Forty percent of externally hired executives last fewer than 18 months.
It’s a pretty shocking statistic, right? With all the effort, time, and money that goes into hiring high caliber talent, you’d think companies would get it right. But here’s the thing, it’s not just about finding someone with the right skills. The real challenge lies in making sure the new hire aligns with the company’s culture and strategy and can integrate effectively with the team. So why do so many external hires fail after just 18 months?
Today’s fast-changing consumer behaviors, data-driven decision-making, and rapid technological advancements have led many competitive QSR and restaurant businesses to embrace executive search more than ever.
The benefits are clear: access to broader candidate pools, faster hiring, and most importantly, leaders who are aligned with the company’s goals and culture. With the executive search market growing at over $5 billion in annual revenue in the U.S. alone, it’s clear that this approach is becoming an industry standard.
An interesting trend we’re seeing in the QSR sector is that more multi-site food and beverage businesses are looking to bring in talent from sectors like retail and the wider leisure, and hospitality space, where tech, AI, and customer insights are ahead of the curve.
So, if you’re in the QSR space, investing the right time and resources into both the hiring process and your partnership with a search firm is key to ensuring long-term success for your new leadership team.
The Cost of a Poorly Executed Search
Despite the financial investment involved—search fees typically amount to one-third of the first year’s full compensation package—many busy hiring managers and investors struggle to dedicate the time and attention necessary to ensure a successful recruitment process. Unfortunately, neglecting this can have costly consequences.
To avoid this, it’s essential to provide your search partner with comprehensive access to key stakeholders and work closely with them to create a compelling and informative brief. This ensures that your search partner has a clear understanding of your company culture, values and DNA. A search firm that understands your industry, competitors, team dynamics, and external perception can become an extension of your brand, attracting a candidate shortlist that’s both highly qualified and more culturally aligned.
A well-structured and thoughtful recruitment process also helps maintain a positive employer brand, which, when done right, will be more likely to appeal to a diverse range of exceptional talent who can help take your business from good to great.
Leading search firms like Redgrave adopt an intensive vetting, interview and soft referencing process, before delivering their final shortlist. Then, it’s up to the hiring organization to carry out a robust, fair and structured interview process, providing intelligent and constructive feedback after each step, while maintaining clear communication about progress. Many search firms also offer an independent psychometric assessment process to evaluate a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioral tendencies.
Running a professional, transparent and well-managed process like this helps to ensure you attract the very best candidates in the market and presents your brand as an employer of choice in the highly competitive QSR and restaurant sectors.
The Missing Piece: Onboarding and Integration
Here’s where things often go wrong: even after putting a ton of effort into recruitment, companies often drop the ball when it comes to onboarding and integrating new execs. They’ll spend big on the hiring process, but when it comes to making sure that new hire succeeds once they’re in the door, the budget and time commitment just isn’t there. Surprisingly, few organizations invest even 10 percent of their search budget into ensuring a new executive’s success.
Many senior hires face significant challenges in their first 90 days, dealing with cultural adaptation, trust-building, and strategic alignment. Yet, the sector rarely prioritizes executive coaching or third-party onboarding support—critical components in driving integration and performance.
Investing in post-hire coaching and strategic onboarding support is about improving retention it’s about setting them up to lead effectively from day one. Giving them the tools to succeed and helping them align with your company’s culture and goals will pay off in both retention and performance.
A New Approach to Executive Retention
At Redgrave, we’ve taken a proactive step in solving this issue. By partnering with a world-renowned executive coach and a qualified business psychologist, they have seamlessly integrated search, recruitment, assessment, and onboarding to enhance cultural alignment, accelerates performance, and maximize executive retention—ultimately aiming to beat the discouraging 40 percent failure rate.
For organizations investing in external leadership talent, the solution is clear: hiring the right executive is just the first step. The real challenge lies in ensuring their long-term success, which requires a commitment to structured onboarding, coaching, and long term support. The evolution of executive recruitment isn’t just about finding the best candidate—it’s about setting them up to thrive.
Dan Rymer is the Executive Vice President of North America, leading the consumer practice at the global executive search firm, Redgrave. Dan specializes in QSR and the restaurant industry and has an extensive track record of helping appoint C-Suite and senior leadership talent.
