Korn Ferry Review

Korn Ferry is a global consulting firm and executive search agency, renowned for their ability to help organizations unleash their full potential and accelerate performance with the right leadership talent.

Key Takeaways

Korn Ferry is one of the leading executive search firms in the world, specializing in top-level recruitment across a range of sectors.
The firm aims to power performance, fuel growth, and help their clients unleash transformation with the right leaders.
Outside of headhunting, Korn Ferry’s main services include organizational strategy development, succession planning, professional assessment & development, and business transformation.

Korn Ferry International Overview

Named after its founders, Korn Ferry began operating as a company in 1969. Its headquarters is located in Los Angeles, but the firm has since expanded to include over a hundred offices around the world, including in America.

Korn Ferry focuses on high- and top-level recruitment for executive, senior management, C-suite, and director positions. For this reason, its fees can be steep. However, the firm is known for their ability to find talent for difficult-to-fill roles. They also source candidates for temporary positions at the management level.

The agency’s typical clients include Fortune 500 organizations, large forward-thinking companies, and major industry players from around the globe. Korn Ferry has also partnered with major organizations such as Microsoft and Duke University.

Korn Ferry’s mission is to assist companies in synchronizing strategy, talent, operations, and practices in order to achieve success in a competitive market.

Keep reading to discover whether Korn Ferry is the right executive search agency for your team.

Executive Search at Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry offers retained executive search solutions, which means that they charge a flat fee for engaging their services. From there, the cost of each search is calculated at a percentage of the placement’s first annual salary.

Process

Korn Ferry’s talent management process begins with a client consultation with their client to discuss their needs and create a candidate profile. To do so, their team determines the ideal qualifications, skills, and experience the client requires to fill the vacancy. During this phase, Korn Ferry’s team may also advise clients on things like typical salary ranges and benefits for their open role.

Once candidate profiles have been completed, the team accesses their talent pool to select suitable candidates according to client requirements and insights gained from their consultations. Korn Ferry takes pride in working quickly to identify prospective employees with the bold ambition and leadership qualities needed to make a lasting impact on the future of their company.

Once the professional search is complete, Korn Ferry’s recruiters will provide clients with a hand-picked list of executives. Clients can then select professionals from this list to interview, which Korn Ferry will help arrange. It is up to the client to select hires and send job offers, and onboarding and training new employees is their responsibility.

Korn Ferry provides all their clients with a 12-month success guarantee on executive placements. Should a new hire be terminated within a year as a result of issues with performance, the firm guarantees to provide a more suitable replacement without an additional finder’s fee.

Korn Ferry Features

Global Consulting Firm

Korn Ferry provides staffing solutions and consulting services for brands and companies in over fifty countries around the globe. This global reach allows them to find international talent for local companies, if needed. Companies no longer need to be limited to their local community to find talended job seekers suited to their vacancies.

Specialization

Companies throughout nearly every major industry turn to Korn Ferry to provide them with talented professionals who fit their requirements and align with their company culture. Outsourcing the recruitment process like this results in a shared commitment to quality

The industries and functions Korn Ferry specializes in include:

Accounting
Consumer Markets
Corporate Affairs
Financial Services
Government and Public Services
Healthcare
HR
Industrial
Legal
Life Sciences
Marketing
Operations
Risk Management
Sales
Supply Chain
Sustainability
Technology

Within these industries, Korn Ferry specializes in high-level and C-suite executive search. This includes positions like CEOs, COOs, board members, associates, and senior managers.

Permanent and Temporary Staffing

Much like other executive search firms, Korn Ferry is capable of sourcing talent for both permanent and temporary placements. These temporary placements are referred to as interim talent.

Interim positions can be helpful for job seekers looking for flexibility in their careers or who are trying to find employment when they are in between permanent roles. Korn Ferry’s headhunters have a network of professionals who have already been screened and are ready to begin work immediately. Clients attempting to scale their organizations quickly, or those dealing with sudden departures from staff, will find this particularly advantageous.

While Korn Ferry provides interim recruitment solutions, their main focus is still on executive and management-level placements. This is especially true for the legal, sales, HR, marketing, and supply chain sectors.

Why Choose Korn Ferry

We consider this firm a good choice for companies in need of executive search, for both permanent and temporary vacancies.

Korn Ferry works closely with companies and employers to provide them with the hires they need to inspire a legacy of success. Through expert executive search services, businesses are able to find their ideal executive, top-level, and C-suite candidates. This firm has won countless awards and has gained a worldwide reputation for its transparency, efficiency, and high-quality solutions.

Additionally, Korn Ferry provides a wide range of free resources regarding recruitment, professional development, and business management. Job seekers and employers alike can gain valuable insights from their research publications, blog posts, events, and webinars.