The "financial incentive" probably has more to due with getting a guy in that has worked with them in the past, thus potentially using their firm again for future HC searches and more financial contracts.
I’m sure that’s part of it, probably a significant part. I’m not familiar with this particular firm, but the ones I’m familiar with, probably most, are paid a fee by the actual candidates. Whether that’s a flat amount, or percentage of their new position salary, depends on the particular search firm.
Again I’m not privy to their internal workings, I’m just privy to having used them.
To be honest, I never considered them to be an honest broker, nor to have my best interest in mind, my only interest in them was to look at possible candidates and to see if they had a jewel among their stable that was worth the hassle of using them.
I honestly can’t recall if I’ve ever hired someone from a search firm. It’s been a while.
There are also C-suite type, and M&A type searches that use a specialized firm.
About 90% of the time someone internally is hired, either from acquaintances or through networking, or people that actually work for the company changing positions.
To be honest, most of the time, especially in upper management, there is generally an idea of who is wanted for the position, and a lot of time interviewing is just covering your bases for HR type reasons.