Executive Search Advisory

Fractional Recruiting specializes exclusively in the Canadian Property & Casualty insurance market, supporting insurers, brokerages, and MGAs with senior-level hiring decisions.

Hiring at the Director and Vice President level — where hiring risk, market visibility, and delay carry real consequences — often fails quietly. Not because effort is lacking, but because critical risks surface too late.

When that happens, organizations lose time, credibility, and access to the strongest candidates, often without a clear moment when the search officially failed.

The Executive Search Advisory exists to prevent that outcome.

• Searches stall without a clear failure point
  What begins as a reasonable executive search slowly turns into delay, rework, and decision fatigue while the business waits. 
• Strong candidates disengage before alignment is reached
  Senior talent moves early. By the time scope, title, or compensation are revisited, the market window has often closed. 
• Reputational impact in a small, visible talent market
  In P&C insurance, senior candidates talk. Unclear or disorganized searches affect perception well beyond a single role. 
• Time and effort invested in roles that were never market-ready
  Teams commit weeks to a role design that cannot realistically attract the level of leadership required.
   

These are not execution issues. They are early-stage diagnostic failures.

The Executive Search Advisory is a focused, two-week diagnostic engagement designed to surface misalignment early — before committing to a full external search or prolonged internal effort.

We work with HR and executive stakeholders to pressure-test assumptions around role scope, seniority, title, compensation, and flexibility against current P&C market realities.  In parallel, we conduct discreet, senior-level outreach to relevant professionals to assess real-world interest, willingness to move, and decision drivers.

This is not a public search. Conversations are exploratory and non-committal, preserving candidate goodwill and future optionality while creating informed starting points if recruiting proceeds.

The result is objective market evidence leadership can rely on — not opinion or internal debate.

Work begins immediately and runs in parallel across two focused phases.

• Role and market calibration
  Role design is refined with HR and leadership while target profiles are defined and outreach research begins.
• Market signal and interest validation
  Direct conversations with relevant Director and Vice President-level professionals validate availability, interest, and alignment as the role is finalized.

At the end of two weeks, you receive:

• A calibrated role brief grounded in current P&C market conditions 
• Clear insight into candidate availability and willingness to move 
• Identified risks, trade-offs, and likely hiring blockers 
• A practical, evidence-based recommendation on next steps
   

This may include proceeding with a controlled external search, adjusting scope or compensation, executing internally with confidence, or pausing without reputational damage.

There is no obligation to continue beyond the advisory. Clients choose how to proceed:

• Continue with Fractional Recruiting on a focused executive search 
• Run the search internally using validated market intelligence 
• Redesign or defer the role with clarity and alignment

The Executive Search Advisory stands on its own as a governance and decision-making tool.

For organizations looking beyond a single hire, this work can also connect naturally to our Talent Insight Study, which provides a deeper view of leadership readiness, retention risk, and succession across teams.

• P&C insurers, brokerages, and MGAs 
• HR leaders and executives hiring at the Director or Vice President level 
• Organizations seeking clarity before committing to a full search 
• Teams that value discretion, control, and evidence-based decisions
   

If you are planning a Director or Vice President-level hire in the Canadian P&C insurance sector and want to reduce risk before committing to a full search, we can help.