SEARCH & ADVISORY
Search & advisory, matched to the mandate.
Some senior appointments call for a full retained search, with Aspherica accountable from defining the market through to appointment.
In other cases, an internal Talent Acquisition team is already leading the process and needs specialist market knowledge or senior search judgement at a particular point. And sometimes, before any of that, you simply want to see the market before deciding whether a search is the right next step at all.
Aspherica specialises in two of an organisation's most powerful levers: people and pay. We're sector agnostic by design: the same rigour applies whether the organisation is a global asset manager, a manufacturer or a technology business. Size matters less than the level of the mandate: the work is the same whether it's a fast-scaling business making its first senior HR or Total Rewards appointment, or an established multinational filling its tenth. The CHRO carries the organisation's people agenda; Total Rewards makes it real through pay and reward, and increasingly, the two have to move together for either to land well. In both cases, the search doesn't stop at the top appointment: we go on to help those leaders build the team around them. We bring the same functional understanding, market knowledge and network, built over twenty-plus years, to both.
The model may differ. The standard doesn't.
Chief People Officer & Senior HR Search
1
A CV tells you what someone has done. It doesn't tell you whether they'll carry weight with the CEO and the Board, or whether they'll be trusted as one of them.
Here, Senior HR spans the top HR seat itself: Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief People Officer or Chief People & Culture Officer in one organisation, Group HR Director, HR Director or People Director in another, VP or SVP of Human Resources in a third, through to the Regional HR Directors and Senior HR Business Partners who build out the function beneath them.
At senior level, experience is only part of the assessment. We look at character, functional and commercial understanding, and judgement: how someone acts when competing interests are in the room, and whether they carry the presence a CHRO or CPO role actually demands.
We take time to understand the organisation and calibrate the search accordingly, looking beyond familiar names where there's good reason to. The aim isn't the most recognisable shortlist. It's the leader who can do your job, in your environment, with the challenges actually in front of you.
Not every organisation splits people and pay into two seats. Where one leader carries both, we look for the same range of judgement.
Total Rewards Search
2
Reward disconnected from the business becomes a cost rather than a strategic lever. The best Total Rewards leaders connect it to business strategy, performance and the ability to attract and retain the people an organisation needs.
Here, Total Rewards spans compensation, executive compensation, equity, benefits and recognition, under a title that varies by market as much as by employer: Global Head, Vice President or Director of Total Rewards in the US, Head of Reward in the UK, Head of Compensation and Benefits in both. Beneath that sit the specialists who build out the function: Heads of Compensation, Executive Compensation, Executive Remuneration, Equity Compensation and Benefits.
Technical depth alone is not leadership. We look at how someone applies what they know: whether they can make sense of imperfect data, explain difficult decisions, influence beyond the function and balance employee outcomes with commercial reality.
It is also an increasingly important route into broader people leadership. The strongest Total Rewards leaders understand far more than pay: they understand the business, its people and the decisions connecting the two. Aspherica works across Total Rewards and senior HR with that progression in mind.
Talent Advisory
3
You don't always need us to run the search. You might just need us to make your search better.
Whether the search is for Senior HR or Total Rewards, the top appointment or the team being built beneath it, the same advisory approach applies.
That might mean calibrating the market, translating or refining a requirement, identifying talent pools that haven't been considered, pressure-testing a shortlist, or helping unblock a search that has stalled. It's advisory in its own right, not a lesser version of a full search.
Judging which five candidates are worth pursuing takes the same access and judgement as running the whole search. We just apply it exactly where you need it.
Market Mapping
4
You don't always need a search to start. Sometimes you need the picture first.
A market map is a standalone piece of work: who holds a given role today, where the strongest talent sits, how the market has shifted. It's useful for succession planning, for testing whether a role exists in the market at all, or simply for understanding your options before a mandate is agreed.
It's often the first conversation, not the last: a way of starting to work together before a search is on the table.
The value beyond the appointment
The real test of a search isn't the appointment. It's whether the hire still holds up a year, or five, later.
Selected examples from Charlotte's previous executive-search work, spanning financial services, manufacturing and consumer sectors. Organisations are anonymised for confidentiality.
A brief that grew into something bigger
What began as a Head of HR Operations brief evolved, through multiple pivots as the organisation's own thinking changed, into a CHRO appointment for a privately held, multi-sector holding group. The leader placed has since progressed to Group CHRO, leading efforts to harmonise and streamline leadership across the group's diverse businesses.
Building specialist capability
Following a CEO and CHRO change at board level, a global manufacturing business needed to rebuild its reward function from the top down in readiness for a complex harmonisation agenda following M&A activity: three senior appointments, Benefits, Compensation and Executive Compensation, built out to support a newly appointed Head of Total Rewards.
More than a Head of HR
A specialist reward consultancy, growing under partner ownership, needed its first Head of HR: a remit spanning compensation governance across consultant tiers, chief-of-staff duties to its leadership, and building the route to principal and partner. The search prioritised strategic vision and stakeholder credibility over HR pedigree alone, someone able to integrate quickly, find early wins, and coach talent through a fluid, owner-led culture.
Recognising potential that became succession
An HR Business Partner placed into a major consumer organisation progressed through increasingly senior roles over seven years and ultimately became HR Director. The appointment met the immediate need, but the assessment went further: looking at competence, cultural fit and the capacity to grow with the organisation. Over time, that hire became part of the business's leadership succession story.
The right appointment can become a long-term leadership asset, not simply a successful placement.
“Charlotte quickly developed a strong understanding of our business and the calibre of talent we needed. What began with one introduction grew into a trusted relationship across several senior appointments and the build-out of a key team. She has introduced us to people who have gone on to thrive in our environment, and she’s good fun to work with.”
Different mandates. The same test: an appointment that still holds up: years later.