Cripps Sears & Partners recognised in leading UK Executive Search Market Share Survey

Cripps Sears & Partners is delighted to be recognised as one of the UK's top executive search firms in the Industrial and Professional Services sectors in the UK's leading survey of the executive search profession. Two of the firm's partners have also been individually ranked amongst the country's top specialist executive recruiters - Mike Cripps within the industrial sector and Andrew Somerville within the professional services sector. The rankings appear in the 2008/9 edition of Executive Grapevine's annual survey of the executive search market.

With nearly a decade's worth of analysis the Executive Grapevine survey provides the HR community with a unique and insightful overview of the capabilities and expertise of the UK's executive search community.

The survey indicated that one of the most significant trends for 2008-2009 was the increasing concentration of searches amongst fewer firms. Industry specialist firms have benefited from a trend amongst clients to instruct those firms they know have genuine expertise in their sector. The industrial sector, which includes energy and infrastructure - both core industries at Cripps Sears & Partners - has grown as a proportion of total UK executive search fee income from 12.8% to 14.1%.

The energy sector in particular is struggling to contend with a dearth of talent coming through from middle and senior management as its ageing workforce nears retirement. Search firms are increasingly used as companies compete for a smaller and smaller pool of talent. Furthermore, there is a shortage of engineering graduates and sourcing talent for the future has become critical for energy businesses.

According to Mike Cripps the energy sector has remained resiliently active in the market for talent in spite of the downturn and Cripps Sears & Partners has "benefited from a long established reputation built over 36 years, entrenched energy sector knowledge and strong client relationships that have stood the test of time”.

The professional services sector only accounts for a small share (7.6%) of the executive search sector according to the Executive Grapevine survey. The market has certainly been more challenging with a drop in net fee income by 1.9%. Whilst hiring has certainly slowed and in some cases stopped entirely within professional services firms, search firms have been able to find assignments if they had fostered strong relationships before the downturn.

Andrew Somerville, head of the Professional Services Practice at Cripps Sears & Partners suggests that the firm's niche expertise in recruiting professional advisers with a focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors has served them well through the recession insofar clients have been seeking to recruit such specialists and know that Cripps Sears is one of the few firms with a genuine track record of successfully recruiting in this field.

Cripps Sears & Partners has enjoyed a robust year in 2008/9 in spite of difficult economic conditions and looks forward to further improving performance in 2009/10.