Direct Hire Recruiting and Permanent Placement Services
One critical hire. Targeted search.
When you need the right person for one difficult or important permanent role, IGY SIX runs a founder-led, targeted search built around market mapping, proactive outreach, hands-on vetting, and a curated shortlist. With about 70% of the workforce not actively job hunting, we go directly to the candidates your job postings never reach.
What Is Direct Hire Recruiting?
Direct hire recruiting is a permanent placement service where an external recruiter handles the search, and the selected candidate is hired directly by your company. “Direct placement,” “direct hire,” and “permanent placement” all describe the same arrangement.
It differs from other staffing models in one key way: the candidate is your employee from the first day. They are not employed by a staffing firm, and there is no trial assignment before they join your team. That makes direct hire the right fit for roles where you need long-term commitment, specialized skills, or leadership, and where strong candidates would not consider temporary work.
What Our Direct Placement Services Include
Target market mapping
We identify where qualified candidates work today and which companies to target. This gives your search a clear, data-backed starting point.
Targeted search strategy
We build a search plan around the role, the market, and your timeline. Every step is focused on reaching the right people, not the most people.
Passive candidate sourcing
We find strong professionals who are already employed and not applying for jobs. These are often the candidates your job postings never reach.
Direct candidate outreach
We start personal, one-on-one conversations with candidates instead of relying on job board postings. Tailored outreach builds trust and earns more responses.
Screening and vetting
We assess each candidate’s experience, motivation, and fit before anyone reaches your team. Only people who match the real business need move forward.
Curated shortlist
You receive a small group of strong candidates, with clear notes on each one. Your team spends time only on people worth interviewing.
Interview coordination
We handle scheduling, gather feedback, and keep momentum between interview rounds. Consistent communication keeps top candidates engaged.
Offer support
We help you structure a competitive offer and guide the candidate through to acceptance. We stay involved to reduce the risk of declines and counteroffers.
Permanent placement
Your new hire joins your payroll as a permanent employee from day one. There is no temporary period or contract-to-hire conversion.
Have one critical role that needs a targeted search?
Direct Hire Recruitment vs. Contract Staffing vs. Contingency Agencies
| Compare | Temporary / Contract Staffing | Temp-to-Hire | High-Volume Contingency Agency | IGY SIX Direct Placement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who employs the worker | The staffing firm | Staffing firm first, then you | You | You, from day one |
| Best for | Short-term or seasonal needs | Roles where you want a trial period | Common roles with large applicant pools | Critical, hard-to-fill permanent roles |
| Candidate source | Available job seekers | Available job seekers | Databases and active applicants | Market mapping and passive candidates |
| Search approach | Speed and availability | Speed with evaluation | Volume of resumes | Targeted, curated shortlist |
| Who you work with | Account team | Account team | Often multiple recruiters | One founder-led recruiter, start to finish |
| Attracts top performers | Rarely | Sometimes | Sometimes | Yes, through direct outreach |
Unlike a traditional permanent recruitment agency or permanent staffing service built around volume, IGY SIX runs one focused search at a time with the same person accountable from intake to acceptance.
Professional Recruiting Services, NOT Resume Volume
IGY SIX is not built around temp labor, resume floods, or sending the same requisition to a dozen recruiters. We learn the business needs, map the target market, identify passive candidates, reach them directly, and present people worth your team’s time. The same person who learns the role stays accountable through the search.
SourceGo beyond applicants
The best candidates are often already working. We identify and approach them directly. Using market mapping and targeted outreach, we reach qualified people who never see a job posting.
VetScreen for the real need
We evaluate the role, experience, motivation, and business context before presenting candidates. With 74% of employers admitting they have hired the wrong person for a role, we focus on fit, not just a good resume.
CloseStay through the hire
We support interviews, feedback, offer strategy, and acceptance instead of disappearing after submission. Keeping communication consistent through the final steps helps prevent late-stage drop-offs and declined offers.
Tired of sorting through resume floods? Get a curated shortlist instead.
You need the hire, not a new department.
- One critical professional or leadership role needs targeted recruiting.
- Inbound applicants are not producing the quality you need.
- Your internal team can handle the rest of hiring, but this search needs help.
- You want a recruiter who understands the business behind the requisition.
Why Hard-to-Fill Roles Need an External Recruiter
Critical roles rarely fill themselves. More than two in three organizations struggled to fill open positions in 2026, and the median time to fill a role is about a month and a half. For specialized roles it can take longer: manufacturing hires, for example, take about 55 days on average.
Closing the candidate is just as hard as finding one:
| Hiring Challenge | What the Data Shows |
|---|---|
| U.S. offer acceptance rate | About 79%, meaning roughly 1 in 5 candidates decline offers (SmartRecruiters, 2025) |
| Candidates with multiple offers | 44% (Gartner) |
| Candidates who backed out after accepting | 35% (Gartner, early 2025) |
| Workforce not actively job hunting | About 70% (LinkedIn) |
| Employers who have made a bad hire | 74% (CareerBuilder) |
| Cost of a bad hire | At least 30% of first-year earnings (U.S. Department of Labor) |
An experienced external recruiter shortens the search by going straight to qualified people, and protects the hire by managing communication through the offer and acceptance stage.
Want to see what an open role is costing you each day?
How Our Direct Hire Recruiting Process Works
Intake
We learn the role, the team, what success looks like, and the business context behind the requisition. This step shapes the entire search, so we define must-have skills, nice-to-haves, and deal-breakers before any outreach begins.
Market mapping
We identify where qualified candidates work today and build a target list of companies and profiles. This shows you how large the talent pool really is and helps set realistic expectations for the search.
Direct outreach
We contact passive and active candidates personally and qualify real interest. Every message is tailored to the candidate, which earns more responses than generic job postings or mass emails.
Screening and vetting
We assess experience, motivation, and fit before anyone reaches your team. That includes structured conversations about career goals, compensation expectations, and reasons for considering a move.
Curated shortlist
You receive a small group of strong candidates, with clear notes on each. Instead of sorting through stacks of resumes, your team spends time only on people who match the real need.
Interviews and feedback
We coordinate interviews and keep feedback moving so candidates stay engaged. Quick, consistent follow-up matters, since strong candidates are often weighing more than one opportunity.
Offer and acceptance
We support the offer strategy and stay involved until the candidate accepts and starts. We also stay in touch through the notice period to reduce the risk of counteroffers or last-minute changes of mind.
Ready to start with an intake conversation about the role?
Roles We Place
Our direct placement services focus on professional and leadership roles where the right hire makes a measurable difference:
- Management and leadership roles: supervisors, managers, directors, and operations leaders
- Professional roles: positions that require specific experience, credentials, or industry knowledge
- Specialized and technical roles: hard-to-find skills where inbound applicants fall short
- Key individual contributors: roles a small team cannot afford to get wrong
Executive and Leadership Search
Leadership hires carry the most impact and the most risk. Replacing a manager or leader can cost around 200% of their salary, so our executive and leadership search focuses on people leadership, track record, and fit with how your business actually operates.
John’s recruiting background spans manufacturing, BPO, healthcare, SaaS, and global technology, giving our employee placement services a practical understanding of what different operating environments need.
Hiring a manager, director, or operations leader?
Why Work With IGY Six
Founder-led
You work directly with John Gaona from intake to acceptance, with no handoff from salesperson to account manager to recruiter.
Veteran-owned
John is a U.S. Army veteran of the 82nd Airborne with 12+ years in Talent Acquisition, including U.S. Army recruiting and enterprise talent acquisition.
Proven results
See our Results →Frequently Asked Questions
What is direct placement recruiting?
Direct placement recruiting is a service where an external recruiter finds, vets, and presents candidates for a permanent role, and the chosen candidate is hired directly onto your payroll. There is no temporary or contract period. It is also called direct hire recruiting or permanent placement.
What is the difference between direct hire and temp-to-hire?
With direct hire, the candidate becomes your employee from day one. With temp-to-hire, the worker starts as a temporary employee of a staffing firm and may convert to permanent later. Direct hire attracts stronger candidates for critical roles, since many experienced professionals will not consider temporary work.
How long does a direct hire search take?
Timelines depend on the role, location, and market. The national median time to fill a position is about a month and a half, and specialized or leadership roles can take longer. Targeted outreach to passive candidates often shortens the search by skipping the wait for applicants.
How is IGY Six different from a staffing agency?
IGY SIX is not built around temp labor or resume volume. We run focused searches using market mapping and direct outreach, and the same founder-led recruiter stays accountable from intake through offer acceptance. You receive a small, curated shortlist instead of a stack of resumes.
What types of roles do you recruit for?
We focus on professional, specialized, and leadership roles where the right hire makes a real difference, including managers, directors, operations leaders, and hard-to-find technical positions. Our experience spans manufacturing, BPO, healthcare, SaaS, and technology.
Do you recruit passive candidates?
Yes. Passive candidate sourcing is central to our process. About 70% of the workforce is not actively job hunting, so we map the market, identify strong candidates who are already employed, and reach out to them directly and personally.
What happens after you present candidates?
We stay involved. We coordinate interviews, gather feedback, support offer strategy, and keep communication consistent until the candidate accepts. With many candidates weighing multiple offers, this final stage is where a hire is often won or lost.
Should I choose Direct Placement or fractional recruiting?
Direct Placement fits one critical permanent search. If you are hiring several roles, or recruiting has become ongoing work for your team, fractional recruiting usually provides more capacity. We can help you decide which model fits during a short conversation.
Have a question that is not answered here?
Talk to a Direct Hire Recruiter
Tell me what your business is trying to hire, where People responsibilities are landing today, and what is taking too much leadership time. We’ll figure out the right level of support.