Not in the traditional sense. We find candidates, assess them, and place them — but the way we do it is fundamentally different to a standard agency. Before we approach a single person, we map your business environment, define what the role actually demands behaviourally, and identify the conditions most likely to cause a hire to fail. Sourcing comes after that groundwork is done — which means we're building a candidate pool against a behavioural standard, not a job description. And unlike a standard agency, our engagement doesn't end when someone signs an offer letter. We stay through the first 90 days.

Most agencies assess resumes. We assess behaviour. Before we source a single candidate, we conduct a full environment and role analysis — including a Retention Risk Report — to identify the real conditions behind the hire. Every candidate is then assessed in a structured behavioural interview, scored across ten factors weighted specifically for your role. The output isn't a shortlist of people who looked good on paper. It's a documented determination, built on evidence, that tells you who to hire and why. Most processes end at the offer letter. Ours continues through the first 90 days.

More than most businesses expect. Before we source a single person, we run a structured pre-search process that produces three documents specific to your business and this role: a Company Environment Profile, a Retention Risk Report, and a Role Behaviour Profile. These map your culture honestly, identify where your environment creates risk for the wrong hire, and define the behavioural demands of the role across ten weighted factors. The standard is set before anyone walks in the door — which means the assessment process can't be distorted by whoever we find. We walk every client through this in full during onboarding

The upfront profiling work takes one to two weeks. Sourcing and screening follows from there, with a shortlist of assessed candidates typically delivered within a further three to four weeks. The full process from discovery call to hiring decision runs six to eight weeks. It's not the fastest option. It's the one most likely to produce a placement that holds.

The highest-risk period for early departure is the first 90 days. Every WELLPLACED engagement includes three structured check-ins — at Day 14, Day 45, and Day 90 — conducted separately with the hiring manager and the new hire. The purpose is to identify friction early, before it becomes a retention problem.

This is not a courtesy follow-up. It is a structured process with specific focus areas at each check-in, and it is included in every engagement as standard.

Yes. Sourcing is part of the methodology — it's not optional and we don't hand it to the client. We build the candidate pool from the Role Brief, not a job description, which attracts a fundamentally different pool than a standard job posting does. If you already have someone in mind, we're happy to include them — but they go through exactly the same process as every other candidate. The methodology doesn't change based on where someone came from.

The platforms aren't the problem — the process behind them is. When you post a job yourself, you're screening resumes against a job description, which only tells you what someone has done, not whether they're right for your environment. WELLPLACED uses the same channels, but sources from a behavioural brief instead. Every candidate who reaches interview has already been screened against the role's actual demands — not their CV. And the interview itself is structured, scored, and evidence-based. We're not matching experience to a job description. We're matching humans to your business. The difference isn't where we find people. It's everything we do to determine who's actually right.

Fees are structured in three stages. An engagement fee is due upfront — this covers the environment profiling, retention risk analysis, and role behaviour profiling work. It's charged regardless of outcome because that work has genuine standalone value. The placement fee is due when your new hire starts. A final completion payment falls at 90 days, confirming the placement has successfully integrated. If the hire doesn't reach 90 days, that final payment is waived and we re-recruit.

Because we do work upfront that most agencies don't do at all. The environment profile, the retention risk analysis, the role behaviour profile — that work takes significant time and produces documents with real strategic value, regardless of whether a hire is made. A process that charges nothing upfront has no incentive to do any of it. We charge for the depth we bring because that depth is what makes the outcome different. You're not paying for a shortlist. You're paying for a process built around your business before anyone is ever approached.

If a placement does not succeed within the first 90 days, the Stage 3 fee is waived in full and a replacement search begins at no additional cost. No negotiation. No conditions beyond those set out in the agreement.

The guarantee reflects the confidence that comes from running a structured, evidence-based process. It also reflects where our engagement actually ends — at 90 days, not at the offer letter.

Growing businesses, typically five to fifty people, making hires that matter. Founders and business owners hiring into sales, operations, administration, marketing, and senior roles where the cost of getting it wrong is significant. We take on a limited number of engagements at a time so every client gets the full methodology.

Yes. We work with specialist sourcing partners — boutique recruiters who handle candidate sourcing while we run the assessment, determination, and integration. If you're a specialist recruiter interested in what a sourcing partnership looks like, get in touch at hello@thewellplacedmethod.com.au.

No. Most clients come to WELLPLACED having tried other approaches first. But some are approaching a hire like this for the first time, and that's fine — there's nothing to unlearn and no misaligned expectations to manage.

We walk every client through the process in full during the discovery call and at each stage before it begins. You don't need to understand the methodology before we start. You'll understand it well before we finish.