Our History

Robert Hess & Associates was founded in 1988 to serve the Real Estate industry on a national basis. The firm’s clients include merchant homebuilders and new community developers in every region of the country. We place middle through senior managers in every functional area of responsibility including division and region management, acquisitions, planning and architecture, land development, purchasing, construction, sales and marketing, accounting and finance, information systems, and human resource. We are experts at identifying, recruiting and placing top-notch managers on a local, regional or national basis.

Robert Hess & Associates is a client-fee based firm. There is no charge to a job seeker who registers with our firm.

Our Services

Robert Hess & Associates partners with builders and developers in recruiting top executive talent on a national basis.

Our Fees

Most search firms work on either a straight contingency or retained basis.

Under a contingent search the recruiter is paid only upon the successful placement of a candidate. The employer bears no risk in the event of an unsuccessful search. However, in high demand/low unemployment markets recruiters will not devote the time necessary to recruit managers when they have other clients under retainer. Unless the recruiter is aware of existing candidates who may be appropriate for an opportunity he is usually unwilling to invest a great deal of search effort and take the risk of a client changing his mind or filling the position through some other means. For these reasons, our firm prefers not to perform contingent searches.

With a retained search the client pays for a search in 3 or 4 equal installments from the commencement. Under this method the client generally receives top priority with a recruiter because he is being paid as he performs the work. However, the client bears the entire risk of the search as he will have paid the recruiter even if the search is unsuccessful. We advise our clients to avoid retained searches for this reason.

At Robert Hess & Associates we have developed a hybrid plan that most of our clients prefer. It protects the client in the event of an unsuccessful search and at the same time compensates the recruiter in the event that a client changes his mind or hires a candidate through other means. We call it an “Exclusive Contingency Search”.

Under the Exclusive Contingency we are typically granted 90 days to identify, recruit and present candidates to a client. When the client hires one of our candidates our fee is deemed earned. In the unlikely event we are unable to satisfy a clients needs there is no fee for our services. However, if the client elects to terminate a search for any reason other than non-performance the client is charged for time incurred on an hourly basis.