Why Retained Search Is the Gold Standard for Senior Living Executive Hiring!

Finding the right executive for a senior living community is one of the most consequential decisions an organization can make. As such, it’s just as important to invest in the right recruiting model. Though it may not seem like it, the recruiting model you use to find a candidate can determine whether your search succeeds or falls short.

This is where the retained search model comes in — the recruiting model most trusted by organizations that can’t afford to get it wrong. With the stakes in senior living communities so high for resident safety and care quality, this is the best and most consistent way to find the executives you need to keep facilities running smoothly.

What Is Retained Search?

Retained search is a recruitment model in which an organization engages a search firm exclusively. If you hire an executive search firm, you pay a portion of the fee upfront, which secures the firm’s dedicated focus for the duration of the search.

The exact costs of hiring a search firm can vary significantly between organizations. However, you typically will pay for their services in installments. The first portion is due at engagement, and subsequent payments are typically due when the firm presents candidates and when you’ve successfully placed a candidate in a position.

Retained search is most commonly used to fill senior, executive, and C-suite level positions. Hiring for roles of this caliber can be challenging because the unique skills and experience required of candidates often leave recruiters with a more limited candidate pool. The consequences of the wrong hire can also be widespread, reverberating across your entire organization.

Because of these stakes, it’s critical to invest in a retained search firm that specializes in your field. Organizations like MedBest specialize even further in retained search by recruiting candidates for senior living executive roles. They know exactly what it takes to make it as an executive, which makes the recruitment process all the more efficient.

Retained Search vs. Contingency Search: What’s the Difference?

In opposition to retained search is contingency search. Under the contingency search model, you only pay recruiters if they place a candidate in an available position. This means multiple firms may conduct the same search simultaneously, with no exclusivity or guaranteed commitment.

Some of the main differences between retained and contingency search are:

• Exclusivity and dedicated attention: With retained search, you work exclusively with one firm, which in turn gives you their dedicated attention until you fill the position. With contingency search, you’re free to hire multiple firms, but they may not be as dedicated to your search. 
• Candidate quality and vetting depth: In the retained search model, firms are more focused on thoroughly vetting candidates to ensure their quality and suitability for the role. There typically isn’t the same guarantee with contingency search; further, this model tends to be better suited to entry- or mid-level roles, where the same level of vetting may not be entirely necessary.
• Access to passive candidates: Retained search models may provide you access to passive candidates—that is, candidates who are satisfied in their current roles and aren’t actively seeking a new one, but would make a change for the right opportunity. They’re incentivized to find the best person for your position and are more likely to try reaching out to these kinds of candidates.
• Accountability and transparency: Retained search models tend to offer a higher degree of accountability and transparency. In this model, firms are accountable to you to fill the role and are more likely to be open about the entire recruitment process. This is in contrast to contingency search, in which recruiters aren’t required to ensure your role gets filled.

Retained search is on the rise as a major workforce trend, particularly for high-level or highly specialized roles, given the above benefits. It’s not that contingency search doesn’t work in the senior living community industry — it’s just that retained search is often a better fit.

Why Retained Search Works for Senior Living

For senior living communities, retained search is typically the best option for filling leadership vacancies. This is because of the unique needs of this industry. Senior living communities are highly regulated and have specific culture-driven staffing needs; additionally, staff of all levels can have a serious impact on residents, who may be vulnerable or fragile. Making a bad hire in this kind of environment can lead to operational and reputational damages that go well beyond those in many other industries. Further, there may be significant negative impacts on residents and the quality of their care. Given the potential consequences for sensitive individuals’ health and well-being, it’s imperative to find the right fit when hiring new facility leaders.

The right senior living executive search firm will understand all of this, as well as what it means to find the “right fit” in an executive. At MedBest, many of our recruiters are former senior living executives themselves. They know how to recruit for and cultivate the perfect senior living team because they understand what it looks like in practice for someone to be the best candidate for the role.

Key Benefits of Retained Search for Senior Living Organizations

As a senior living organization, there are many benefits to using the retained search model. Some of the most important include:

A True Recruiting Partnership

Unlike contingency hiring, retained search isn’t a simple transaction. It’s a collaborative engagement in which the search firm acts as an extension of its client’s leadership team. 

As part of this partnership, to fully understand what clients need, the firm takes time to fully learn about the organization’s culture, values, and goals (in addition to the specific demands of the role) before candidate sourcing ever begins. This is invaluable when hiring senior living executives, who must be aware of all these nuances to know whether they’d even be suitable for the role, let alone succeed in it.

Access to the Hidden Job Market

While you may still be able to find a talented senior living leader who’s actively seeking a new position, you won’t always find the right one. The most qualified senior living executives often aren’t applying to job listings — they’re settled into, satisfied by, and successful in their current roles. It’s one of the best reasons to use retained search for executive positions.

This is because retained searches don’t just build relationships with senior living facilities, but also with candidates themselves. Reaching out to qualified candidates about roles for which they’d be a good fit, potentially multiple times over the course of a single person’s entire career, allows them to build long-term relationships with potential applicants. This gives retained search firms access to the passive candidate pool, which may otherwise be unavailable to you.

Reduced Turnover and Long-Term Fit

When engaging in a retained search, recruiters are dedicated to filling open positions, but beyond that, they are focused on finding the right person for the job. Their processes are thorough and prioritize alignment between a candidate’s skills and the job description, as well as between a candidate’s leadership style and the organization’s culture.

This means you get to enjoy long-term benefits from using retained search to find senior living executives. A better fit at the time of hire means someone is likely to be a better fit for the position in the long term. This, in turn, reduces the high financial and operational costs of executive attrition in senior living facilities. It also ensures stability and continuity for community residents and their families.

Confidentiality and Discretion

In any field, filling executive positions requires confidentiality and discretion. Leadership changes can be unsettling for everyone on staff, since they affect all employees from the top down. Confidentiality and discretion are especially high priorities when filling a leadership role in a senior living facility, as turbulence and turnover can have similar impacts on residents and family members.

Retained search allows you to search for and fill leadership roles privately. This can be helpful if you need to replace a current leader or find a suitable replacement for a sensitive role — especially if the circumstances surrounding their departure require confidentiality, such as underperformance or the need for personal leave. When you engage in a retained search, you don’t have to post a job listing or advertise the open role, which could upset staff and community members and invite unwanted speculation to the search.

A Higher Standard of Accountability

Your engagement of a retained search creates a formal commitment on both sides. You agree to work exclusively with the firm, and they agree to find a suitable candidate to fill your open executive position. 

Retained searches are therefore more accountable for results, timelines, and the quality of their work, not just the speed with which they fill the position. What’s more, many retained search agreements include a replacement guarantee if the placed candidate doesn’t work out within a defined time period. Hiring is an art, not a science, and having a backup plan is always a good thing.

By working with a senior living search firm offering a retained search model, you have a higher standard of accountability to the recruitment and hiring process than you can get through virtually any other means. Even if the search takes longer than you expected or you have to replace the candidate, you have expert support throughout the process. In a senior living facility, anything you can do to find a great long-term fit and reduce turnover potential is beneficial for staff, residents, and overall operations.

What to Expect From a Retained Search Engagement

If you’re considering a retained search engagement to fill an open senior living leadership role at your facility, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the process so you know what to expect. Here’s what a retained search process typically looks like:

• Discovery: The firm meets with key stakeholders and people involved in the hiring process to learn about the role, your ideal candidate, and the organization’s culture.
• Research and sourcing: The firm targets and reaches out to qualified active and passive candidates in its proprietary network.
• Candidate assessment: The firm vets candidates and either rejects them or moves them forward in the process. They interview finalists in depth, evaluating cultural fit and leadership style alongside technical knowledge, personality and behavioral assessments, experience, and qualifications.
• Presentation and selection: The firm presents a curated slate of candidates, with full profiles and recommendations, to the client so they can make a selection.
• Support and onboarding: The firm guides the client and candidate through the offer stage until you fill the role. They may also be able to support early onboarding to help ensure the success of their placement.

Keep in mind that the above is a general overview of the hiring process when engaging in a retained search. Different firms may have their own unique way of doing things, which may or may not work for your needs. 

Working with a retained search firm is a sure way to speed up the hiring process, especially for a leadership position at a senior living facility. However, it may still take time to go through each phase and ensure you’ve found the right person for the job.

Is Retained Search Right for Your Organization?

Retained search isn’t the only way to recruit viable candidates for a job. For some roles or circumstances, other approaches may be more appropriate.

However, for senior-level and executive roles in the senior living industry, retained search is often the best path forward. The stakes are too high, the talent pool too niche, and the cost of turnover too significant to leave searching for the right leader to chance. 

When filling a C-suite or executive director role, navigating a sensitive leadership transition, seeking a candidate with a very specific skill set, or operating in a competitive labor market, you should strongly consider engaging in a retained search. Retained search offers senior living organizations a dedicated, relationship-driven, accountable recruiting process that contingency search isn’t designed to — and simply can’t — match. Having this level of commitment to your recruitment and hiring process is vital, especially since executive roles directly affect both resident care and organizational culture.

Ready to start your senior living executive search? Connect with MedBest to learn more about our approach to retained search and how we can support your hiring process from start to finish!

FAQs About Retained Search

What Is the Difference Between Retained and Contingency Search?

Retained search involves an exclusive engagement with one firm, a partial upfront fee, and a dedicated search process. Contingency search involves no upfront fee but also no exclusivity — multiple recruiters may work the role simultaneously, often with less rigorous vetting.

Why Choose Retained Search for Executive Roles?

Executive roles carry higher stakes and require a more thorough search process — including access to passive candidates, deep cultural fit assessment, and a higher level of accountability. Retained search delivers on all three.

How Long Does a Retained Search Take?

Timelines vary depending on the role, location, and organization, but most retained executive searches are completed within 60–90 days. A good senior living search firm will set clear expectations at the start of the engagement.

Is Retained Search Worth the Cost?

When you factor in the cost of a bad hire — lost productivity, staff disruption, re-recruitment fees, and, in senior living, potential impact on resident care — a retained search is typically a sound investment. The goal isn’t just to fill the role; it’s to fill it right.

Can Retained Search Help With Hard-to-Fill Senior Living Roles?

Yes. Retained search is especially well-suited for niche or difficult-to-fill executive roles because it gives recruiters the time, focus, and network access to pursue candidates who aren’t actively on the market.

What Makes MedBest Different as a Retained Search Partner?

MedBest recruiters are former senior living executives — meaning they bring firsthand industry knowledge to every search. That insider perspective shapes how they assess candidates, advise clients, and define what “right fit” looks like in this space.