Chicago Leadership Recruiters
When a critical leadership role sits vacant, the pressure lands on everyone around it. Operations slow down, decisions get delayed, and the people who should be focused on strategic priorities end up managing problems that should belong to someone else. Onboard Recruiting Partners works with growing companies across the country to fill exactly those gaps, functioning as Chicago leadership recruiters and national retained search specialists who take each engagement seriously from the first conversation to the final offer.
Headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Onboard Recruiting Partners serves a national client base, working with companies in the SMB to mid-market range that are building out or strengthening their leadership teams. Every search is led personally by Founder Chris Masson, who brings more than 25 years of hands-on management experience from corporate environments and his own entrepreneurial work. That background shapes how the firm approaches every search, not as a transaction, but as a meaningful business decision with real consequences for the team inheriting the hire.
What Retained Search Actually Means
There is a real difference between contingency recruiting and retained executive search. Contingency firms move fast because speed drives their fees. Retained search firms move deliberately because finding the right person, not the fastest person, is the whole point. When a company engages Onboard Recruiting Partners, both sides are committed to the outcome. That structure removes the incentive to rush a placement and creates the space for a thorough evaluation of leadership style, team dynamics, and long-term cultural fit before a candidate is ever presented.
For hiring managers who have been through a bad hire, that distinction matters. A director who looked sharp in interviews but struggled to lead an established team, or a VP who had the right resume but the wrong instincts for the culture, those mismatches are expensive in ways that go far beyond the search fee. The retained model is built to reduce that risk.
Where Onboard Recruiting Partners Focuses
Onboard does not recruit across every function or level. The firm focuses on leadership and key functional roles in areas where the hiring decision carries real organizational weight:
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Operations: From distribution center leadership to multi-site directors who can manage through complexity without constant escalation
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Human Resources: HR directors and people leaders who can build structure and culture at the same time
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Engineering: Functional and technical leaders who bridge execution and strategy
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Marketing: Senior marketing leaders who understand demand generation, brand, and team leadership
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Merchant and Commercial Roles: Buyers, category leaders, and commercial directors in product-driven businesses
This focus matters because each of these functions requires a different kind of evaluation. An operations director in an industrial distribution company is not the same profile as a warehouse manager with more tenure. The firm’s process is designed to surface the difference, assessing how candidates have led through real operational complexity, not just how well they describe it.
An Operator’s Perspective on Leadership Hiring
Chris Masson’s background at Sherwin-Williams, AkzoNobel, and in his own business gives him a frame of reference that career recruiters typically lack. He understands what it takes to manage teams through operational pressure, what a strong director looks like when things get difficult, and what questions to ask before a client ever meets a candidate. That practical lens is what separates this approach from firms that evaluate candidates primarily on resume credentials and interview polish.
In our experience, for companies hiring into operations, supply chain, or distribution leadership, that distinction matters. A candidate who can talk about throughput and fulfillment accuracy is not the same as one who has actually owned those numbers across multiple facilities, made hard calls on staffing, and held a team together through a difficult transition. Onboard’s evaluation goes deeper than the surface to find leaders who will hold up in practice, not just in interviews.
Growing companies looking for experienced Chicago leadership recruiters with a national reach and a retained model built around long-term fit are welcome to connect with Onboard Recruiting Partners directly. The form below is a straightforward place to start that conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Onboard Recruiting Partners different from a typical staffing agency?
Onboard Recruiting Partners is a retained executive search firm, not a staffing agency. The firm does not handle high-volume hiring or entry-level placements. Every engagement is a dedicated search for a leadership or key functional role, led personally by Founder Chris Masson. The retained model means both the client and the firm are committed to the search from the start, which creates the conditions for a more thorough, intentional evaluation process rather than a race to present the first available candidate.
Does Onboard Recruiting Partners only serve companies in Michigan or the Midwest?
No. While Onboard Recruiting Partners is headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the firm serves a national client base across the United States. Growing companies from a wide range of industries and geographies have worked with the firm on leadership searches in operations, HR, engineering, marketing, and merchant functions.
What types of roles does Onboard Recruiting Partners recruit for?
The firm focuses exclusively on leadership and key functional roles. That includes operations directors and VP-level leaders, HR directors and people operations leaders, senior marketing roles, engineering leaders, and merchant or category management positions. Onboard does not recruit for entry-level or high-volume positions. The firm’s focus remains on hires that carry significant organizational weight and long-term team impact.
How does Onboard evaluate candidates beyond their resume?
The firm’s evaluation process goes well beyond credential review. Chris Masson draws on his own operational and management background to ask substantive questions about how candidates have led teams through real complexity, handled difficult personnel situations, and performed under pressure. The process specifically examines leadership style, how candidates approach team dynamics, and whether their instincts align with the client’s culture and operational environment. A candidate who reads well on paper but lacks the leadership depth to hold a team together is not a candidate Onboard will present.
Why should a growing company use a retained search model instead of posting the role on job boards?
Job boards surface active candidates, which is a small subset of the available talent market. Many of the strongest leaders for a given role are not actively searching; they are performing well in their current positions and would only consider a move for the right opportunity presented in the right way. Retained search gives the firm the time and commitment needed to reach those candidates, qualify them thoroughly, and present only those who genuinely fit the role and the organization. The process is also designed to surface alignment issues before an offer is made, which reduces the risk of a costly mismatch down the line.
How can a company get started with Onboard Recruiting Partners?
The starting point is a straightforward conversation about the open role, the team it sits within, and what success looks like beyond the job description. From there, Onboard Recruiting Partners can assess whether the search is the right fit for the firm’s focus and walk through how a retained engagement would be structured. Companies interested in learning more can connect through the contact form on this page or find Onboard on LinkedIn to get a sense of the firm’s approach and background before reaching out.