Find the right people—at the right time.

In a contingency search, no fee is due unless you hire a candidate we present. It’s a lower-commitment entry point that works well for roles where you want access to talent but aren’t ready to make an exclusive arrangement. In a retained search, we enter an exclusive agreement and you pay a portion of the fee upfront. This allows us to dedicate significant time and resources to your search — running a full market scan, actively recruiting passive candidates, and delivering qualified candidates on a defined timeline. Retained search is appropriate for senior, specialized, or hard-to-fill roles where thoroughness and speed matter more than cost flexibility.

JS Benefits Group specializes in mid-to-senior level professionals in healthcare services, employee benefits, insurance, HR, and related fields — areas where our deep industry knowledge gives us a genuine sourcing and screening advantage. We understand the credentials, career paths, and compensation benchmarks in these markets because we live in them every day. We also support clients in adjacent functions — finance, operations, and executive leadership — particularly within healthcare-adjacent organizations. If you’re unsure whether your role falls within our sweet spot, a brief conversation will tell you quickly.

For most mid-level roles, we present an initial slate of qualified candidates within two to three weeks of kickoff. Senior or highly specialized searches typically take four to six weeks to first presentation. Total time to hire — from kickoff through accepted offer — is usually six to ten weeks, depending on the employer’s interview process and decision-making speed. Retained searches move faster than contingency searches because of the dedicated resources and exclusivity involved. We set a realistic timeline at the start of every engagement and keep you informed at every stage.

Contingency fees are typically a percentage of the placed candidate’s first-year base compensation, due only upon hire. Retained search fees are structured in installments — a portion at engagement kickoff, a portion at candidate presentation, and the remainder at hire. Fee percentages vary based on role seniority, search complexity, and engagement type. We discuss fee structure transparently during our initial conversation and put everything in writing before beginning any search. There are no hidden fees or surprise charges.

Yes. We stand behind every placement with a guarantee period — if a placed candidate leaves or is terminated within the guarantee window, we conduct a replacement search at no additional fee. The guarantee period and specific terms are defined in the search agreement and vary by engagement type. We take placements seriously because our reputation depends on them working, which is why we invest in thorough screening, reference checks, and candidate preparation before any offer stage.

Every candidate we present has been through a multi-step screening process: an initial qualification review against your role requirements, a structured interview covering career history, motivations, and fit, compensation and availability confirmation, and reference checks on finalists. We don’t submit resumes we haven’t spoken to — every candidate in our presentation has been vetted by a JS Benefits recruiter and briefed on your opportunity. We also provide a written summary with each candidate outlining our assessment and why we believe they’re a strong fit for your specific role and culture.

Yes — and this is one of the most common situations we’re brought into. When internal efforts stall, it’s usually because job postings are attracting the wrong pool, the active candidate market has been exhausted, or the role requires passive candidate outreach that internal teams don’t have the bandwidth or network to execute. We access the passive candidate market — professionals who are not actively job searching but are open to the right opportunity — through direct outreach, industry networks, and relationships built over years of placing in your target market. This is where retained search in particular delivers its strongest value.

The connection is practical and meaningful. When we recruit senior HR and benefits professionals, we bring a level of market knowledge that generalist recruiters can’t match — we know what the role actually requires, what the competitive compensation looks like, and what separates strong candidates from impressive-on-paper ones. For employer clients who also work with us on benefits and fractional HR, we already understand your culture, your workforce, and your leadership team, which sharpens every aspect of the search. We’re not a recruiting firm that happens to know benefits — we’re a benefits and HR firm that runs highly targeted searches in the market we know best.