A job description tells a candidate what the role is. A hiring brief tells a recruiter what to say no to. Those are different documents, and conflating them is the single most common reason a search stalls at week three with a stack of technically-qualified résumés that all feel wrong.
The brief should name the must-haves separately from the nice-to-haves, in writing, agreed by every person in the interview loop before sourcing starts — not negotiated candidate-by-candidate as profiles come in.
Three things consistently separate a fast search from a slow one: a real comp band (not an aspirational one), an honest account of why the seat is open (backfill, growth, restructure — each attracts a different candidate pool), and a named decision-maker who can say yes without a second committee meeting.
We also ask for the 'off-limits' list explicitly — companies or specific people who are not to be approached, for conflict-of-interest or relationship reasons. Skipping this step is how searches accidentally burn a client relationship in month two.
A scorecard converts a wish list into something a panel can actually evaluate against, consistently, across every candidate. We write it collaboratively in the intake session and use it as the shared interview instrument for the entire loop — which is also why our submitted-to-offer ratio runs well above the industry norm.
Send the brief and a partner in your sector comes back with a written plan within one business day.