How the index works.

We take every role the firm advertised in the last 12 months and count the share in its primary specialty. A 20% share scores 0 and a 90% share or more scores 100, on a straight line in between. Firms with only a handful of ads are pulled towards a neutral 50 until there is enough evidence, so one lucky month can't make a specialist. Firms with no ads at all score 50.

Source: Firm careers pages and public job boards (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable), last 12 months

We count roles seen as active in the last 90 days and divide by team size (assumed to be 5 when the firm doesn't list its team). 6 active searches per recruiter earns full marks. The scale is logarithmic, so going from one to two searches per recruiter counts for more than going from five to six.

Source: Public job ads, last 90 days

Up to 70 points for years operating, reaching the maximum at 15 years (from the company registry, else the founding year on the firm's site). 15 points unless we find that a licence the firm needs is missing or expired. Licences exist in some markets (parts of the US, Singapore, Hong Kong) and not in others, and many professional recruiters don't need one, so an unknown status costs nothing. 15 points when the firm lists its team size.

Source: Company registries (US state registries, Companies House, Handelsregister, ACRA, the Hong Kong Companies Registry, ABN Lookup/ASIC, the Philippine SEC), employment agency licences where they exist (NYC DCWP, Singapore MOM, Hong Kong Labour Department), firm website

Each pillar scores 0–100. The index score is 40% specialist focus, 35% market activity and 25% track record. Firms are ranked overall and within their primary specialty; equal scores share a rank. Every profile shows each pillar next to the median for its specialty, with the source of every input.

Some things are useful to employers but say nothing about how good a firm is at finding people, or are reported by the firm itself. We show them as badges or facts and keep them out of the score:

• Publishes fee modelWhether the firm says on its website how it charges.
• Terms disclosedTypical fee and guarantee, reported by the firm after claiming.
• Claimed & verifiedWhether the firm has claimed its profile.
• SponsorshipOur sponsor has no say in any ranking, and firms can't buy placement.
• Fee survey answersAnonymous, never tied to a firm, and never scored.
• Google reviewsEach profile links to the firm's Google reviews. Google's terms don't let us store ratings, so we can't score them consistently, and we don't try.

We don't publish client or candidate reviews of our own yet. When verified client reviews arrive, we'll explain here how, and whether, they enter the score before they do.

• Job adsFirm careers pages and public boards on Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and Workable.Checked weekly
• Company registriesUS state business registries, Companies House (UK), the Handelsregister and Unternehmensregister (Germany), ACRA (Singapore), the Companies Registry (Hong Kong), ABN Lookup and ASIC (Australia) and the SEC (Philippines): legal name and start year.Checked monthly
• Agency licencesNYC DCWP for New York firms where their work requires one, the Ministry of Manpower's employment agency directory in Singapore, and the Labour Department's licensed agencies in Hong Kong.Checked monthly
• Firm websiteFee model, team size, office and specialties as the firm describes them.Checked monthly
• GoogleEach firm's Google Business Profile, linked from its page. Ratings aren't stored or scored.Linked

Scores are recomputed after each refresh. Each profile lists its sources with the date we last checked them.

The index is free to read and free to be listed in. TalentSourcer AI sponsors the site, which pays for it to exist. The sponsor appears only in boxes labelled "Sponsor", never inside a ranking, and has no access to or say in any score. Claiming a profile is free and doesn't change a firm's score. Neither does replying to briefs, disclosing terms or answering the fee survey.

Briefs from employers go to the highest-ranked firms in the matching specialty, claimed or not. Sponsorship plays no part in who receives one.

Anyone can flag an error, firm or not. Use the "Request a correction" form at the bottom of any profile and tell us what's wrong and, ideally, where the right information lives. We review every request within 3 working days, fix what the public record supports, and log every change.

Firms that want to add terms, placements or a description can claim their profile for free. Claiming lets a firm correct its facts; it never changes how the score is calculated. To have a profile removed, use the same correction form or write to [email protected].