No retainer, no upfront commitment, and nothing to pay unless the hire signs and starts. The whole fee rides on the outcome, and there is a right way to run the model if you want the most from it.
Contingent recruitment is a success-only model for a single, defined hire. There is no upfront cost and no retainer. We are paid a placement fee only when a candidate we introduced signs and starts, so our incentive is simple: find you the right person.
Contingent is at its best on simple, straightforward roles. When the skills you need are genuinely available in the active market, the people applying, watching the job boards and open to a call, a success-only search fills the seat well. We take that work and we do it properly.
When hiring gets more complicated, a niche role, a hard-to-find skillset, a confidential search or a senior hire, the limit is coverage rather than effort. The active market is the tip of the iceberg, and the best person for a hard role is usually somewhere below the surface, beyond where a success-only fee can afford to look. For those roles, retained gives a more robust mechanism and better results, and we will tell you when we think you are looking at one. If you are hiring many roles over months, embedded will serve you better than either.
The biggest myth in recruitment is that more agencies means more coverage. It does not. It means several firms each giving your role a small share of their attention, and each with a weaker reason to go deep. Three agencies working the same role reach the same active candidates in the same fortnight, and your opportunity arrives in their inbox three times, described three different ways, by three people who each know a bit less about it than they should.
Think of a house with six for-sale signs outside. Your first thought is not that it is well marketed. It is to wonder what is wrong with it. A candidate whose phone keeps ringing about the same role reaches the same conclusion about the employer. Less is more.
One recruiter working the role exclusively, on the same success-only terms, can map before approaching, follow up properly, and represent the opportunity consistently. Same commercial arrangement, no upfront fee either way. What changes is that the work is worth doing thoroughly.
If you would rather keep several agencies on it, we will take the role and work it hard. This is not a condition. It is the trade, stated once so you can decide with it in view. If you want the role run exclusively, say so at the briefing and we will agree the window in writing.
A clear process for one defined role. No open-ended engagement, no fee until it lands.
A short briefing call to lock the must-haves, the package and the timeline, so sourcing starts with a clear target.
We tap our existing tech network and the active market, screen against the brief, and come back with a qualified shortlist worth your interview time.
We schedule interviews around your calendar, prep both sides, and gather structured feedback after every round.
We manage the offer, counter-offer and notice period through to a signed start date. The placement fee applies only now, once the hire is done.
We would rather point you to the right model than sell you the wrong one.
A global enterprise technology vendor ran its own Country Manager search for six months, interviewing twenty candidates without a hire. It then gave us the role exclusively, on success-only terms. We shortlisted two, the client interviewed both, and one was hired with an offer in under two weeks. Same commercial model. A different search.
Read the full case studyEvery contingent placement comes with a replacement guarantee. If the person leaves or is let go within the guarantee period, we run the search again at no additional placement fee. The specific term is agreed in writing before we start.
A job post waits for people to apply. We go out and find them, including strong candidates who aren't actively looking, then screen against your brief so you only see people worth interviewing. You get a curated shortlist in days instead of a stream of unfiltered applications, and you pay nothing unless one of them lands.
For a well-defined role we usually deliver a shortlist within a few days and a signed offer within two to three weeks, subject to your interview pace and the candidate's notice period. We agree the target at the briefing call and keep you updated against it.
Contingent is success-only: a single placement fee, payable only when the candidate signs and starts. There is no retainer and no upfront cost, and the whole fee rides on the outcome. We confirm the exact fee in writing before we begin the search.
Tell us what you are hiring. We come back within one business day with a plan and a realistic market rate.