Services
A specialist hiring process, built to find people who stay
We are a specialist recruiter, so we work differently from a volume agency. Each of our consultants carries only one or two roles at a time, we assess people on real capability rather than a CV, and we stay close from the first briefing through to onboarding. Since 2014, that approach is why our placements last.
How does EliteRecruitments’ hiring process work?
Specialist hiring is rarely difficult because there are no candidates. It is difficult because the strongest candidates are often hard to identify, hard to assess, and selective. Our process is built to solve that: we understand the role beyond the job description, search through specialist networks built since 2014, assess on genuine capability rather than keywords, and present a focused shortlist with honest recommendations, staying involved through interviews, the offer, onboarding and aftercare.
Since 2014
specialist BFSI recruitment
80%
screening ratio, candidates we submit get interviewed
85%
joining ratio, offers that become joiners
< 15 fees
returned since 2014 for an early leaver
The roles are rarely one dimensional
Why specialist BFSI hiring is different
The hardest part of specialist BFSI hiring is rarely the job title. It is the combination of things a role genuinely demands. An actuarial pricing role can need deep technical modelling, commercial judgement and the ability to influence senior stakeholders. A risk leader may need regulatory knowledge, analytics capability and real leadership experience together. An analytics hire often sits between data, technology and the business, and has to speak to all three.
In markets like these, the challenge is not finding someone with the right words on a CV. It is finding someone with the right combination of technical depth, judgement and long term fit. That is exactly why our process is built around understanding capability rather than matching keywords, and why subject matter knowledge on our side is the difference between a shortlist that looks right and one that is right.
Depth and focus, not volume
How we are different from a volume agency
Most recruitment firms are built to process large numbers of vacancies, where success is measured by how many roles a consultant carries or how many CVs are submitted. That can work for high volume hiring. It rarely works for specialist BFSI hiring. When talent pools are small, technical capability matters and a wrong hire can cost months of progress, the quality of assessment matters far more than the quantity of profiles.
That is why our consultants focus on only one or two roles at a time. The aim is not to send more CVs; it is to understand a brief properly, reach the strongest people in the market, and help you make a confident decision. In practice the consultant on your role can hold a real conversation about the work, knows what separates a strong candidate from an average one, and can spot on a CV the difference a generalist would miss. Most clients would rather review three genuinely relevant candidates than thirty profiles that still need screening. So would we, and it is also why the people we place tend to stay.
Engagement models
Four ways we can work with you
Different hiring needs call for different engagement models, so we offer four, and we will recommend the one that genuinely fits rather than the one that suits us. On cost, the models work as you would expect: Retained Search is a committed fee structured across the search, Contingency is paid only on a successful placement, RPO is arranged on a programme basis, and Capability Build is scoped to the project. We are transparent about fees from the first conversation. Whichever model you choose, the same specialist screening and technical assessment run underneath it, and that is where we save you the most effort.
For senior and hard to fill roles
Our most committed model, for senior, leadership and hard to fill roles that need a dedicated, in depth and exclusive search. We work the mandate end to end, map the market, approach passive candidates directly, and stay close throughout. It is also the right model where a search needs discretion, such as a sensitive or confidential senior hire.
Flexible, paid on placement
A more flexible model where you engage us alongside your own efforts and pay only on a successful placement. Well suited to roles that are important but more straightforward to fill, and to teams that want specialist reach without an exclusive commitment.
For ongoing or higher volume hiring
We can run part or all of your recruitment process as an extension of your team, bringing our specialist screening and assessment to a sustained programme of hiring. We can work within your systems and under your brand, so candidates experience a single, consistent process.
Expert technical interviewing
Alongside any model, where you need specialist or technical interviewing capacity you do not have in house, we can provide expert interviewers to assess candidates on the technical depth a role demands, bringing genuine subject matter assessment into your process when you need it.
Build a whole team, function or capability centre
For organisations building a new team, function or capability centre, often in India, we help design and build it from the ground up: the structure, the roles, the sequence of hires, and the senior and specialist talent to fill them. We phase the hiring so the senior and anchor roles come first and the team builds around them in a sensible order. See Capability Build Recruitment and our Build a GCC in India hub.
These are starting points, not rules. We will always recommend the model that genuinely fits your situation.
Our process, step by step
From first briefing to long after the offer
Whichever model we work under, a search runs through the same disciplined stages. The detail flexes with the role, but the rigour does not.
Briefing and calibration
We start by understanding the role properly: not just the job description, but the team, the context, what good actually looks like, and why the role is open. For specialist and senior mandates this is where a generalist recruiter struggles, and where our subject matter knowledge lets us calibrate the search accurately from day one. We would rather ask more questions at the start than present the wrong people later.
Search and sourcing
We search across our specialist network built since 2014, our own database, and digital channels, and for senior roles we approach the strongest passive candidates directly. Because we live in these markets, we reach people a job advertisement never will.
Screening and assessment
This is the stage where we do the heavy lifting. We assess people on genuine capability, not a CV: real technical depth, judgement and fit for the role as briefed. Our consultants run the specialist and technical interviewing themselves, and we screen senior candidates personally before anyone reaches you. By the time a shortlist arrives, the weeding out is already done, so your team spends its interview time deciding between strong candidates rather than filtering out weak ones. This is the stage that protects you from an expensive wrong hire, and it is why our screening holds up: 80 per cent of the candidates we submit are interviewed.
Shortlist and presentation
You receive a short, focused shortlist of genuinely qualified people, with honest context on each, rather than a stack of profiles to sift. If someone is a strong candidate with one reservation, we tell you, because your time is better spent on the right people.
Interview and assessment support
We coordinate interviews, prepare both sides properly, and keep the process moving with clear communication. Where a role needs deep technical assessment, our consultants have already run it during screening, so your interviews can focus on fit, motivation and the decision itself rather than on testing fundamentals.
Offer and close
We manage the offer, the negotiation and the counteroffer carefully, because this is where good hires are often lost. Having stayed close to the candidate throughout, we help bring the right person across the line.
Onboarding and aftercare
Our involvement does not end at the offer. We stay in touch through the candidate’s start and settling in, and every placement is backed by our 90 day replacement guarantee. We measure ourselves on whether people stay and grow, not on whether the role was filled.
How we assess, and why our placements last
We measure ourselves on whether people stay
80%
screening rate, candidates we submit get interviewed
85%
joining rate, offers that become joiners
< 15
fees returned since 2014 because a placement left early
The whole process is built to get one thing right: placing people who are genuinely capable and who stay. We assess on real capability rather than a job title, we look beyond the CV at technical depth and fit, and we screen senior candidates ourselves before they reach you. That discipline shows in the numbers, and every placement is backed by our 90 day replacement guarantee.
In specialist and senior hiring, those retention numbers are the real test. Filling a role is only the beginning; the real test is whether that person succeeds and stays. Someone who is still there and growing years later, in markets built on long term decisions and trust, is what protects the cost and disruption of getting it wrong, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to.
There is a practical benefit behind these numbers. Because the screening and the specialist interviewing are done before a profile reaches you, the effort on your side falls sharply. You are not sifting a funnel of applicants or running early rounds to weed out irrelevant candidates. You receive a short list of people we have already tested, with honest context on each, and you spend your time on the decision, not the filtering.
What makes our process work
The things behind the process that make it reliable
A good process is only as good as the discipline behind it. A few things make ours consistent.
Specialist consultants, not generalists
Our team is around thirty specialist consultants who work their own areas of the BFSI market, so the person handling your role understands it, not a general desk picking up a brief outside its knowledge.
One or two roles at a time
We deliberately keep each consultant focused on a small number of roles, so every mandate gets real attention and depth rather than being one of dozens on a list.
Senior oversight when it is needed
For complex, senior or sensitive mandates, there is a clear route to bring senior oversight onto the search, so the right level of experience is involved when it matters.
Reach across multiple channels
We source through our specialist network built since 2014, our own database, and digital channels together, which is how we reach both active candidates and the strong people who are not looking.
Clear communication and discretion
We keep you informed through a search rather than going quiet between updates, and where a mandate is sensitive or confidential we handle it with the discretion it needs.
Quality held to a standard
We review the quality and progress of our work on a regular cadence, so standards are maintained consistently across the team rather than left to chance.
Founder led
A founder who stays close to the work
EliteRecruitments was founded by Shagun Gupta, and many of the principles that shaped the firm still define how searches are run today. She stays closely involved in senior, retained and strategically important mandates, particularly where organisations are building a new capability, hiring specialist leadership, or entering a period of significant growth. Her role is not to replace the specialist consultants who run searches day to day. It is to bring additional perspective, challenge assumptions, and make sure clients benefit from the collective experience of the firm when the stakes are highest. For clients, that means the responsiveness of a specialist boutique combined with senior oversight exactly when it matters most.
Building capabilities, not just filling roles
Increasingly, clients engage us to build capabilities
Many of the organisations we work with are not simply replacing someone who has left. They are building a new function, expanding a specialist team, or establishing a capability centre. That might mean creating an actuarial team, scaling a risk function, building an analytics capability, strengthening audit and governance, or standing up a specialist operation in India.
In situations like these, success depends on more than individual hires. It depends on sequencing the right roles, bringing in leadership at the right point, and building a team that can scale. This is why Capability Build Recruitment has become an increasingly important part of how we work. See our Build a GCC in India hub
Who we do this for, and where
The markets and roles we run this process for
We run this process across the BFSI world, for insurers, reinsurers, banks, consultancies, fintechs, pension and investment firms, and the capability centres that support them, and across functions from actuarial, risk, analytics and audit to financial advisory and leadership. You can see the detail on our industry and specialist function pages.
India is our home and where our depth is greatest, and it is increasingly where this work is built. We are active and growing in the UAE, and we support firms selectively in the United Kingdom and the United States. Wherever the role sits, the process and the standard are the same. See our India, UAE, USA and Bermuda corridor pages.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Which recruitment service should an employer choose?
How does EliteRecruitments’ recruitment process work?
How are recruitment fees structured?
How long does a specialist search take?
What does EliteRecruitments assess before submitting a candidate?
What happens if a placement leaves early?
Do candidates pay for any EliteRecruitments service?
Start a conversation
Starting is a conversation, not a commitment
You tell us about the role or the team you are building, we have a proper conversation about what you need, and we come back with an honest view of how we can help and which engagement model fits. There is no obligation in that first conversation, and if we are not the right firm for a brief, we will tell you.
Thank you, we will be in touch shortly.
Your note goes to Shagun directly.