We are your executive search firm, run by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurial decision-makers.
Successful companies are built on extraordinary personalities. With the understanding of a long-term business partner, we apply our passion, sensitivity and systematic approach to connect specialists and executives with exceptional companies. As experts in executive search, we offer recruitment consulting services for all types of companies and corporations.
Our focus industries
Digital Services / IT Solutions
Our functionally structured team of experts offers cross-industry support on all relevant IT and digital topics for our clients in the industrial and service sectors. We understand the complexity of today’s digital challenges and can draw on our own wealth of experience, acquired over a span of many years.
Financial Services
Our Financial Services expertise is based on our long-standing networks and a deep understanding of the market. We focus on specialist and executive positions in the credit industry and in asset management. Our enthusiasm for supporting projects involving current developments in blockchain/token technology and cryptocurrencies continues to grow.
Legal & Tax
With our Legal & Tax team, we support international and national law firms of all shapes and sizes in the recruitment of individual lawyers and teams as well as in matters relating to the opening of new offices and market entry. We also provide our more than twenty years of expertise and our network to our customers (particularly in the areas of law, tax, HR and compliance).
Life Sciences
Our team’s expertise is based on extensive project experience in various functional areas of the industry. Complemented by specific knowledge of our customers and their market companions in the fields of diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and food ingredients, our practice partners and their colleagues are able to find customised personnel solutions. Of course, we also benefit from our extensive network – both sector-specific and connecting with neighbouring sectors.
Media + IT
Our experts can draw on 30 successful years of experience in different roles in the (digital) media landscape. They experienced the changes in the industry first-hand and have been fortunate enough to help shape it. We fill vacancies for highly specialised technical and commercial specialists and executives in this continuously evolving industry with ever-new market participants.
Professional Services
We have been mastering the challenges of the narrow market segment of strategy and process consulting, auditing, and tax consulting for many years now. With our first-class track record, we are truly familiar with our clients’ competitive environment and support them in all relevant practices, from specialists through to managing partners.
Real Estate
Our Real Estate team covers the entire spectrum of the real estate industry: from technical management positions to investment/finance roles in every relevant asset class, from residential to retail to data centres. We draw on our established and robust networks to serve our clients in the best manner possible.
SMEs
Entrepreneurship is in our DNA. We have no specific industry focus, but rather think and act like entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. Together, we can identify the right personalities across the entire spectrum of SMEs – from the industrial Mittelstand and Hidden Champions to multinational corporations and start-ups. By not limiting ourselves to just one industry, we can unlock great potential.
Awards in the Executive Search category.
contagi proudly presents the awards for the Top Personnel Service Provider 2021 and 2022 in the category Executive Search by FOCUS-BUSINESS, Le Temps Handelszeitung and statista.
Based on an independent data survey, contagi is one of the recommended personnel service providers in Germany and Switzerland. The following evaluation parameters, among others, were included: Assessments by HR managers in companies (candidate quality, service quality, price-performance ratio) and candidates (quality of job offers, communication, service quality).
c²x – contagi Customer & Candidate Experience
Our executive search process
Acquisition
During the acquisition phase of a mandate, we lay the foundations for the quality of the working relationship with the client. For us, it is not just about mapping out role requirements: for contagi project managers, an understanding of the client’s business model and the environment in which the candidate is to succeed, is crucial.
Initialisation
During the initialisation process, the project leader assembles a team to fulfil the mandate. As well as staffing that takes into account individually fitting competencies and capacities, central elements of this process are the development of a customised search strategy and the associated methodologies.
Research
The objective of the research process is to conduct successful initial interviews and preselect suitable candidates. In addition to the traditional executive search tools, we at contagi make particular use of our extensive networks. These are based on personal relationships, which we maintain on a long-term basis. We make a point of using traditional “manufacturing” as well as innovative applications and digital media. During this phase of the search, we keep our clients informed about our activities on a timely basis.
Selection
During the selection process, the contagi project manager works closely with the research team to examine the suitability of candidates, usually by telephone and personal interviews. This also includes raising the candidate’s interest in the prospective new employer and their enthusiasm for the role. The project manager continues to maintain regular contact with the client.
Decision
The decision-making process involves very close cooperation between the client, the project manager and the research team. We present comprehensive profiles on the candidates to our clients. The project manager accompanies the client during the interview process and – if desired – acts as an intermediary in contract negotiations right up to the signing of the contract. Simultaneously, the research team coordinates the entire candidate management process. The aim is to make it easier for the client to focus on the placement decision itself.
Documentation
As part of the project documentation process, there are de-briefing and feedback sessions between the project manager and the research team, where the project outcome and lessons learned are documented. This serves to continuously improve the quality of service for the client on future mandates.
Continued support
For contagi, a search mandate does not end with the signing of the employment contract. The project manager will continue the dialogue with the successful candidate until and beyond onboarding, actively preparing them for this process. There are also compulsory follow-up interviews during and after the first 100 days in their new role.
Project completion
Only then does contagi consider a search mandate completed.