FAQs

If you want to partner with a consultancy who deeply understands your goals, ambitions and challenges, speak with our team. When you work with us, you gain the experience of consultants that have worked in the sector themselves, who care passionately about sector-specific issues and who have the knowledge, networks and experience to bridge your leadership gaps.

We are proud to look beyond the obvious choices and encourage leaders with refreshing perspectives, grounded in solid skills and diverse experience. Working with us will ensure an enjoyable, straightforward and effective experience, ensuring that your whole team is a part of the process.

Oxford HR is a global, B Corp certified leadership consultancy firm. Unlike many executive search firms, we put purpose before profit and truly believe that remarkable leaders can propel our transition to a sustainable future. We’ve been working in our sectors since 1995, with many of our consultants and researchers having worked in the type of organisations that represent our clients, so we are ideally placed to find, develop and support your leadership teams.

Yes, we offer interim recruitment to help organisations navigate periods of change with confidence and continuity. We work with a trusted pool of seasoned interim professionals across key leadership roles, including Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operations Officers, Programme and Conservation Directors, and HR or People & Culture leaders.

Our team understands what makes a successful interim placement, not only because we’ve placed them, but because we’ve served in interim roles ourselves. This hands-on experience allows us to match your needs with the right leader who can step in, build trust quickly, and deliver results.

Absolutely. We specialise in supporting organisations through periods of rapid growth or transformation, where multiple roles need to be filled efficiently and effectively. You’ll be supported by a dedicated account team with deep expertise in managing complex recruitment projects across global contexts. We combine a tailored search strategy with global reach and access to an extensive network of skilled, mission-aligned candidates.

Yes, we work closely with Boards to strengthen their effectiveness, governance, and leadership. We provide the insight and support Boards need to maintain their vital role in driving strategic oversight, strong governance, and organisational confidence.

Our work includes conducting in-depth peer reviews, analysing behavioural dynamics, and designing and facilitating tailored developmental sessions that help Boards reflect, grow, and perform at their best. In addition, we offer executive search services for Chairs and Trustees, ensuring your Board is equipped with the right leadership to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s ambitions.

Our team is truly global; We  have offices in Oxford, Nairobi Singapore and Washington DC. Our associates are based in Amsterdam, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, France, Morocco, Singapore, South Africa, the US and Vietnam.

A retained search is where you use Oxford HR as your only search firm during a recruitment process. We take great pride in our relationships with both our clients and candidates and believe that through our extensive experience in the sectors we work across, we truly understand what you need. We interview all our candidates before presenting them to you, so we trust their ability and that they will be able to hit the ground running for your organisation. We are wholly invested in our search for you, aiming to get the perfect person for your role.

Our search process typically involves 6-8 weeks of desk research and another 2 additional weeks for interviewing and reporting. This all depends on availability of key stakeholders during this period.

At Oxford HR we understand the shifting nature of intersectionality and we are committed to addressing these challenges in our assignments, as well as our internal and external communications.

To fulfil this commitment, we have set our own ambition of ensuring at least 50% of our longlist is made up of under-represented candidates (for example people with disabilities; people who identify as being LGBTQIA; people who are neurodiverse or from a minority group). In all our recent work, we have successfully promoted roles globally to diverse audiences and have produced long lists and shortlists, in line with gender and diversity targets. For example, ensuring the inclusion of targeted percentages of men and women from both the Global South and the Global North.

To help achieve this, all of our team have received EDI training and each assignment has a dedicated EDI advisor on hand. From job description through to search and assessment, we ensure that principles of equity, diversity and inclusion are embedded into our approach. We can also provide similar training for your selection panel.

We believe strong leadership is developed through a consistent commitment to learning and growth. Our coaching approach is designed to empower leaders to build their skills, boost confidence, and strengthen their vision, enabling them to inspire their teams and deliver lasting results.

We offer a range of flexible coaching options to suit your organisation’s unique needs, including tailored leadership development programmes, one-on-one executive coaching, peer and co-leadership coaching, and performance coaching. These can be delivered as stand-alone sessions or integrated into broader development programmes for sustained impact.

The benefits of our coaching approach are far-reaching. Leaders gain greater self-awareness, improved decision-making abilities, stronger communication skills, and increased resilience.

Onboarding is the critical process of setting leaders up for success as they step into a new role. The first few months in a senior position are pivotal as they shape how a leader builds trust, integrates with their team, and delivers results. Our onboarding approach is designed to help new leaders make a meaningful impact from day one.

We support this transition by providing psychometric insights to highlight strengths and priorities, personalised coaching to build confidence and navigate new dynamics, and strategic alignment to ensure early wins and long-term credibility.

The benefits of effective onboarding include faster integration, stronger relationships, clearer direction, and reduced ramp-up time, ultimately helping leaders lead with confidence and deliver value sooner.

Yes – succession planning is essential for any organisation looking to safeguard its future. A change in top leadership is one of the most pivotal moments an organisation can face. Without a clear plan in place, you risk losing momentum, creating uncertainty, and weakening what makes your organisation strong.

Our approach to succession planning ensures leadership transitions are handled with clarity and care. We work with you to shape plans that align with your long-term vision and strategic priorities, provide structured transition frameworks to build trust and continuity, and offer expert guidance to embed new leadership while preserving your organisation’s unique culture and values.

With effective succession planning, you protect your legacy, reduce disruption, and ensure your organisation is ready for whatever comes next.

A leadership assessment is a structured process used to evaluate the capabilities, potential, and organisational fit of current or future leaders. It provides valuable insights that help you make confident, informed decisions, whether you’re hiring for a key role, planning succession, or developing internal talent.

Our leadership impact assessments are built on our Profile+ methodology and are designed to be fair, inclusive, and effective across diverse global contexts. They can be used for both selection and development, offering reliable insights that support better outcomes at every stage of the talent lifecycle.

We have a global team of associates and permanent consultants spread across several regions. This allows us to provide localised services in several languages.

We approach every assignment with an acute attention to detail and awareness of the organisation, the global position of the organization and the general global environment.

There is a significant amount of research that the assessments we use are internationally valid, reliable and fair to those that complete them. The assessment tools are available in over 40 languages and used by organisations in more than 50 countries. The consultants and associates go through robust and rigorous training before they can administer, interpret and feed back these results to candidates and clients, which are vetted through psychological professional bodies.
The tools we use also have no significant adverse impact, this means they don’t disproportionately discriminate those from minoritised groups. The tools we use are not used in a way to eliminate; we use them to give us a better insight into individuals and to help to explore areas within feedback sessions or interviews. This allows our selection and development processes to be holistic, robust and on the whole strengths based, to increase the likelihood of a successful appointment or meaningful development conversations.

Each project is unique. Our fees are tailored for each assignment and are totally transparent, ensuring the highest quality service.

In the unlikely event that we don’t find your ideal candidate with the first search, then Oxford HR will work with you to understand why this has happened and adapt and continue the search until we find the right person.

Since 1995, we’ve completed assignments in over 70 countries, covering Europe, the US, Asia, MENA and Africa. We also have a number of Consultants and Researchers fluent in several languages.

We work across all levels senior leadership appointments within social and environmental impact organisations. From C-suite roles such as Chief Executive Officers (CEO), Chief Operating Officers (COO) and Chief Finance Officers (CFO), to Country and Regional Directors, and senior director placements such as People and Culture Directors, Communications Directors, Fundraising Directors and Presidents/Vice-Presidents. We also work on technical roles and Board placements, including both Chair appointments and Trustees.