Your most important hires deserve our full commitment.
When a role really matters, sending it to every agency in town rarely gets you the best person. It gets you the fastest CVs. Sewell Wallis offers retained and exclusive recruitment for accountancy and finance, HR and business support roles across Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire. One expert partner, a dedicated search and a shortlist built around your business.
Multi-agency recruitment feels like it widens your options. In practice, it often does the opposite. Agencies race to send CVs first, the same candidates get approached three times, your brand gets diluted across the market, and nobody has the time or the incentive to go after the people who aren't actively looking.
Retained and exclusive recruitment changes that. You choose one specialist partner, and we put our full network, our time and our best consultants behind your role. The result is a deeper search, a stronger shortlist and a hire who stays. It's why 92% of our placements are still in post after 12 months.
Retained recruitment: for senior, specialist & business-critical hires.
Retained recruitment is our most in-depth service. It's built for the roles that shape your business: Finance Directors, CFOs, Heads of HR, Financial Controllers, specialist and hard-to-fill positions- any hire where getting it wrong would be costly.
You engage us to run the search from start to finish, with a fee structure split into stages across the process. In return, you get a committed team and a guaranteed level of time and resource on your role.
What you get
- A dedicated consultant and search team: Your role gets priority attention from start to finish, with a named lead who owns the process.
- A full market search: We map the market, identify the strongest people in comparable roles and approach them directly. Most of the best senior candidates aren't on job boards, and they aren't applying for jobs. We go and find them.
- A detailed brief, done properly: We spend time with you and your stakeholders to understand the business, the culture, the team and what success in the role looks like before we approach anyone.
- Discretion when you need it: Replacing someone confidentially, or hiring ahead of a restructure? Retained search lets us approach the market quietly and professionally.
- A thoroughly assessed shortlist: Every candidate is interviewed, qualified and presented with our honest view on fit, motivation and salary expectations.
- Regular, transparent updates: You'll know where the search stands at every stage, including what the market is telling us.
- Support through offer and beyond: We manage negotiation, counter-offers and notice periods, and we stay in touch after your new hire starts.
Why it works
Because you've committed to us, we commit fully to you. Retained search removes the race to be first and replaces it with a focus on finding the right person. You see a considered shortlist of the best available talent, not a pile of CVs.
Exclusive recruitment: the benefits of a single partner, with no upfront commitment
Exclusive recruitment is ideal for permanent roles where you want a focused, high-quality search without the commitment of a retained fee. You give Sewell Wallis sole responsibility for your vacancy for an agreed period, and we give it priority across our team and network.
What you get
- Priority on your vacancy: With exclusivity, your role moves to the top of our list. We invest more time, more resource and more of our network in finding your hire.
- Access to our full network: We approach the passive candidates in our network as well as those actively looking, so you see people your competitors don't.
- One clear message to the market: Your role is represented once, consistently and professionally. No duplicated adverts, no conflicting salary information and no candidates hearing about your job from three different agencies.
- Adverts that attract the right people: When we take your role to market, our marketing expertise makes it stand out and reach the strongest candidates, not just the most.
- A shortlist, not a CV flood: Fewer, better-matched candidates means less time screening and more time meeting the people who could genuinely make a difference.
- A single point of contact: One consultant who knows your business, manages the process and keeps you updated.
Why it works
Multi-agency briefs reward speed over quality, whereas exclusivity rewards quality. When we know the role is ours to fill, we can take the time to search properly, represent your business well and find a hire who fits.
Retained or exclusive: which is right for you?
Why choose Sewell Wallis?
- Placements that last: 92% of our placements are still in post after 12 months.
- Access to people you won't find on job boards: Our network reaches the finance, HR and business support professionals who aren't actively looking.
- Specialists, not generalists: Accountancy and finance, HR and business support recruitment is what we do, every day.
- Two decades of market knowledge: We know the people, the salaries and the competition across Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire.
- Local teams in Sheffield and Leeds: Consultants who know your market and can meet you face to face.
- Straight talking, every step: Honest advice on the market, salaries, candidates and timescales.
Got a hire that matters? Let's talk.
Tell us about the role and what you need it to achieve. We'll recommend the right approach and show you how we'd run the search.