone thrive in the role and the team.
Attraction & advertising
Advert creation and publishing, live application management, and keeping candidates informed throughout so your brand shows up at its best.
Screening & assessment
Structured CV review and screening conversations, applied the same way to everyone, so judgement is fair and comparable.
Shortlisting & interview coordination
The shortlist arrives with clear rationale, and we coordinate the interviews around your calendar.
Offer & candidate engagement
Offer presentation and pre-start engagement, handled thoughtfully — with respectful communication to every candidate, whatever the outcome.
Support levels
Every tier follows the same five stages — the difference is simply how much of it we run for you.
Defined
Structured support through to shortlist, for teams with interview capacity of their own.
Journey
Added evaluation support through to the hiring decision, with offer-stage guidance.
Lifecycle
End-to-end process ownership, from brief to a confident start.
Tell us what you're hiring for and we'll walk you through exactly how the process would run.
FAQs
Herdsearch is a fixed-fee recruitment partner that manages the hiring process from role definition through to offer acceptance. Instead of charging a percentage of salary, we provide structured recruitment support so organisations can hire with clarity and predictable cost.
Traditional agencies typically charge a percentage of the placed candidate's salary, which can create pressure to fill roles quickly rather than carefully. Our fixed-fee model means the cost is agreed upfront and isn't tied to salary size, so our focus stays on finding the right person for the role, not the fastest or highest-value placement.
We work with SMEs, growing teams and organisations that want a structured, professional hiring process without the overhead of an in-house talent function. This includes businesses making their first dedicated hire in a role as well as established teams scaling up.
We support a wide range of roles across IT, sales, commercial, marketing, engineering, administration, operations, finance, HR, legal and customer service. If you're unsure whether a role is suitable, get in touch and we're always happy to talk it through.
Through our partnership levels, we support New Zealand-based hires. We also have experience recruiting globally, including across the UK and Europe, so if you have a role outside NZ, get in touch and we can talk through how we can support you there too.
Getting started is simple — reach out through the contact form or give us a call, and we'll set up a short conversation about the role, the challenges you're facing, and whether our approach is the right fit. From there we'll recommend the support level that makes the most sense for you.