Effective Strategies for Scaling Middle Management in PE-Backed Companies

June 4, 2025 – When private equity firms invest in a company, their first order of business is often to secure the right CEO—and sometimes a CFO—to drive the value creation plan. But what comes next is equally critical and far too often overlooked: scaling middle management, according to a recent report from Denver, CO-based TriSearch. “Without the right VPs, directors, and senior managers in place, even the best CEO can’t deliver on the growth thesis,” the report said.

“The strategic plans stall, operational discipline suffers, and execution bottlenecks spread across the organization,” the TriSearch report said. “What’s more, the way most portfolio companies try to scale this layer—relying on fragmented internal recruiting teams or multiple contingency firms—is flawed by design. They are betting on inconsistent execution to build their execution team. There’s a better way.”

With middle management playing such a critical role then why are these executives often overlooked when they turn strategy into results. TriSearch explained that they are the ones who:

• Build and lead teams.
• Execute across functions.
• Translate growth goals into operational KPIs.
• Hold the culture and drive retention.

“They are also the most frequently under-hired layer post-acquisition,” the TriSearch report noted. “While private equity investors excel at optimizing capital structures and aligning leadership, many leave the building of middle management to chance. This is particularly common when firms don’t take an operationally active approach. Even for PE firms that don’t deploy operating partners, there’s still tremendous value in influencing the CEO’s talent acquisition strategy. Encouraging a focused, well-resourced approach to building out the VP and director layers is one of the most effective ways to accelerate execution—and protect investment thesis timelines.”

Why the Contingency Model Breaks Down When Scaling

Faced with the need to hire quickly, portfolio companies often default to multiple contingency recruiting firms, expecting speed, cost-efficiency, and results, according to the TriSearch report. “In reality, things usually get worse,” it said. “Contingent firms are built for transactions, not partnership.” The search firm explained that their model is flawed when it comes to strategic, cross-functional, multi-role hiring:

• They are candidate-centric, not client-centric, chasing the highest fee and circulating resumes widely.
• They lack accountability, often bailing when the search gets tough or better opportunities arise.
• They fail to deliver diverse slates, focus only on active candidates, and avoid the work of passive outreach.
• They offer minimal guarantees, usually 90 days—and only if you ask.
• They operate in silos, making coordination across firms, functions, and geographies inefficient and chaotic.
• Their pricing is fixed per role, with no economies of scale for high-volume hiring.

“All of this creates diluted messaging in the market, inconsistent candidate assessments, and slower time to hire—not faster,” the report said.

Internal Recruiting Teams Are Often Not the Answer Either

Relying solely on an internal talent acquisition team can be just as problematic, TriSearch points out the following:

• They’re usually under-resourced, stretched thin, or lack specialization across roles and levels.
• Most are built to post jobs and screen applicants—not proactively recruit passive talent.
• Managing multiple simultaneous searches across departments is time-consuming and error-prone.
• They often don’t have access to modern TA technology or workflow optimization tools.

“In short, they can handle hiring—just not at the pace, quality, and complexity required during scale-up periods,” TriSearch said.

Related: Empowering Middle Managers: The Keystone of Cultural Transformation

The Case for a Strategic, Scalable Talent Acquisition Partner

What’s needed is an intentional approach to talent acquisition—and a partner that can execute it. An ideal partner should be able to:

• Deliver multiple roles across functions, levels, and locations under one streamlined process
• Engage and convert passive, high-quality candidates
• Customize the search strategy based on growth goals and company culture
• Maintain consistent communication, branding, and experience in the market
• Offer volume-based pricing and measurable return on investment

With the right partner, PE-backed companies can eliminate the inefficiencies of fragmented recruiting and build middle management with speed, precision, and accountability.

Scaling middle management isn’t a tactical task—it’s a strategic imperative. Whether you’re hands-on with your portfolio companies or not, your returns will ultimately rely on the leaders executing the plan. A CEO alone can’t do it. Partnering with a firm like TriSearch helps ensure that middle management is built with intention, rigor, and speed—and gives you a clear advantage in the race to value creation.

TriSearch is an International full-service talent acquisition, managed services and HR solutions firm. Founded in 2007, with a name change in 2015, the firm provides customized, collaborative and transparent recruiting partnerships, including IT, with deep sourcing, researching, and recruiting capabilities. Core IT practice areas include applications development, IT infrastructure, AI, machine learning and big data. Using proprietary new models, such as Customized Partnership Recruitment (CPR), Tri-Search is able to offer highly customizable and scalable talent solutions that focus on a client’s specific requirements. Tri-Search places professionals at all levels and across all functional areas, throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Related: Building Strength in the Messy Middle

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media