Human Resources Executive Search in Bangladesh
Executive search is the direct, confidential approach to senior people who are not answering advertisements: directors, heads of function and C-level candidates identified, approached and brought to an offer. PayrollBD runs that search from Dhaka for employers in Bangladesh, with HR leadership roles as its home ground.
What is executive search?
It is recruitment in reverse. An advertisement waits for people to apply; a search goes to the people who would never apply, because they are employed, valued and not looking. The work is in the approach, the discretion and the judgement of fit, and it ends not at a verbal yes but at a signed contract and a first day.
The brief comes first and carries everything: the real scope of the role, the reporting line, the package band and what would make a strong candidate say no. Mapping follows, then direct approaches, then private conversations that test interest before anyone is put forward.
A shortlist is presented with what was learned about each person, interviews and references run on both sides, and the offer is negotiated to a contract that will hold. Where the search is for a head of HR or of finance, PayrollBD brings a working view of what the role must actually run.
Which roles does the search cover?
Six levels, and the method is the same for each: direct approach, confidential first contact, a short shortlist. What changes by level is who decides, how references are taken and how much the reporting line has to be settled before the approach, so each is described on its own terms below.
C-level executives
The chief executive, finance, operations and technology roles. The approach is discreet, the shortlist is short, and the decision usually involves a board or an owner as well as the hiring manager. The brief therefore records who signs off, so the search does not stall between the people who must agree on the final candidate.
Directors
Functional and divisional directors who carry a budget and a team. The search tests judgement and track record rather than a CV, and the references are taken from people who reported to the candidate as well as from those they reported to. A director who ran a team well is described differently by the two groups, and the difference is informative.
Vice presidents
Regional and group heads in companies that use the title, often for a foreign parent. The brief settles the reporting line early, because a role that answers to two offices needs a written statement of who decides what before anyone is approached. The candidate is told that structure in the first conversation, not at offer stage.
Senior managers
Heads of department and plant or country managers: the level where a company first needs a search rather than an advertisement, because the strong candidates are already employed and not reading job boards. The mapping starts from the companies whose managers already run a comparable operation, and the approach is made to named people.
Technical leadership
Engineering heads, IT directors and technical leads whose market is small and well-networked. The mapping stage matters most here, and the shortlist is judged by peers as much as by the hiring manager. A technical interview is arranged with someone who does the work, so the assessment rests on more than a conversation with a generalist.
HR and finance leads
The two functions PayrollBD works beside every month. Heads of HR and of finance are searched with a direct view of what the role must actually run: the payroll cycle, the statutory filings, the service books and registers, and the audit that follows. That working knowledge is why these two searches are the firm’s home ground.
Why does the contract matter?
Because a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity sits outside the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006’s definition of a worker, and what the Act does not fix for that person, the contract must. The table sets the two cases side by side, and each provision was read in full from the Act’s text before being named here.
| Question | Worker under the Act | Managerial hire |
|---|---|---|
| Covered by the Act’s definition of worker | Yes, under section 2(Lxv) | Not if employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity |
| Appointment letter and identity card | Required by section 5 | Set by the contract of employment |
| Where the terms of employment come from | The Act and the contract together | The contract, so it must be complete |
Section 2(Lxv) of the Act defines a worker as any person employed to do skilled, unskilled, manual, technical, trade promotional or clerical work for hire or reward, but does not include a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity. Section 5, which requires a letter of appointment and an identity card with photograph, is written for workers so defined. A director or head of function employed in that capacity therefore takes their notice, restraint and benefit terms from the contract rather than from the Act, which is why a search that ends at a handshake has not ended. The Act’s text is reproduced by the International Labour Organization, and the official text is published on the Ministry of Law’s bdlaws site. Reviewed by Eicra Binte Islam, HR Admin, PayrollBD.
How does a search actually run?
Five stages, each closed in writing before the next begins, so you always know where the search stands and nobody is surprised by who has been approached. The sequence is the same for a country manager and for a chief executive; only the depth of each stage changes.
1. Brief the role, its real scope and its reporting line, in writing.
2. Map the market and approach candidates directly, not by advertisement.
3. Hold the first conversations in confidence and test genuine interest.
4. Present a shortlist, run interviews and references, keep both sides informed.
5. Close on a signed contract and stay through the notice period and start.
Who should use it, and who not?
A search is the right tool for one role at a time at a level where advertising fails, and it is the wrong tool for most other hiring. The line is drawn honestly below, with the neighbouring services named where they fit the case better than this one does.
It fits a company filling a director, head of function or C-level seat, a foreign parent appointing a country head in Bangladesh, and any employer whose last advertisement for a senior role produced applicants but not candidates. It also fits a confidential replacement, where the incumbent does not yet know.
It does not fit hiring at volume, which runs under manpower recruitment; ordinary vacancies, which the hiring services page covers; or mid-level professionals and specialists, which is the work of recruiting professionals and experts. Where the need is a whole HR function rather than one head of it, the human resource management page describes that service.
| The case | Search fits | Another service fits better |
|---|---|---|
| One senior seat | A director, head of function or C-level seat | Hiring at volume, which runs under manpower recruitment |
| A country head | A foreign parent appointing a country head in Bangladesh | Ordinary vacancies, which the hiring services page covers |
| Advertising has failed | The last advertisement produced applicants but not candidates | Mid-level professionals and specialists, under recruiting professionals and experts |
| A confidential replacement | The incumbent does not yet know | A whole HR function rather than one head of it, under human resource management |
What gets asked before a search?
Four questions come before nearly every brief, and two of them are about trust: how confidential the search is, and what happens if it goes wrong. The other two are practical, how long a senior search takes and what it costs, and both have honest answers that do not need a number on this page.
Four questions, answered in writing
Each answer below opens with the position PayrollBD takes and names where that position is written down, in the brief or in the search agreement, because a search is bought on terms rather than on promises. Where an answer depends on the role, it says so instead of guessing.
How confidential is the search?
Confidential on both sides, by design. The employer is not named to a candidate until the first private conversation says it should be, and a candidate’s interest is not reported back to anyone outside the search until they agree to be put forward.
Inside your company, the search is known to the people who signed the brief and to nobody else until the shortlist stage.
How long does a senior search take?
Longer than an advertisement, because the people worth approaching are not looking. The stages are fixed and reported as they close: brief, mapping, approaches, shortlist, offer. What moves the calendar is how quickly your side interviews and decides, and how long the candidate’s own notice runs; neither is promised as a date, both are shown in the brief.
What does executive search cost?
The fee is set at the brief, in writing, against the role’s level and how the search is to run: whether it is retained from the start or paid on success, what the shortlist must contain, and what happens if the role changes mid-search.
No number sits on this page because none would be true for every role; the written terms come before any approach is made.
What if the placed executive leaves early?
What the agreement says, and it says it before the search starts. The brief records the period during which an early departure triggers a further search and on what terms, so the question is answered in writing at the beginning rather than argued at the end.
Where the departure follows a change in the role itself, that is named in the same clause.
Brief us on the role you cannot fill
Send the title, the reporting line and whether the search must stay confidential inside your own company. We come back with how we would map the market for that role, what the shortlist would contain, and the written terms of the search, before a single approach is made.