Founder-led marketing recruitment · Leadership search · Digital · PR · Agencies
Technology helps find people. Experience and judgement work out who's actually good.
Disciplines: Marketing, Comms, PR, Digital, Agency-side, Client-side, Leadership, Fractional.
The filter
Recruitment has a reputation problem. And, let's be fair, some of it is deserved.
Technology can search a market faster than ever. AI can help analyse CVs, spot patterns and remove a lot of the boring stuff.
But it can't replace judgement.
Essential Resourcing combines smart technology with proper conversations, nearly 13 years in specialist recruitment and a healthy willingness to challenge the brief when something doesn't stack up.
Why it’s different
Usually, it’s not because the right person doesn’t exist.
It’s because nobody properly challenged what the business actually needs, what success looks like, whether the salary stacks up or whether one job description has quietly become three jobs in a trench coat.
That’s where David starts.
Take the job description and start searching
Work out what the business actually needs first
Send the same recycled CVs within the hour
Map the market properly and approach people personally
Tell you what you want to hear about salary
Tell you what the market is actually saying
Send fifteen CVs and hope one sticks
Present fewer, properly assessed candidates
Judge people because their CV looks right
Get behind the CV and challenge the evidence
Let the process drift for six weeks
Keep feedback, candidates and decisions moving
Services
Permanent Recruitment, Retained Search, Fractional and Market Intelligence for marketing, communications, PR, digital and agency hiring.
The problem behind the hire matters more than the job title.Founder-led search
Essential Resourcing was founded by David Walsh in 2017 after he started recruiting across marketing and agencies in 2013.
It’s deliberately founder-led.
No getting sold to by one person and handed to somebody else. No huge team chasing the same database.
Just specialist market knowledge, proper relationships and one person accountable for doing the job properly.
For clients
For candidates
Why trust it
No borrowed logos. No suspiciously vague testimonials. No made-up placement numbers. Case studies only go live when the role, process, outcome and permission are clear.
What did the business actually need and why was the hire difficult?
How was the market mapped, candidates assessed and the shortlist built?
What genuinely changed as a result?
Live case study
Havas Media Manchester needed an experienced Managing Partner who could bring commercial strength, credibility with senior clients, strong people leadership and, importantly, be the right fit for the agency.
The search was run on a retained basis.
James Reddington was appointed Managing Partner of Havas Media Manchester after almost 24 years at Carat Manchester, where he had been Group Business Director.
Real numbers only go live when they’re verified.
LinkedIn recommendations
Candidate and client feedback is more useful when it is public, named and easy to check.
Read LinkedIn recommendations“David is incredibly well connected across the agency world.”
Public LinkedIn recommendation
“He has a refreshingly honest approach and believes in doing things the right way.”
Public LinkedIn recommendation
“Professionalism, transparency and deep understanding of both the role and the wider digital marketing landscape.”
Public LinkedIn recommendation
“Supportive, proactive, and communicative. He also really understands the public relations field.”
Public LinkedIn recommendation
Case studies and insight
Case studies, market observations and practical hiring insight from the work David actually does. No SEO sludge written because somebody said the website needed another blog.
Role: Managing Partner
A retained search for a senior agency leader that resulted in James Reddington joining Havas Media Manchester as Managing Partner — and later progressing into the leadership of the Manchester agency.
Read case studyA straight-talking guide to the Manchester and North West marketing market, salaries, briefs and hiring routes.
Read insightWhen contingency is perfectly sensible, when retained search earns its keep and how to choose the right model.
Read insightA practical guide to recruitment fees, retained search costs and the real cost of getting a senior hire wrong.
Read insightSpecialisms
Marketing leaders and specialists, from Marketing Executive through to Head of Marketing, Marketing Director and CMO.
Digital and commercially focused specialists across performance, paid media, PPC, SEO, CRM, eCommerce, acquisition and retention.
PR, communications, corporate comms, content, social, influencer and reputation roles across agency and client-side teams.
The people who lead clients, teams and agencies, from Account Manager and Account Director through to Business Director, Managing Partner and Managing Director.
What Essential Resourcing believes
The job title isn't the brief.
A good CV doesn't automatically mean a good candidate.
Salary advice should be honest, not flattering.
Feedback is basic respect, not a favour.
Technology should make recruitment better, not less human.
Fewer CVs. Better conversations.
Better hiring decisions.
- David Walsh
One straight conversation. If Essential Resourcing isn’t the right answer, you’ll be told that too.