Executive Leadership Recruiting for Hiring Leaders and Growth-Focused Organizations
If your organization is facing a vacant critical leadership seat, you’re likely balancing pressure across teams and timelines. Onboard Recruiting Partners was built to address that exact scenario with a disciplined executive leadership recruiting approach that prioritizes the right hire over the fastest one. Based in Rochester Hills, Michigan, we serve growing companies across the United States, focusing exclusively on leadership and key functional roles where getting the decision right matters most. In our experience, a well-defined leadership search reduces time-to-impact and preserves strategic momentum for the entire organization.
A Retained Search Model Built Around Commitment
Most leadership-level hiring problems aren’t sourcing problems, they’re alignment problems. A search that moves fast but lands the wrong person costs far more than the vacancy alone. Onboard Recruiting Partners operates on a retained search model, meaning every engagement begins with a genuine commitment from both sides to find the hire who will last, not merely fill the seat. Practitioners in this field often see true alignment emerge from early, candid conversations about role scope and success metrics.
Founder Chris Masson brings more than 25 years of hands-on management experience from corporate environments including Sherwin-Williams and AkzoNobel, plus his own entrepreneurial venture. That background shapes how searches are framed and how candidates are evaluated. This operator’s perspective informs recruiting, making a practical difference in how roles are defined and how people are assessed. In our experience, hiring leaders respond to this practical, outcomes-focused lens.
What Sets This Approach Apart
Executive leadership recruiting done well requires more than reviewing resumes. It requires understanding what the role actually demands, how the team is structured, and what kind of leader will earn credibility in that environment on day one. Onboard Recruiting Partners evaluates candidates on leadership approach, how they’ve handled complexity, and how they’re likely to function within the existing team before a single name is presented to a client. Practitioners in this field often point to early stakeholder interviews as the best predictor of long-term fit.
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Direct access to the expert: Chris Masson personally runs every search. Clients work with the person they hired, not a junior coordinator.
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Functional depth across key disciplines: Searches span HR, marketing, engineering, operations, and merchant roles, with the same structured evaluation process applied to each.
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Cultural and team fit as a filter, not an afterthought: Leadership style and team dynamics are assessed early in the process, not mentioned briefly at the end.
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Honest, direct communication: If a search surfaces misalignment in how a role is defined, that conversation happens openly rather than being avoided.
Who Onboard Recruiting Partners Serves
The firm works with SMB and mid-market companies in the range of 50 to 500 employees that are building or strengthening their leadership teams. These are organizations where a single hire in operations, HR, or another functional area carries real weight. A Director of Operations who understands multi-site distribution and can lead facility teams without needing constant direction is a very different hire from a general warehouse manager, and that distinction matters when evaluating candidates.
Growing companies often face the challenge of defining what they actually need at a leadership level before they can search effectively. Onboard Recruiting Partners treats that early alignment work as part of the engagement, not as an assumption the client has to solve on its own.
You can learn more about the firm’s background and approach on the Onboard Recruiting Partners LinkedIn page.
Starting a Search the Right Way
If your organization has a leadership vacancy that has lingered too long, or you’re planning a hire that must land correctly the first time, start with a direct conversation about the role, the team, and what success looks like twelve months out. The form below connects you with Onboard Recruiting Partners to begin that conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of roles does Onboard Recruiting Partners handle?
Onboard Recruiting Partners focuses exclusively on leadership and key functional roles. Core practice areas include HR, marketing, engineering, operations, and merchant functions. We do not engage in high-volume staffing or entry-level hiring. Each search is a dedicated engagement for a position that has a meaningful impact on the client’s organization and team.
What is the difference between a retained search and a contingency search?
A contingency firm is paid only if a candidate is placed, which creates pressure to move quickly and present candidates before thorough vetting is complete. A retained search firm is engaged on a committed basis, meaning success is tied to finding the right long-term hire rather than the first acceptable one. Retained searches involve deeper discovery, more structured evaluation, and ongoing communication throughout the process. For leadership roles where a bad hire carries significant cost and disruption, that difference matters.
How does Onboard Recruiting Partners evaluate candidates beyond the resume?
The evaluation looks at how candidates have led teams, how they’ve handled operational or organizational complexity, and how their leadership style fits the client’s team dynamics. For roles like Director of Operations, that means assessing whether a candidate has actually managed through multi-site, multi-team complexity rather than just holding a title. Cultural fit and leadership approach are primary filters, not secondary considerations.
Does Onboard Recruiting Partners work with companies outside of Michigan?
Yes. While headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the firm conducts executive leadership recruiting for growing companies across the United States. The retained search model and structured evaluation process apply regardless of geography, and the practice serves a national client base.
What should a company have ready before starting an executive search?
Have a clear picture of what the role needs to accomplish in the first year, the reporting structure, and the current team context. That said, role alignment is part of the engagement. If there’s internal disagreement about the role, or if the role definition has shifted since the last holder, working through that clarity is part of the early search process rather than a prerequisite to starting.
Who will be personally involved in running the search?
Every search is led directly by Founder Chris Masson. Clients do not hand off to a coordinator or associate after the initial conversation. Chris’s background as an operator at Sherwin-Williams and AkzoNobel, plus his experience running a business, brings practical management context to the work, not just recruiting process knowledge. This direct involvement is a core part of how Onboard Recruiting Partners operates.